23 Jun Non-profit Engagement Retrospect

Digital Transformation does not happen overnight. It also doesn’t happen without some pitfalls and setbacks. As a case study of what to do right, and what to avoid at all costs, I present an engagement with a non-profit organization that is going through a digital transformation. At the heart of their transformation is an Enterprise Management System (EMS) that supports constituent management, class management, material management, financial management and facilities management. The management of these top categories hosts the unique business rules for the organization. It is the unique business rules that lend this digital transformation to a custom solution instead of a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) product. 

The engagement began when I was approached with the problem statement: Our current database keeps breaking. Upon investigation, the database was breaking because the desires of the organization outgrew the capability and structure of the database that was designed and developed 20 years previous. On top of that, there were some 60 applications that were accessing this database that needed to be changed if the underlying database were to change. The reason the old database would not support the organization 20 years later was because the organization was keeping up with the times, changing process, roles, communication, material, financial giving methods, class structure, literally everything! On top of that, the membership had more than doubled in the 20 years. A true digital transformation was necessary for the organization to continue growth into the future, not to mention support of the present.

I will present snippets into the decisions, processes, vendors and organization structure that will be cause for pause and discussion. The question that will always be before us: Did it help or hinder the successful implementation of the digital transformation?