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IT Strategic Assessment Report

BGCKY

Version: <1.2>


Date: 4/20/2020


4/20/2020

Parker Duell

BGCKY

Revision History

Date

Version

Description

Author

04/15/2020

1

First half of paper

Parker Duell

04/16/2020

1.1

First draft

Parker Duell

04/20/2020

1.2

Final draft

Parker Duell

Table of Contents

1.Executive Summary3

2.History and Purpose6

2.1History of the BGCKY7

2.2Purpose of the BGCKY8

3.Management and Business Processes9

3.1Practice 110

3.2Practice 212

3.3Practice 313

3.4Practice 414

3.5Practice 514

4.Current IT Environment15

4.1Hardware15

4.2Software16

4.3Staff IT Skills/Training17

4.4IT Budgeting and Spending17

5.Envisioned IT Capabilities17

5.1Leadership’s Vision17

5.2Top 10 Technology Issues17

6.Closing the Gap18

6.1Recommendation 118





7.Conclusion18

8.Appendices18

8.1Basis of Analysis19

8.2Technology Inventory19

8.3Top 10 Technology Issues20

8.4Strategic Planning/Visioning Documents21

8.5IT Budget/Spending Documents22

Executive Summary

Parker Duell, as a representative of the University of Louisville College of

Business Computer Information Systems department conducted a Strategic

Assessment of the Boys and Girls Club of Kentuckiana. The

assessment analyzes the business process and particularly its current website. Overall, the assessment provides a full organizational image of the Boys and Girls Club and identifies key growth factors to maintain efficiency.

This document summarizes the assessment and prevents a few key findings to

Improve the organizational effectiveness. The strategic assessment is intended to inform the management of the Boys and Girls Club as they make future business decisions.

The strategic assessment process was facilitated by Samantha Conway in

conjunction with the Boys and Girls Club contact Angella Lawton.

The process, the results of which are relayed in this document, included the

following steps:

Identify History and Purpose (Section 2)

Evaluate Major Business Processes (Section 3)

Analyze Current IT Environment (Section 4)

Document Management’s Vision (Section 5)

Recommend Action Steps for Cardinal Connections to Achieve its Vision

(Section 6)

In the Appendices, this document also includes theories utilized for the basis of

the analysis and a technology inventory.

At the conclusion of the assessment, the key IT growth items, expanded upon in

Section 6, are as follows:

Better media out reach

Upgrade Fundraising Management

Update Website

Upgrade IT department(security, employee training, and database management)

History and PurposeHistory of the BGCKY

The first Boys' Club was founded in 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut, by three women, Elizabeth Hamersley and sisters Mary and Alice Goodwin. In 1906, 53 independent Boys' Clubs came together in Boston to form a national organization, the Federated Boys' Clubs. In 1931, the organization renamed itself Boys' Clubs of America, and in 1990, to Boys & Girls Clubs of America. As of 2010, there are over 4,000 autonomous local clubs, which are affiliates of the national organization.

In 1950, members of the East End Optimist Club undertook the construction of the East End Boys Club. As the Club grew, the Optimists saw the need to incorporate this program as a separate non-profit entity in the State of Kentucky. In 1959 the East End Boys Club, Inc. was incorporated as a non-profit organization and chartered by Boys Clubs of America. The new entity became a member of the Community Chest, the predecessor to the present Metro United Way. Today, both the Metro United Way and the Optimist Club remain active and significant supporters of BGCK.

Due to the popularity of the East End Boys Club, the board decided to expand into other communities in Louisville and Southern Indiana. BGCK chartered the Ed Endres Boys & Girls Club in New Albany, IN in 1987; the Shawnee Boys & Girls Club in Louisville, KY in 1999; and the Jeffersonville Boys & Girls Club in Jeffersonville, IN in 2000. After the Salvation Army Boys & Girls Clubs closed in October 2011, BGCK embarked on an expansion initiative and opened the Newburg Boys & Girls Club in Louisville, KY in December 2011 and the Parkland Boys & Girls Club in Louisville, KY in September 2012. Through these five clubs, BGCK will serve approximately 3,500 youth, ages 6-18, each year.

Purpose of the BGCKY

The Boys and Girls Club as an entire company is nationwide and they serve a very influential purpose. This company provides after school programs for many young people across the country. This specific location of Kentuckian that we are reviewing and providing website recommendations and a business assessment provides multiple different programs including academic success programs, healthy lifestyle programs, and citizen and character programs.

Management and Business Processes.Practice 1 - Accepting Donations

One of the most important processes that keep this organization properly funded is collecting donations from the public. The Boys and Girls Club of Kentuckiana is a non-profit so donations are essential in ensuring that this organization can stay in business and make a positive impact on kids and families in the Kentucky and Indian area of Louisville. They currently use the system Bloomerang along with their website to manage and take these donations that they receive.

