Is your NGO up-to-date with the latest trends in the digital space? Did you know that taking on a digital transformation journey can help you bring trust, engage your stakeholders and support your mission better than ever before?

At a time when most people and organizations could communicate only online, NGOs need to stay in touch, to help, and to keep raising funding. It is not a surprise that only those who accept the need for digitalization manage to remain stable and maintain operations.

Surprisingly, only a few NGOs are already embracing digital transformation as the single key to sustainability in future. With this article, we are raising awareness about all the problems we can solve and all the benefits that NGOs can gain by trusting an IT Managed Services provider.

Common challenges for NGOs

To start with, we can demonstrate our deep understanding of the most common issues that an NGO is facing:

• Lack of funding for complex end-to-end technology infrastructure, software and systems and unavailability of human resources to develop and maintain it (technical support, system administrators, software developers, etc.).
• Lack of skilful IT experts. Attracting and managing talents with the right background and skill set is extremely difficult for organizations operating in non-tech fields and industries. 
• Lack of visibility on donations and clear data about fundraising initiatives. Loss of good reputation, trustworthiness and feeling for transparency by stakeholders. 
• Usage of legacy technologies, hardware, and systems that are no longer supported or updated. 
• Workflow organization and people management are worsened by the mixing of volunteers and full-time and part-time employees. 
• A large number of manual processes bring higher risks for human errors, delays, and low efficiency.

Addressing all these issues with timely and adequate solutions is the only way we could see NGOs flourish in future. 

Why embracing a digital transformation will help

We are here to introduce an unrivalled solution for NGOs that can help them complete their digital transformation journey and bring them closer to their missions. We know that digital transformation is all about connecting people, technologies, and processes to increase productivity, strengthen communication and help you scale through innovation. Our experience in the field that non-government organizations can mostly benefit from:

• Cloud enablement for any organization can lead to maximized flexibility and efficiency in resource utilization. Such a move would give to everyone involved access to applications and systems from any device ensuring full internal and external visibility. Moreover, transferring files and systems in the Cloud guarantee incomparable data security and non-stop availability and accessibility which fall among the key requirements for NGOs. 
• Data security is crucial for the reliability of non-government organizations. Information such as personal data, payment details and any other sensitive details need to be carefully protected from breaches and malicious attacks. 
• Automation of tasks that can minimize chances of costly human errors and potential loss of reputation. Organizations that implement automated workflows gain a significant increase in operational effectiveness, communication, and supported causes. 
• More visibility, data, and actionable insights monitored, gathered, and processed by systems. In the digital era decisions are being taken based on real numbers and big data. Digital transformation enables data-driven decisions and real-time monitoring of KPIs. 
• Improved internal collaboration and external co-operation with partners,  stakeholders and other organizations. 
• Reduced costs for human resource management as a great part of the tasks could be automated and optimized. 

How to properly implement a digital transformation strategy for your NGO and make use of it

• Choose the right technologies that will bring the highest impact on your core mission. Become aware of their uses and advantages and empower them to bring higher value for your beneficiaries. Here are some good examples of features that best fit the needs of NGOs combined in Cloudscale’s Managed Desktop solution. 
  • high level of security – by moving data and projects from employees’ own devices to the cloud your organization can enable maximum protection of sensitive information. 
  • easy management – your staff will gain access to your systems anytime, anywhere and from any device directly through the cloud. Moreover you can quickly add new users up and running regardless of their remote location.
  • cost benefits – be able to easily predict and fix costs 
  • incomparable flexibility – access from any device with Windows in the cloud 
  • easy scaleup – you need to make sure that your IT infrastructure can grow as your organization grows  
• Empower staff to take advantage of digital tools. At first you might face resistance by your people to start using new tools and technologies. Make sure that they are motivated and convinced enough of the benefits and that your digitization projects are not rejected or ignored. 
• Initiate collaboration with similar organizations on common digital issues. You are not the first organization challenged by digitization, but you might exchange best practices with other NGOs that are open to the digital future. Also, have in mind that now it is easier than ever to connect to organizations, partners, fundraisers, beneficiaries, etc. 
• Switch to digital fundraising. One of the greatest advantages from adopting digital transformation could be the ability to raise funding via digital tools which means greater coverage, more funding opportunities and higher success rate of your efforts and projects. Digital fundraising will not only give you all these but will provide better accountability and transparency for your contributors.

The last step: Find your trusted digital partner

No more doubts about launching your digital transformation journey? Then it is about time you found your trusted IT Managed Services provider that can take the lead and bring your NGO closer to its mission. Get in touch with us and learn how we can help you gain maximum efficiency, incomparable security and operational flexibility.