Technology Costs, Maturity, and the SNP

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Technology is great but its acquisition and use must not get in the way of a Small Non-Profit’s (SNP) purpose. How mature and the costs of ownership are factors in deciding how much technology can reduce – or increase The Burden of Volunteering.

Administrative Office within the Krumlov Castle when it and the estates were being managed to benefit of the House of Schwarzenberg.
Administrative Office within the Krumlov Castle in the Czech Republic. Don’t change technology for the sake of the technology.

In an earlier blog I introduced, The Burden of Volunteering and I suggested viewing it through the lenses of People, Process, Product/Purpose. Let’s zoom in on Process and how technology can reduce (or increase) this burden.

Technology, if Necessary, But Not Necessarily Technology

The Means, Not the End. Non-profit organizations exist to serve their members or the community. This is equally true for Small-Non-Profits (SNP). As much as technology can help these organizations, it must not become a distraction. A further challenge for a SNP is they lack professional staff or the financial resources.

The Price of Tech. Before implementing the next ‘killer-app’, let’s consider two key concepts: Cost of Ownership and Organization Maturity.

Cost of Ownership

Gartner introduced this concept in the late 1980’s [1]. In theory, the cost of ownership is zero. This is because a SNP probably uses free or donated software:

  • The club president sends a newsletter to members from her personal email.
  • The club manages its content on a G-Drive.
  • The Treasurer is using an accounting package for which she has an employer subscription.
  • As part of a class project, the son of a member develops a system to manage the SNP’s membership roster.

Cost of the Loss of Ownership. Given the above examples are free to the SNP, the problem occurs when the organization no long has access the technology, for example:

  • The President moves to a new city taking her email account and the SNP’s corporate history with her.
  • A new board member accidentally deletes the content in the club’s G-Drive.
  • The treasure loses access because she has changed jobs.
  • The club member’s son graduates, moves to Australia and has no interest in maintaining the system (and has lost the source code).

For a SNP, technology may have a low cash cost of Ownership but a high process cost that can contribute to The Burden of Volunteering.

SNP Maturity

Developed at the same time as the Cost of Ownership, the 1980’s, Maturity Frameworks provide a reference as to where an organization sits relative to its sophistication with a business process [2].

Five Levels make up continuum of a model. As an organization moves up these five levels, things such as process-predictability, effectiveness, and control increase:

  1. Initial (chaotic, ad hoc, individual heroics) – the starting point for use of a new or undocumented repeat process.
  2. Repeatable – the process is at least documented sufficiently such that repeating the same steps may be attempted.
  3. Defined – the process is defined/confirmed as a standard business process
  4. Capable – the process is quantitatively managed in accordance with agreed-upon metrics.
  5. Efficient – process management includes deliberate process optimization/improvement.

Improved Capabilities, Diminishing Returns – SNP Processes and Technology

A Maturity Framework rightly has its detractors [3], but it is a good heuristic. However, for most SNPs, a solid ‘2.Repeatable’ Process is ‘Good Enough’. If you can write down your procedures (3. Defined) AND the steps are followed [4], even better.

Most SNPs are small enough that the metrics of step four are known (the president gets a phone call when the Newsletter is late). Step five is about continuous improvement – a good thing as long as administrative activities don’t overshadow your SNP’s real purpose.

Ready to Look At Technology – Next Blog

Now that we have been suitably cautioned about the costs and challenges of technology, the SNP is almost ready to tackle the questions:

  • How much precious time and energy should be put into technology?
  • What business functions of the SNP benefit the most technology?
  • How exactly did we survive with out technology and the smart phone?

References and Further Reading

  1. Total cost of ownership – Wikipedia.
  2. A gross simplification but sufficient for our purposes. Capability Maturity Model – Wikipedia.
  3. Why Maturity Models Don’t Work – Barry O’Reilly (barryoreilly.com).
  4. See a prior blog: Phrankism: Documentation is a Waste of Time.

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