Practice 2 – Organize Special Events

Organizing special events is a very important function and process within this organization. The Boys and Girls Club of Kentuckiana organizing special events for a number of reasons. If they have the money to fund events it is a great experience for the kids that are participating, and it can also bring attention to the organization which could lead to more donations or other forms of contribution. As of right now the website is the place this company displays what special events are taking place however they don’t have a set system for organizing and getting the word out effectively to inform people of these events that are taking place. Boys and Girls Club overall is a nationwide company that also gets special events organized by the cooperate business for many of the smaller individual business to participate in also.

Practice 3 – Contact Schools and Other Institutions

The Boys and Girls Club works with many schools and other institutions that provide programs to provide the best service and most effective care for young people. This is why contacting schools and other institutions is very important to the business function of this company. It is essential that Boys and Girls Club plan and coordinate with schools to get young people to their location after school. Boys and Girls Club also utilizes other institutions to make donations and also to use some of the services offered by these institutions for after school programs and to fit into the mission this company has of providing the best care for these young people that the Boys and Girls Club services.

Practice 4 – Hire People

A very underrated process that the Boys and Girls Club is great at is the hiring of people that fit the overall mission and goal of the business. This is especially true for a non-profit such as this because the better the service the more donations they will receive and also if they hire people that are a good fit this can provide much better service to the young people that go here. Hiring people is important through the use of the internet and specifically the Boys and Girls website which can be a great source of listing job opening and finding the right employee to best execute the roles of each position. This is also an important business function because some of the people that work at the Boys and Girls Club are volunteers which are no compensated for the work that they contribute.

Practice 5 – Inform people

The final practice that I identified is to inform people of the company and promote the brand within the community. The most important thing for any company to do well whether they are a for-profit or non-profit is to stay relevant within the community so that they continue to receive donations and continue to get good people to work at their location here in Louisville. The best way to do that is to inform people of special events and other activities that they are participating in through the use of their website and also through the use of social media and email blasting. The website offers a tab for a contact us sections which is currently being used as a way to inform people that have questions about this company or people who have questions about gaining more information on basic business operations such as hours and special events.

Current IT EnvironmentHardware

This is a list of the hardware that is currently being used at the Boys and Girls Club of Kentuckiana. The following list is made to reflect the IT hardware of each individual location.

0. VOIP phones handled by Yazatel

0. Considering getting e-boards at club but leaning toward no

0. 10 staff workstations per club, 30 computers for kids to use per club

0. Kid computers have cisco firewalls, workstations all stay on-site

0. 1 printer at each site

0. 1 RAID server with 3 backups, backups made 5 times per week, Veritas used to back up

Software

This is a list of the software that is currently being used at the Boys and Girls Club of Kentuckiana:

0. Office 365 (nonprofit license, mostly e-mail), Active Directory to handle workstations in office and at the different club sites – tunneled connections from AD server to sites

0. Godaddy hosts website, website handles volunteer and member forms

0. Bloomerang handles e-mail campaigns but gets caught in spam

Staff IT Skills/Training

The IT staff at the Boys and Girls Club of Kentuckiana is a one-man operation. This IT worker comes into work twice a week and has variety of jobs. As of right now this company does not have a strong need within IT and hiring more employees is not a priority at the moment. The main focus of the IT worker that comes into work here is to maintain existing hardware/software that they currently utilize. The website is currently handled by an office manager and can most likely be trained to handle the maintenance of a new website.

IT Budgeting and Spending

The unit feels that the IT need is small and that resources can be more effectively utilized in different departments of the company. The budget is described to be enough “to keep the lights on” but no major expansions have been given to the department and they do not plan on contributing a large amount of money to the IT department and to the building of the website. The main role and cot the IT department has is to fix and replace broken hardware and to every once in a while, update existing hardware. They do not plan on hiring anybody new to maintain the website because they believe they can train existing staff to take on this additional responsibility. A few of the software and hardware listed above are given as either donations or they also can get discounts on certain this such as Office 365 for being a non-profit organization.

Envisioned IT CapabilitiesLeadership’s Vision

The leadership and management at the Boys and Girls Club has an overall vision of continued growth and continued goal of providing the best service for these young people involved in their programs. Specifically, when we look at the website and technical side the vision is to improve the business process of communication and delivering information in an effective and low-cost manner. The would like the website to be a place where individuals can get connected with the organization and promote the club messaging from kids and board members. The management would like a website that is easy to navigate and also a website that works on all systems and platforms. The would like the website to be working well with mobile devices along with laptops and computers. They would like a center of focus to be on pictures and to highlight what they are doing within the company from special events to fundraisers. They would also like to include a e-news feature that can improve communication with people and make the Boys and Girls Club more efficient overall. The main goal that leadership conveyed during the interviews was that they would like revamped website to be a point of contact for all operations.

