Costs, a common barrier to technology for almost all NGOs.
The same can be said for Dhamma Earth Club of Malaysia (DECOM), a charitable organization focused on promoting Buddha's teachings by offering free meditation courses, leadership courses and family camps. Depending mainly on donations received from the public, DECOM is left without a fixed budget that they can use to invest in improving their IT resources.
In spite of their financial constraints, DECOM knows and fully understands the value of technology and how it can help in improving efficiency in the workplace. They understand the value of data and how its proper management can lead to better decision-making. They are aware of how simple administrative programs such as Office, Windows and Adobe can play a big role in keeping their admin work running smoothly and effectively.
Qualifying for TechSoup Malaysia, DECOM was able to overcome the barrier set by high costs of technology. Through TechSoup Malaysia, DECOM was able to access the latest licenses of Windows to aide in their admin work while subsequently allowing them to save over USD 8,900 in the process.
However, that is not the entire story for DECOM. At this time, they are also working on a larger technology roadmap, looking to utilize other resources such as SQL Server and Tableau to streamline processes such as cost utilization and management of financials, donations, events and more.
They took their first step in accessing Windows licenses, now the next step to their roadmap is to learn more about Tableau, a desktop application that can help in managing multiple data sources by visualizing them through customized dashboards.
As they say, every journey starts with a single step. Learning from DECOM’s ongoing story, the same can be said for any organization’s tech transformation. Larger transformation starts in small efforts and the key is to keep learning and exploring various resources that can help you achieve your mission.