Trustees’ Week earlier this month provided the perfect opportunity to reflect on where your organisation is with its IT strategy, and to look at ways in which IT can help staff to be more efficient and impactful. Building an IT strategy often poses a challenge, especially for charities that may not have an extensive…
Adopting a hybrid model of in-house and outsourced IT allows charities to address challenges with resourcing, removes significant HR overheads, accelerates IT strategy, and mitigates against staff frustration with IT support caused by unplanned absence and changing priorities. In this blog, we explain what co-managed support is, the benefits, and how to ensure you can…
We are excited to publish our Charity Technology Leaders Report 2024. From January to March 2024, we conducted our second annual survey of charity technology leaders to understand the sector’s priorities, risks, challenges and opportunities around IT. The report summarises the key findings for charity IT leaders, draws out the main themes and trends, and…
The charity technology sector has undergone significant changes in recent years. Shifts in working patterns, challenges with IT talent acquisition, the need for specialist skills in cyber security, and emerging tech like AI and Automation requires a rethink of IT Service Management (ITSM). We are partnering with the global leader in ITSM, ServiceNow, to help…
Welcome to the Smartdesc January newsletter. This month we share our annual Charity Leaders survey, advice on how you can use ITSM to improve your IT function, a guide on preventing data breaches, and more. Free charity IT resources Our annual Charity Technology Leaders survey is now live! Complete our survey to have your say on…
The charity sector has undergone significant transformation in recent years, with digital acceleration, shifts in working models, and increasing pressure on internal IT resource acquisition and retention. This has necessitated a rethinking of IT Service Management (ITSM) within the sector. In this article, charity IT specialists, Smartdesc, and ServiceNow’s nonprofit team ServiceNow.org share their advice…
Data breaches are a serious threat in today’s digital age, especially for nonprofit organisations. While much attention is given to high-profile cyber attacks, internal staff members sometimes mishandle personal data in their care, creating a digital nightmare. One of the more common data breaches involves unauthorised access to databases containing sensitive service user information. These…
Each year we conduct a Charity Technology Leaders survey to listen to sector leaders and understand their priorities around IT for the year ahead. We identify common themes and trends and share this back in the form of a report. You can read last year’s report here, or watch our LinkedIn Live video where we…
Challenge Water Aid is an international charity that works to provide clean water and toilets to communities around the world. Like many charities, WaterAid were facing challenges in resourcing the IT Support function. Internal IT employees left the organisation, driven by the cost-of-living crisis, and the charity was unable to compete with corporate wages. This meant…
Welcome to the Smartdesc November newsletter. This month we share how charities can be more digitally mature and offer the following resources: A blog on the five key stages of digital maturity for charities with illustrations Free Microsoft Cloud Security, Cyber Security and Data Protection assessments Free instructor-led MS365 training sessions Our next Quarterly Charity…
