Spent a day with staff from Black Development Agency, which is based on Russell Town Avenue in Bristol (yes, I do work in Bristol as well), and we had some discussions about the importance of technology in the overall planning of organisations. Its really interesting to find out how different organisations are using various planning tools to see how technology suits their current and future plans. We looked at the need to plan for hardware, software, online resources, websites, emails, maintenance work and staff ICT training. BDA are using the net:gain process to set up a new ICT strategic plan and its providing a good basis from which to review their current systems and their overall work. The same old issue of funding and how to secure the investment needed to enhance the ICT within organisations was also discussed. I am hoping to be able to provide further help with BDA work in future and to run some workshops and training for the groups which they serve.
It was also a useful opportunity to compare and contrast the needs of urban organisations with those in rural areas, and some feedback from a recent event puts this much more succintly than I can – “its not that organsations in rural and urban areas necessarily have different ICT support needs, its just that the way in which that support is provided can be very different”.
More work this afternoon back at COSMIC – and my attention turns the production of our annual report. Business performance, consultation with clients, project reports and finances all need condensing into an easily digested read ahead of our AGM in two weeks. Gulp!
Julie Harris, COSMIC