Top Ten Technology Issues

Every company has problems with its technology. I will attempt to help you in finding and addressing these problems. These are some of the major problems I found:

1. Donations don't raise money under 35

One of the primary issues with the current technical set up is that they cannot take donations under $35. They currently use a third party application to take donations however this third party app has set the donations to limit the minimum amount people can give which is a problem that can be adjusted by a new website.

2. Fundraising isn't handled by site right now

Another technical issue that the Boys and Girls Club has is that the fundraising is not being handled by the website. This is an issue because a website is a great way to get people connected and can provide an easy place to make donations and learn more about the company. This technical problem could be causing them to be losing a lot of money in donations because of the poor set up.

3. Data concerns

As of right now almost all the data is being stored off site with no propriety database assets that they currently have. This can lead to vulnerabilities in the database and in other areas. The applications for new hires are handled by a third party application.

4. Lack of mobile site

The fourth technical issue that I identified in my analysis was the lack of a reliable site that works well with mobile devices. As the would moves to a more online and mobile presence I think it is a big issue for a company if they do not have website that works well on a mobile device. This also contributes to the second technical issue mentioned which is the poor website support for fundraising. This issue of not having a mobile site fits into that because the company could be losing money in donation as a result of this lack of a mobile site.

5. Website in need of updates

Another technical issue identified was just the outdated website that they currently have. Many of the pictures shown on the website have been on there for a decent amount of time and could use an update. Also there are a few tabs such as the special events tab and other that don not have any info listed. This is an issue because it would be best for the company to have the most up to date information listed so that people are accurately informed about the business.

6. Poor media out reach

As of right now the Boys and Girls club has a mass email feature however there are

many other ways to get business media in front of people that can impact the club in a positive way. Email blasting is efficient however it is a struggle keep everyone’s email up to date and also to ensure that the emails being sent out are not going to people clutter and junk mail folders. The Boys and Girls Club also does not have a reliable social media presence within their website and overall aong the different social media platforms.

7. Poor new-hire and volunteer out reach

This technical issue is somewhat related to the previous issue identified. The out reach to find new volunteers is poor and there aren’t many applications being used within this company to improve the effectiveness of finding volunteers. The coordination of the mailing list is poor as they are not effectively collecting and managing a mailing list. Right now the Boys and Girls club uses Vision to handle applications and they do have a careers tab on the current website, however it only list one job and does not give much more information on the direction of the work force at the Boys and Girls Club of Kentuckiana.

8. Poor employee training for IT work

As described earlier in my assessment the Boys and Girls club has a limited IT department in which most the work is outsourced to third party applications. This is an issue because with out an on-site person to update their website it is easy for their site to get out of date.

The current employee that maintains and fixes the existing hardware only comes in twice a week and this employee does not have a strong background in web development and database management which would be useful if they are looking to revamp their website and if they are looking to take a stronger overall grip on there current IT systems in general. Anther issue with this lack of professional IT presence is the down time due to technical issues. If the IT worker is not in the office on a particular day this could lead to unnecessary down time for a computer which will have a negative impact on productivity for the location.

9. Lack of computer utilization

The Boys and Girls Club has about 10 work computers and about 30 computers for kids at each location. Given the modern trend toward an increase presence of computers and an increase internet presence the amount of IT hardware does not seem to be enough for an operation as large as this.

10. Coordination with other non-profits

The Boys and Girls Club is a non-profit which means that they reinvest all their earning back into the company. As of right now their website does not indicate that they do much work with other non-profits except a few of the programs they offer. This is an issue because it limits the word of mouth spread and can overall affect the donations and fundraising they receive.

Closing the Gap

After conducting a full analysis of the Boys and Girls Club, including its business

processes and IT, the following recommendations serve as “next steps” for a better and more effective IT strategy and primarily include the revamp of the website the current have. The recommendations are as follows:

Recommendation – Better e-news delivery and media out reach

This is a recommendation because as of right now the only e-news and media out reach is done through an email blast. I would recommend getting a better method for collecting the emails and phone numbers of alumni, donors, and other people that need information delivered to them via electronic medias. I think alumni relations is a great thing to maintain and there are other Boys and Girls clubs that have an alumni club. I would recommend this because people who have been apart of the organizations and have felt a positive impact such as alumni would be a great way to get more involvement and increase donation activity. I think an application such as a blog or other media feature in which people can post pictures of what the organization is doing and this would lead to a better social media presence. They could also include some awards such as a youth of the month which could be a great addition to a new website. Overall I would say the main focus of this recommendation should be to better organize and gather peoples info and then allow many of those people such as board members, alumni, donors and employees to participate more in expanding their online presence.

