“How well can you really serve youth without a functioning computer?”
That was the question facing Cassandra, Director of Operations for a local non-profit organization in Colorado that serves youth experiencing homelessness. Their organization’s critical work had reached new levels of maturity, and that was fantastic news for their clients…but daunting for their IT infrastructure. New programs and projects for the 1,800+ youth they served each year meant a heavier reliance on technology, and as Cassandra recalls:
“We ran into capacity challenges…we’d been working with a one-person IT shop, and he’d done what he could. But we’d grown, things were really lagging, and we had a lot of security issues too…I was feeling very alone and out of my element. It was time to find a more robust solution, and thankfully our leadership team understood the impact and importance of that.“
“The Quality Was Easy to See.”
But changing IT providers is even more complicated than it sounds. It took a massive search – interviewing nine different Managed Service Providers (MSPs) in total – to determine the best balance of quality for the cost. And dealing with the daily troubles of a smaller-scale, reactive IT approach meant that Cassandra was also judging MSPs based on their understanding of her organization’s needs, and “not [just] the cheapest or the most expensive.”
Cassandra had first encountered Mytech Partners through the Make A Difference Community Partner Grant, and that commitment to community and strategic collaboration ultimately drove the organization’s decision.
“Mytech’s passion for our mission was huge…They committed the time to learn about that big picture planning, and get an idea of the breadth of things we needed. Plus, they really cared about continuing education – offering our staff additional Microsoft 365 training sessions, webinars for our team members to grow and develop, all as a cherry on top…the quality was easy to see.”
“An Immediate Relief.”
The changes don’t stop for the organization, but nowadays at least their IT strategy can keep up.
It was an immediate relief to me…I finally have a thought partner for our IT, and can plan for our organizational needs. Mytech’s annual planning meetings, too, have been critical to our success: What can wait 2 years? What can’t? I love having somebody teaching me and backing me up on those big IT questions…communication is so critical.”“And it’s so critical for our clients, as well. Thanks to Mytech Partners, we could update all of our WiFi infrastructure, providing secure internet access to youth who are desperate for it. People instantly noticed that project; it was a huge program benefit and Mytech was such a huge part of it.”
With a larger resource pool to pull from, and a clearer understanding between their IT provider and their IT goals, Cassandra no longer faces anxiety about every IT security question or change. Her organization continues to improve their IT, making it ever more user-friendly and functional and, most importantly, turning it into an amplifier for their work rather than an obstacle. With their IT infrastructure and strategy backing the organization up, they can focus on igniting the potential in youth to exit homelessness and create self-determined, fulfilled lives.
