IT Conference 2005

Closing the Gap 5 April 2005 Cass Business School London EC1 Conference Programme The Speakers Conference Venue and Map Sponsor and Exhibitors Other CFDG Events

IT Conference 2005 Report

The CFDG IT Conference 2005 took place on 5 April 2005 at Cass Business School in London. Speakers at the event included Sir Peter Rigby of IT Services company SCC, Marco Van den Berg, Head of IT at Greenpeace International, Netherlands and David Clayden, Director of Strategic Information at the Salvation Army and Chairman of the Charities Consortium IT Directors Group, William Hoyle from the Charity Technology Trust, Wendy Thorley, Head of IT at RSPCA, Peter Bodley-Scott from Premiere IT, Jacquie Wakeford, Head of ICT at Action for Blind People, Adrian Boylan, Head of IT at Scope as well as Dr. Phil Harwood from Touchstone Tate Bramald.

One of the key messages emerging from CFDG’s IT Conference 2005 is that getting the balance right between innovation and cost-effectiveness is key to closing the gap between charity organisations and the IT systems they are using. A common tenor in most sessions during the day was how essential it is for charities to find the balance between embracing new technologies, which can add new value to their organisations, while being conservative about costs and expense for new IT and not following every new fashion, thus responsibly handling their IT budgets. Keynote speaker Sir Peter Rigby, Chairman and CEO of IT company SCC pointed out that many factors, such as the Y2K problems, recession, user dissatisfaction as well as lack of end-to-end management information led to IT losing some of its appeal for many organisations. These days, IT constantly needs to demonstrate its value for the organisation, he explained.

One key focus of organisations should be how IT can drive effectiveness through transforming services. To do this though, it is important for an organisation to understand its own business objectives, Sir Peter pointed out.

Other speakers on the day reflected the same mood. Peter Bodley-Scott from IT Services company the Premiere IT Partnership, introduced delegates to new technologies such as wireless, bluetooth, technology on demand and application servers. Instead of focusing on glowing reviews of new gadgets and tools, he pointed out that charities cannot afford to follow fashions when it comes to technology. Instead, he called for organisations to seriously evaluate the possible benefits of new solutions, but also not to miss the opportunity to learn what is out there.

Marco van den Berg, Head of the Information & Communications Technology Unit at Greenpeace International, Amsterdam, expressed his hopes that other charities’ would follow Greenpeace’s model and make better use of IT and software solutions they already have. Before investing heavily in new, often feature-heavy solutions, software used should be judged on effectiveness and necessity. Marco made clear that Greenpeace’s use of Open Source software was not just a choice of platform, but represented a wide commitment throughout the organisation to aim for more transparency and not treat IT as a core activity, but as a means to an end. Wherever possible, Greenpeace’s systems focus heavily on actual daily activities and project goals and IT systems are tailored to these aims.

David Clayden, Head of Strategic Information at The Salvation Army, and Chairman of the Charities Consortium IT Directors’ Group (CCITDG), added another perspective by calling for charities to “get smart” in their relationships with suppliers, and to look for partnerships with other organisations where possible to improve their negotiating position.

Dr. Phil Harwood from IT Services company Touchstone Tate Bramald pointed out that with many new relatively easy-to-use technologies available charities should talk to their suppliers to learn how best to achieve a high level of integration between their internal systems, thus making end-to-end information flows easier and helping organisations in their daily operations and delivery of services.

David Membrey, Deputy Chief Executive of CFDG, says “This is where IT becomes central to charities’ financial management. It is not only about processing donations and other income as quickly as possible. IT, if used in a smart way, can significantly improve the internal management information senior charity executives can gather and communicate to stakeholders. This year’s CFDG IT Conference has shown that delegates are more and more aware of these issues and are developing IT in their organisations actively.” John Tate, CFDG IT Advisor concludes “CFDG is happy to see that IT is coming of age in the charity sector and a deeper understanding of the real issues is evolving. There was a real feeling of excitement about technology, but in an informed, aware way at the CFDG IT Conference and we hope as an organisation we can provide more services and training to the sector in the coming months to drive this positive development forward.”

In addition to the presentation programme the conference breaks gave delegates ample opportunity to discuss their organisations’ IT strategies and issues with peers and experts. An additional resource was provided by exhibitors at the conference which included software companies Touchstone Tate Bramald and Openaccounts, as well as two organisations new to CFDG, Newton IT, who are providing data recovery, IT security and business continuity services and Star who are also providing a range of technology services.

Should you be interested in details of any of the sessions, you can find the presentations for all speakers who have authorized us to use their slides on the web in the conference programme.