Jessica Attard, Together SA
Challenge
Over six months in 2016, Together SA rapidly grew from a one-and-a-half person operation to a 12-person fluid workforce, with people operating in rural South Australia, outer Adelaide and the CBD. Before their IT transition to Office 365, Together SA’s emails were hosted on another organisation’s server, documents were superfluously saved on both Dropbox and Basecamp and they had no dedicated email domain. Together SA made the decision in late 2015 to address these problems by acquiring quotes from three IT providers, and decided on Office 365 through Infoxchange as their solution.
However, Together SA was going through a transitional period; a difficult time to start a project like this. As a result of this transitional period, Jessica Attard was brought on to manage administration, human resources, finance, information technology and to help improve the operational culture of the organisation - no small task!
Solution
To help facilitate their transition, Together SA purchased an Office 365 Readiness Assessment in May 2016. Facilitated by Connecting Up’s partner, Infoxchange, the Office 365 Readiness Assessment provides a tailored report on technical prerequisites for migration and key value-adds, information on how to migrate and costings around moving to Office 365 which includes establishing SharePoint and configuring devices.
Assisted by Infoxchange, Together SA began their transition to Office 365. Microsoft’s Office 365 program has four different plans for not-for-profit organisations: two of these plans are free while the other three plans have a discounted cost per user. Together SA opted to use the Microsoft Office 365 Nonprofit E1 plan, with permanent staff utilising the paid Office Pro Plus add-on while secondees, students and volunteers utilise the Office Online features of Nonprofit E1.
Benefits
From transitioning to Office 365, Together SA has lowered their administrative burden, streamlined communication between a geographically diverse staff, and eased collaboration between staff, all while keeping costs to a minimum.
Little efficiencies
Together SA immediately improved their professional branding through the use of the Nonprofit E1 plan. Office 365 allowed Together SA to move their staff’s email domains from two different providers (@togethersa.org.au and @gmail.com) to a unified solution and the ability to keep and manage multiple inboxes was also a bonus as a change in staff meant retaining potentially lost data – ‘it’s all about continuity of service,’ says Ms Attard.
Office 365 has also been able to help improve communication within the organisation; all staff members are now able to access shared calendars making it easier to co-ordinate meetings and projects. Skype for Business helps too, making it easier for staff to stay in touch no matter where they are – vital for a remote workforce.
According to Ms Attard, it’s all about ‘finding these little things that made it easier for us’.
Consolidated data
With access to SharePoint, Together SA is now able to begin the process of centralising all of their disparate data, making it easier and faster for staff to find and save the documents they need. The other major advantage of SharePoint will be the ability for their staff to collaborate on documents and projects together in real-time, no matter where they are.
Looking towards the future
The new collaboration between staff is likely to be extended to Together SA’s external clients, the five community Leadership Groups. These groups are up to 12-25 people consisting of local Members, businesses, or government; state government; service providers; and local residents, all with varying access and experience in Office software.
Together SA now has the capability to "give them their own space, where they can discuss, share and develop" the collective impact movement in SA. Using ‘Team sites’ and online E1 plans, Together SA is using the power of their IT to develop community leaders and ensure evidence-based outcomes for South Australians.
About Together SA
Together SA is a South Australian organisation that works with communities, service providers and policy makers to tackle complex social issues. Together SA helps develop community initiatives, events, training and workshops in the collective impact movement.