Thursday 23 February

Resources

ITP Helps NPO’s Manage Their IT Better

ITP Helps NPO’s Manage Their IT Better

ITP is focused on helping communities by helping those organizations striving to make a difference in our community.  See the difference ITP makes in your organization.  Its Technology, done different… Read More …

ITP partners with Easter Seals for Walk With Me Event

ITP partners with Easter Seals for Walk With Me Event

The Easter Seals “Walk With Me” event at the Summerfest grounds was a success!  ITP staff members were there to walk and raise funds to show our support of Easter Seals Great Mission.  The walk was in support of children with Autism, helping raise funds and awareness for this growing concern.  With everyone’s support Easter Seals raised nearly $60,000!  ITP was glad to be a part of the event. Read More …

Welcome!
Written by Joe Ulm
Wednesday, 07 July 2010 14:16
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Nonprofit organizations face challenges unlike any other organization.  Fundraising, grant writing, communication with board members, and, of course, advancing the mission of the organization are just a few of the issues wholly unique to nonprofits.  With these challenges, nonprofits need to work smart and maximize their resources like never before. The question is…how do they do it?  Well, that is the purpose of this site – to provide methodologies, resources, and ideas on how to help every nonprofit advance their mission.  Many nonprofits have benefited from the resources available here and I hope you do too!

 
It’s all about Relationships – Developing Strong Relationships with Vendors
Written by jtamblyn@itprosusa.com
Friday, 18 February 2011 22:42
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Managing your vendor relationships very closely and finding ways to engage them in the mission of your organization will ensure high quality service and competitive prices.  To follow are some tips for how to start developing a relationship that steps outside of the traditional vendor customer relationship.

  • A picture is worth 1,000 words!!  Whenever possible, meet with the sales person at a location that has programs occurring. 

This ensures that the sales person gets a personal glimpse of the programs that you provide. That impact is priceless and is a moment that will stay with him/her.

  • Provide the sales person with a “take away” packet.

This could include a pamphlet, newsletter or annual report.  Any item that they can read when they have an opportunity or could provide to someone else in the company who may have decision making authority regarding contracts or pricing.

  • Take a minute!

Before the meeting turns to services, contracts and numbers; take a minute to talk about the agency.  This discussion should include a high level overview of where the budget is at and how you rely on their expertise to support you in staying within budgetary guidelines.  This sends a clear message from the start that relationships and collaborations are important to you. 

It is really important that the vendor understands your organization and the budgeting constraints that are placed on non-profits.  The more they understand your agency, the better they will be at supporting your agency with sound business recommendations that make sense for your organization today as well as positioning for future growth and success.  This will ultimately result in savings over the long-term.

 
How Much Power Should the Internet Police Have – And Who Are the Internet Police?
Written by mkurtzahn
Wednesday, 09 February 2011 16:02
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Time to look at a sensitive, exponentially issue-inducing question: who should police the internet and how much policing should they, or anyone, be allowed to do? In this blog, we will be looking at the topic of domain name policing in particular.

 We are constantly reminded of the anonymity and opportunity the internet affords its users. These freedoms are one of the founding principles of the internet: that it be an open canvas on which anything can be painted and anyone we want can view it. The internet was supposed to be a virtual land where the most typical, average person could stake a claim and make a small piece of it their own.

 Like all newly-settled worlds, however, it cannot remain so forever. Various organizations have come about to monitor the internet and keep its users and their information safe. The Internet Corporation for the Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit in contract with the U.S. government, exists to manage internet addresses and oversee the addition of new domain suffixes. The most popular suffixes currently in use are .com, .net, and .org.

 A recent article on CNET.com once again brings to light the issue of domain name – and ultimately internet – governance. The United States government, among other governments both national and local, is looking to gain more power to allow or deny domain names. This has been a battle that has been raging in the internet background for as long as it has existed, and is a topic filled with shades of gray. For the past seven years, the domain suffix .xxx has been contested over by three camps: those who wish to use it, those who wish that it not be used at all, and those who wish not to be forced to use it.

 Many adult content webmasters want to have the suffix .xxx be as useable as .com or .org, to give them their own space on the internet and make them easier to find. Currently .xxx is not a functioning domain. The United States government and many conservative organizations do not want the .xxx domain to exist, seeing it as comparable to allowing an adult video store on the same block as the white house.  On another end of the argument are those who see this new domain as a way to keep all of these adult content websites in one centralized location, so no one can accidentally stumble upon them or so they can be blocked more easily. Some adult content webmasters, and some webmasters who have sex education information on their websites, or others whose main purpose is not adult content but some exists on their site, do not want to be forced to join this new domain.

 Over 115 new domain name proposals are expected this year, and some raise controversies, such as the .gay domain. Whose responsibility – or right – is it to say whether or not the .gay or .freetibet domains can be used? If the former were used, it may upset millions of conservatives. If the latter were used, it may upset a government with rule over billions of people. Yet what about the people who want to use those names? What about their rights? They aren’t breaking any laws.

 The debate over domain name allowance is explosive because it induces issues about freedom of speech and how much of a role governments should be able to play in the direction and access of the internet. Another example of governmental power over the internet is seen recently in Egypt, where the government shut down the internet in the entire country in an attempt to control its people. Is it right for a government to control something that belongs to no one, and yet belongs to everyone?

 
What Value Does Virtualization Provide?
Written by Joe Ulm
Monday, 07 February 2011 16:50
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It makes no difference whatsoever how amazing a technology is if it doesn’t provide a defined value for your business.  Below are the typical values businesses can expect to receive from deploying virtualization technology:

  • Agility – Virtualized environments provide an incredible platform for adapting your company’s technology quickly in support of changing business goals and direction.
  • Scalability – Adding new functionality to your company’s technology almost always presents numerous, critical, and complex concerns ranging from loss of productivity to significant capital expenditure. Virtualization simplifies this issue by eliminating hardware concerns from the equation.  In fact, a properly designed virtualization infrastructure will support relatively large changes in your company’s technology with very little complexity or out-of-pocket expense in comparison to a non-virtualized environment.
  • Disaster Recovery – The ability to take an “image” of your server has been around for some time.  This ability is valuable from a disaster recovery standpoint because instead of rebuilding your server from scratch, you can simply reinstall the existing image of your server on a different piece of hardware which saves incredible amounts of time.  However, taking an existing image and installing it on a different hardware platform has always been at best difficult, and at the worst, nearly impossible. With a virtualized environment, however, this concern is eliminated because virtualization breaks the one-to-one ratio between your server hardware and software.

Note:  Management – Managing your company’s technology is a significant expense regardless of the size of your company or the market you’re in.  Yet, because technology is critical to productivity for almost every business these days, it is an expense that is absolutely necessary.  Virtualization doesn’t necessarily add to the management time required, and in certain circumstances, it can help reduce management time by removing the complexity of managing different hardware platforms.  However, it can also add some processes to your existing management routine, and if you don’t have professional, in-house IT support, you may need to leverage the services of your existing IT consultant a little more.