The NCDN IT support project has supported in excess of 130 organisations over a 3 year period, in two phases.
Phase one provided a varied package of completely free IT support and training using an innovative approach to create a community IT team of freelance support providers, both individuals and other VCS organisations. Phase one work was also done to provide training workshops and develop links with national and regional bodies.
Phase two saw the introduction of a subscription service which provided heavily subsidised IT support to small, medium and large organisations in the voluntary/community sector. Phase two also saw an expansion of partnership working, organisation support contracts and, in the later stages, researching and developing ideas for using IT in potential strategies for tackling exclusions of different kinds such as rural and financial exclusion.
WHAT NEXT
The IT support project wants to retain and develop the valuable team of IT specialists that has been developed over three years and is therefore providing a brokerage service where recommended providers can be used by organisations for an agreed price. The IT support project can provide quality assured specialists who are skilled at working with this sector. A system of feedback will ensure that the quality of our recommendations is consistent and bulk buying, charity discounts and other cost saving initiatives can be shared between the organisations, the specialist and the support project. Each specialist, after rigorous checking, will receive a quality kite mark which shows their commitment to working within the voluntary/community sector and that they work within agreed standards in time, cost, quality and usability. This strategy leads on from the subscription service, encouraging organisations to budget for the full cost of their IT and their support development needs.
