Weather the Storm in the Cloud

I will preface what I am about to share by acknowledging there are many technology choices out there but this is our experience with the path and products that we chose to use. 

Moving to 'the Cloud'

Little did I know when Outreach Canada started moving our technology platform to "the cloud" over 5 years ago the impact it would have helping us continue to function as we face the worldwide disruption caused by Covid-19. Even more amazing to me is the decision that we made in December of 2019, to replace our still functioning but terribly outdated office phone system. With a new system fully integrated with the rest of our "cloud based" platform, our "office" phones can be answered by people working remotely from home and transferred to someone else across town or across the country just as if we were all in the same physical office. All of this without special equipment or a huge up front expense. 

Outreach Canada Ministries technology foundation is now all "cloud" based. Of course our team members have real, physical laptops, desktops, tablets and phones and each of those have software (apps) loaded ... But the management and security of those devices and deployment of their software and definitely all the data, files and services they use is all cloud based.

Making the Switch

Several years ago, Outreach Canada was looking for ways to handle the technical needs of a quickly expanding team, with a limited budget and an even more limited tech support staff (me). At the time, reducing the complexity of managing software and basic services like email and file backups were our top concerns. But I was also looking forward to find a way to break out of the data silos that existed between our departments and to enable greater sharing of information and resources by our staff and partners spread across Canada. 

Through the generous discount provided by Microsoft to charities , OC went all in on a cloud based tech platform and switched over to Microsoft's new business service "Office 365" and their hosting platform "Azure". 

With Office 365, we had a simple, centralized way to manage the software that our team members used on their computers and laptops every day for email, presentations, documents and file storage. An added bonus was that Office 365 gave our team a single sign-in for accessing any resource or service used by Outreach Canada. And with Azure we were able to eliminate hosting our own physical web and database servers and replaced them with virtual servers and web applications in "the cloud". 

All of this was life changing to me in my role of Director of IT Services. Supporting and managing our organizations technology was much easier, more secure and could be maintained from anywhere whether in the office or at home or driving our RV cross-country. (Okay, maybe that is not a plus!) 

All in with Teams

The decision that made the biggest difference in our ability to handle the current COVID-19 crisis began early in 2019 when our new COO, Rick Burdett, came into my office and said "We need to go all in with Microsoft Teams. We need to replace email as the primary inter-organization communication tool. Everyone should be using Teams instead." Now I had rolled out Microsoft Teams shortly after it became available and to be sure, some of the our ministries were using Teams. Some for a number of months and very successfully. But now we were talking a big shift in how everyone worked. We jumped in and made training on Microsoft Teams a priority. The transition was not seamless and even I had to break the habit of sending emails to people within OC when communicating. 

Fast forward to March 2020 and reality COVID-19. Closed offices, cancelled public events and meeting because of social distancing. A wholesale change to the way every business, organization, school and individual is functioning. Some have asked me how I am doing assuming that I must be very busy these days. The reality is that moving to having everyone working remotely meant very little change on my part. And because our staff was already familiar with Microsoft Office 365 and Teams, they were able to work remotely with very little disruption. Communicating with online video meetings, sharing files and collaborating in groups they can control. Switching our old phone system to Microsoft Phone in January 2020, which is integrates directly into Teams was the final piece in making our organization truly remote work ready. 

Recommendations

Many of these features are free or very low cost for charities , so almost any church or ministry organization could make the switch without a big upfront cost, long term commitment or any special hardware purchases to take advantage of a world-class platform. 

Why should you consider this Microsoft centered solution compared to the many other choices available? A valid question! To me, the big reason is because it is a complete and robust package, with many layers of control and levels of services. Instead of using one tool for online meetings and a separate one for online storage/backup and then another for email and another for planning and a different one for surveys.... We can provide our team with all of those tools and much more with one sign-in. Simple for our users. Simple for me to manage, support and control costs. The second is security features and controls. You even have the option of WHERE your data will be stored to help you comply with country specific privacy and security compliance concerns. 

Resources & Links

• If you are interested in helping your organization collaborate you can find out more about Microsoft Teams and try it for free at this page.
• If you want to explore a complete solution to moving your not-for-profit organization to the cloud , find out more at this Microsoft's Office for Non-profit page. (of course they have options for other organizations and businesses as well)
• And if you are still maintaining your own servers for databases, web-site hosting or other applications, I strongly recommend you taking a look at the cost savings and security advantages of Microsoft Azure.
• If you are an individual trying to work remotely you can use the tried and tested Microsoft Skype app to stay in touch for free. Whether a quick video call or a meeting with up to 50 people. Skype is a proven tool. UPDATE: in response to the current situation Skype has added a FREE Meet Now feature. No account or application needed, just one button click and you are up and running!