Embracing digital technology is a must for all organisations.
Indeed, the global pandemic has forced everyone to accelerate their own digital transformation. In this interview, our co-founder and CIO Jim Druce reveals how Ethical IT has helped hundreds of organisations in the not-for-profit sector become more efficient, and more resilient and deliver a better service to their customers.
Q&A
Firstly, tell us a bit about your background:
I’ve been working in IT for more than 30 years, across a number of different industry areas but mostly in the charity sector. My main focus is helping organisations implement their digital transformation, including building bespoke cloud platforms and understanding how these perform and integrate to the back office.
What kind of work have you delivered for charities?
We’ve helped many charities, such as Greenpeace, Age UK and Action Aid, improve the way they connect with supporters, which ultimately leads to an increase in funding revenue. For Greenpeace, for example, we helped with the migration of their legacy CRM system to Salesforce. With Age UK, we helped drive a full cloud migration to Azure, leveraging the full benefits of Office 365.
What does embracing digital transformation mean to you?
There is this common misconception that investing in a new website is enough. It isn’t. There is a whole area of technology that underpins the customer-facing website that needs to work seamlessly. This is what we specialise in. It’s about the structure of a business, the processes, how each business area speaks to each other, how staff work, what security you have in place to protect your data, and how you connect with your customers. If you don’t get the technology fit right, the whole thing can fall apart quickly and investment wasted.
How does sustainability come into it?
As a business, we have always been passionate about sustainability. Most organisations want to be more environmentally friendly; customers expect it. However, many businesses don’t know how to go about reducing their carbon footprint. It tends to slip down the list of things to do. But the reality is that including sustainability in your strategy is not only good for the planet, but it’s also good for business. Our clients typically cut costs when they embrace sustainable IT business practices. For example, moving to the cloud can reduce energy output. Implementing remote working reduces the need for office space. Being sustainable is a no-brainer and should be part of any business agenda.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the charity sector in your view?
It’s a real shame because most charities are suffering from a fall in income due to fewer events taking place, like the London Marathon. Charity shops are also struggling, for obvious reasons. Many charities have embraced digital with the way they connect with supporters. However, I think there is a real opportunity to go even further, especially within their retail divisions. Charities need to migrate fully online with their shops. They need to invest in great digital customer service if they are to survive the economic challenges we are all going to face in the months ahead.
How can Ethical IT help?
We have decades of experience working in the charity sector and we’re experts at implementing large complex IT platforms. We’re also a friendly team that is obsessed with being as transparent as possible when it comes to client relationships. Ultimately, we want our clients to reduce costs and drive sales. We believe that by investing in sustainable, transparent and pioneering managed IT solutions, their business processes will become more efficient and more successful.