Recommendation – Fundraising management

This is a recommendation because right now the Boys and Girls club has a few adjustments to make when it comes to donations and collecting those via a new website. They are taking donations through a third party application called Bloomerang. This application has a $35 limit on donations so I would recommend adjusting the minimum donation acceptance to allow people to donate less money. Right now the button to donate is small and in the top right corner. I would recommend making this button available more through out the rest of the website and also make a tab that gives information on what each donation is going toward to give people more gratification per donation. Although cash donations are a primary source of revenue for this business they also accept gifts for the kids. I would recommend putting a better information page on gift-giving. The final recommendation for the fundraising part of the website is that the donations are not handled by the site itself and I would recommend that they take more of a direct role in the gathering of donations when it pertains to the website functionality. Overall I would say that fundraising should be a central part of this website because the more revenue that they can take in through donations the more of an impact they can make on the young people that they service as an organization.

Recommendation – Website Update

Overall the website has a few key features that should be included such as the fundraising management and the e-news recommendation mentioned above. This recommendation is a general website upgrade with some smaller features to include that are easier to implement than the large applications mentions above. I would recommend the inclusion of a vision page that give information on what the strategic plan is for each location in the future. I would also recommend a visual tour feature to be included within this website similar to what other Boys and Girls Club website include. This is a internet tour feature that lets people view the physical layout of each club. I think it would be wise to include a revamped frequently asked questions section. This would allow the employees to be better informed on area that they need to improve information display and also allows people to view frequently asked questions before using the time of employees to answer questions. Another strong recommendation for the Boys and Girls website is to make the website functional across all platforms including mobile which will improve the number of people that visit the site and make it easier to navigate. I would strongly recommend a simple layout that can be easily navigated.

Recommendation – Upgrade IT department(security, employee training, and data management)

This recommendation is essential because of the current state of the IT department. As of right now they only have one IT worker that comes into the club twice a week. I would recommend further employee training for the rest of the current employees so that they can maintain their website and computers with out the need of the IT worker to take on this extra responsibility. There are concerns with the data that they have because it is all handled by other third party applications. I would recommend housing more of this data within the company as to better utilize this and fit the data organization to better fit the organizational strategy that they are trying to accomplish. I think if they plan to upgrade there data warehouse that back their revamped website I would recommend better educating the current employees on what security practices to take to best protect the information being put on the website. Also they have an old domain name that needs to be updated. As of right now the old domain forwards the user to the new website however emails are still set with the old domain which need to be switched over to the new website and new system.

Recommendation – Better coordination with other non-profits

This is an important recommendation because as you can see in the final technical issue the Boys and Girls Club does not have a reliable means to coordinate and plan events with other non -profits. I would recommend a section on the website where it contains links to other non-profits or other businesses in general that contribute to the club. I think that word of mouth is the best way for this business to grow in relevancy because they put very little money into marketing. If they increase there display of work with other business this could increase the word of mouth spread among the community.

Conclusions

In conclusion, after my analysis on the Boys and Girls Club of Kentuckiana, I have found a number of problems with the current website along with other areas of IT. These problems are hindering the company from being most effective with communication and donation collection. These problems can be addressed by the improvement of the IT department and most specifically the website. The Boys and Girls Club is a great business and is very well run. I hope these recommendations prove to be helpful as you and your team revamp your website.

Appendices8.1 Basis of Analysis

The basis of this analysis was conducted based on theories presented in Dr. Robert Barker’s Management of Information Systems Course. The primary theories used were Affuah and Tucci’s 10 Properties of the Internet, Cash’s phases of an IT Environment, and Morgan’s theories on organizational structure and development. These theories were used to recommend action steps for the Boys and Girls Club to revamp their website and other areas of IT and too analyze the functionality of its current IT Environment.

Technology InventoryHardware

0. VOIP phones handled by Yazatel

0. Considering getting e-boards at club but leaning toward no

0. 10 staff workstations per club, 30 computers for kids to use per club

0. Kid computers have cisco firewalls, workstations all stay on-site

0. 1 printer at each site

0. 1 RAID server with 3 backups, backups made 5 times per week, Veritas used to back up

Software

0. Office 365 (nonprofit license, mostly e-mail), Active Directory to handle workstations in office and at the different club sites – tunneled connections from AD server to sites

0. Godaddy hosts website, website handles volunteer and member forms

0. Bloomerang handles e-mail campaigns but gets caught in spam

Top 10 Technology Issues

1. Donations don't raise money under 35

2. Fundraising isn't handled by site right now

3. Data concerns

4. Lack of mobile site

5. Website in need of updates

6. Poor media out reach

7. Poor new-hire and volunteer out reach

8. Poor employee training for IT work

9. Lack of computer utilization

10. Coordination with other non-profits

Strategic Planning/Visioning Documents

N/A Documentation

IT Budget/Spending Documents

The following document shows a financial report for the 2018-2019 and also gives details on the range of impact that the Boys and Girls Club of Kentuckiana has on the local area.

Confidential

2020

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