The Covid-19 pandemic completely changed how we use telephones. Most charities are now reducing their ‘landline’ phone numbers to save cost, and are consolidating them into Microsoft Teams. As traditional copper phone lines in the UK are being switched off forever in 2025, now is the ideal time to consolidate your telephony, reduce your spend,…
Since its arrival in November last year, ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. This powerful new chatbot with seemingly endless possibilities took 3 months to reach 100 million users; Facebook took 4 years to reach the same milestone! Microsoft is leveraging some of this technology to introduce AI into Microsoft 365 this year –…
Welcome to the Smartdesc June newsletter. In this edition, we share our Charity Technology Leaders report released earlier this month, including: Our Charity Technology Leaders Report 2023 A webinar and blog on our insights from the report A video case study on our Modern Workplace Project with national charity Mind, featuring testimonials from key Mind…
Earlier this year, Smartdesc conducted a survey of Charity Technology Leaders to ask what their strategic technology priorities are for the year ahead. We received responses from senior stakeholders from a range of large UK charities, with an average organisation income size of £30m. We shared our findings in our Charity Technology Leaders Report 2023,…
We are delighted to publish the Charity Technology Leaders Report 2023. Earlier this year, Smartdesc engaged with senior leaders involved in technology across a wide range of charities in the UK, to find out their priorities for IT in 2023/24. The report shares these findings and what they mean for charity IT leaders across the…
Welcome to the Smartdesc May newsletter. In this edition, we cover Information Governance and Data Protection and how charities can adhere to the latest legal obligations and best practice, including: Advice on upcoming changes to the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill. A video on Information Governance and Data Protection for nonprofits. Further resources from…
The EU GDPR has been established data protection legislation in the UK and EU since May 2018. In the UK, the EU GDPR was replaced by the UK GDPR following Brexit in January 2021. Since Brexit, the UK Government has spoken about diverting away from the GDPR to a “more pro-growth and pro-innovation data regime…
Welcome to the Smartdesc April newsletter. Are you considering outsourcing IT at your charity but don’t know where to begin? We’ve compiled the following resources to help you get started: A blog and video on how to make informed decisions about IT outsourcing. The chance to come together with your peers to discuss all things…
With a shortage of IT talent in the UK, charities face an uphill battle to attract staff against inflated corporate wages available to IT professionals elsewhere. Many IT teams are finding it harder to source, fund and retain the multidisciplinary mix of specialist skills needed to run a modern not-for-profit’s technology estate. We undertook a…
Last week we hosted the first of our Quarterly Charity Technology Roundtables, with Microsoft Tech for Social Impact and Charity Finance Group. In this blog, we summarise our discussion on managing IT budgets, staff retention, and measuring the value of IT, and provide information about our upcoming events. Recruitment & retention Colleagues were aligned that…
