Technology Consulting in the Community Spring 2014 Shashank Sharma Pittsburgh Parks Conservatory Final Consulting Report Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania www.cmu.edu/tcinc Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy Executive Summary Student Consultant, Shashank Sharma Community Partner, Meg Cheever Community Partner, Lauryn Salter I. About the Organization Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy (PPC) was founded in 1996 by a group of citizens concerned with the deteriorating conditions of Pittsburgh’s parks. The Conservancy strives to restore all of the major parks in the region, with an objective to provide better quality of lifestyle to the people of Pittsburgh. The mission is stated as follows: “Improving quality of life for the people of Pittsburgh by restoring the park system to excellence in partnership with government and the community. Projects and programs are conducted with respect for the environment, historic design, and the needs of our diverse region” Meg Cheever, CEO and Lauryn Salter, Online Engagement Coordinator, are the points of contact for this consulting project. Ms Salter handles all the IT related activity including updating the website and keeping track of donations or donor data. II. Consulting Tasks and Outcomes Task 1: Standardizing Databases to Streamline Business Process The disparate databases which included Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge, Constant Contact and Savvior CMS backend were analysed to look for an integrated solution. Since the different business processes required different database capabilities, none of the systems could be phased out. The outcome was the need for a holistic solution moving forward in terms of a custom built solution or Salesforce cloud CRM. Task 2: Payment Strategies for Expanding Donor Base The Student Consultant and the Community Partner explored different strategies of donations to expand donor database. Initially, potential donors could donate through credit cards, debit cards or cash payments. PayPal was considered and implemented as a quick, easy donation option Outcome PayPal for non-profits has low transaction fees and is very easy to integrate. Implementation involved adding a PayPal plugin inclusion to Constant Contact event forms. Including PayPal is expected to broaden the donor base by providing donors an easier and quicker way of donation. Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy Page 1 of 22 Shashank Sharma, Student Consultant April 30, 2014 Task 3: Standardize Event Forms to Eliminate Data Dead Ends The initial design of the webpage consisted of events form stretching up to five pages long. This was a pain point for the donor or volunteer who wanted to donate for these events. Outcome: Some of the forms were changed to Constant Contact forms in an attempt to discontinue Savvior CMS. One drawback was that, not all forms could be modelled with Constant Contact such as volunteer sign-up form for multiple events. As such Savvior backend could not be completely phased out. Additional Task: Financial Analysis of Current IT Spend IT Spend analysis is critical to PPC to make sound decisions on short term and long term IT planning. It was necessary to evaluate IT spend on Raiser’s Edge, Constant Contact and assess the need for new systems based on financial allotment. Outcome: An excel sheet which documents the spending on all IT related activity, compares its pros and cons and keeps a track on miscellaneous expenses. III. Recommendations Recommendation 1: To ensure successful transformation from disparate systems to a holistic customer relationship management suite. At PPC, many heterogeneous systems are in place, which do not mesh well with each other. The systems, all powerful in their own right, serve vastly different business capabilities and many attempts to consolidate these systems did not yield positive results. These varied systems increase IT Spendi and as such it is advisable to choose a less expensive cloud based solution. The student consultant recommends considering Salesforce Foundation CRM suite along with Salesforce1 Platform. Recommendation 2: To Set up a Captive Portal for existing free WiFi. PPC operates free wifi for the public at Schenley park plaza and Schenley visitor center. Any user can log into this free wifi and access the internet without any network interference. This potential security risk can also be viewed as a missed opportunity towards park usage tracking and donor management. The student consultant recommends setting up a captive portal on the HP ProCurve MSM313Router by configuring it on the router or purchasing an off the shelf cloud based captive portal solution. Such a move could mitigate security issues and also aid in park usage tracking. Community Partner Student Consultant Meg Cheever Shashank Sharma [email protected] [email protected] Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy Shashank is a Graduate Student studying Information Systems 2000 Technology Dr #200, Management at Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 1521 Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy Page 2 of 22 Shashank Sharma, Student Consultant April 30, 2014 Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy Final Consulting Report Student Consultant, Shashank Sharma Community Partner, Meg Cheever Community Partner, Lauryn Salter I. About the Organization Organization Founded in 1996 by a group of citizens concerned with the deteriorating conditions of Pittsburgh’s parks, the Conservancy strives to restore all of the major parks in the region, thus providing a better quality of life for the citizens of Pittsburgh. Their mission is quoted as follows: “Improving quality of life for the people of Pittsburgh by restoring the park system to excellence in partnership with government and the community. Projects and programs are conducted with respect for the environment, historic design, and the needs of our diverse region” Meg Cheever, CEO, also the consulting partner for this project, founded this organization 17 years ago and continues to have amazing ideas on how best the park system should function to provide a sustainable life to Pittsburgh denizens. Lauryn Salter is the primary contact person for this consulting project. She handles all the IT related activity including updating the website, mobile app, mailing lists, and keeping track of donations and donor data. As of today, PPC has raised over $66 million towards park improvements. Their goal is to permanently restore the park system (171 parks) to excellence for the people of Pittsburgh by partnering with government and the community. Facilities The office is located at 2000 Technology Drive, Pittsburgh, PA and uses half a floor space. They have twenty cubicles with a reception desk, a server room and a conference room. About twenty full time employees work with Pittsburgh Park Conservancy and each employee shares responsibility for more than one functional vertical. Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy Page 3 of 22 Shashank Sharma, Student Consultant April 30, 2014 Programs They undertake many restoration projects funded by government agencies and donations, organize volunteer events and focus on donation campaigns which involve sending mails, invitations, and event notifications to members and donors. PPC handles various ecological restoration and showcase projects at locations including Schenley Park Visitors Center, Highland Park, Frick Gatehouse and Mellon Park Walled Gardens. Staff Meg Cheever, CEO She approves all the projects coming in and going out of Pittsburgh Park Conservancy. A visionary, she founded this organization 17 years ago and continues to have ideas on how best the park system should function to provide a sustainable life to Pittsburgh denizens. She also keeps herself updated on technology which would help her make the organization to be better prepared for the times to come. She is the main point of contact for Vendor Selection, strategic website and app planning and design. Lauryn Salter, IT Department Lauryn is the main contact person for this consulting project. Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy has no IT department. She handles all the IT related activity including updating the website, mobile-app, mailing lists, and keeping track of donations and donor data. Heather Sage, Director of Community Projects Heather has experience with managing Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge, Luminate and Constant Contact database. She takes an active part in Vendor selection for Pittsburgh Park Conservancy’s social media strategy. Technology Infrastructure Every employee has a work station with internet connection. The server hosts Raiser’s Edge and is currently seven years old and due for replacement. New Server was ordered and migration activity took place during the third week of March. Most of the IT infrastructure maintenance is outsourced to Wolf Consulting. Technology Management Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy has no dedicated IT team and all IT operations are managed by their employees or handled by Wolf Consulting. The Organization outsources most if its IT. They outsourced Website Management to Savvior, App development and management to DeepLocal, and had hired Ambersand Consulting to look into streamlining their IT and business processes. Donor data management including keeping a track of donations received through Raiser’s Edge, information update/retrieval through Constant Contact, managing, and sending out newsletters and mails is managed by Lauryn and Joyce. A service request to the respective organizations is raised by them in case of any issues. Blackbaud’s relationship manager is the primary point of contact for all Raiser’s Edge related