Last week we held our third Quarterly Charity Technology Roundtable, hosted by Microsoft Tech for Social Impact. In this blog, we summarise our discussion on cyber security, including risk management, BYOD, reducing risk of human error and systems gatekeeping. Compliance Frameworks, Risk Management, Reporting It is good practice to define the framework(s) or standard(s) that are…
Keeping on top of the ever-changing licensing needs of your organisation can be a demanding job. Now, more than ever, it’s critical to ensure your Microsoft license estate is lean, optimised, and as cost effective as possible. As Microsoft partners and non-profit specialists, we are qualified Direct Cloud Solution Partners (CSP) who can help you navigate…
The Charity Digital Skills report, now in its sixth year, is widely regarded as an annual barometer on digital maturity, skills and priorities across the nonprofit sector. It’s the digital sister of our own annual Charity Tech Leaders Report which focuses on IT infrastructure, M365 & cloud, outsourcing and cyber security. In this blog, we…
How do you keep your charity up to date with ever changing data protection law, GDPR standards, Subject Access Requests and data breaches? This is just one of the questions we answered in our Information Governance and Data Protection workshop for nonprofit organisations, in partnership with Charity IT Leaders. Andrew Coyle, our Director of Information…
The Covid-19 pandemic completely changed how we use telephones. Most charities are now reducing their ‘landline’ phone numbers to save cost, and are consolidating them into Microsoft Teams. As traditional copper phone lines in the UK are being switched off forever in 2025, now is the ideal time to consolidate your telephony, reduce your spend,…
Thanks to everyone who joined us for our Charity Tech Winter Social on 30 November 2023, in partnership with Microsoft Tech for Social Impact. A huge thank you to our sponsors Servicenow.org for a fabulous evening. We enjoyed drinks and networking with attendees from a array of charities and nonprofits in a relaxed setting at…
Since its arrival in November last year, ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. This powerful new chatbot with seemingly endless possibilities took 3 months to reach 100 million users; Facebook took 4 years to reach the same milestone! Microsoft is leveraging some of this technology to introduce AI into Microsoft 365 this year –…
Welcome to the Smartdesc June newsletter. In this edition, we share our Charity Technology Leaders report released earlier this month, including: Our Charity Technology Leaders Report 2023 A webinar and blog on our insights from the report A video case study on our Modern Workplace Project with national charity Mind, featuring testimonials from key Mind…
Earlier this year, Smartdesc conducted a survey of Charity Technology Leaders to ask what their strategic technology priorities are for the year ahead. We received responses from senior stakeholders from a range of large UK charities, with an average organisation income size of £30m. We shared our findings in our Charity Technology Leaders Report 2023,…
We are delighted to publish the Charity Technology Leaders Report 2023. Earlier this year, Smartdesc engaged with senior leaders involved in technology across a wide range of charities in the UK, to find out their priorities for IT in 2023/24. The report shares these findings and what they mean for charity IT leaders across the…
