Managing Information for Impact

NTEN
Nonprofit Tech Academy
Presented by
Donny C. Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA
Managing Information
for Impact

Speaker Biography
Donny C. Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA
 Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, is the founder and managing director of
IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC, a CPA consultancy focused on organizational
development and advisory services for the middle market and nonprofits.
Donny is a recognized national expert in IT management and international
author/speaker on business intelligence initiatives. Donny helps many
nonprofits by bridging accounting and IT to strengthen organizational
governance and risk management, improve business processes through
technology, and increase the effectiveness of decision-making through
business intelligence and evidence-based management.
 In addition to being a frequent speaker for the Nonprofit Technology Network
(nten.org), Donny is the chairman of the AICPA’s Information Management &
Technology Assurance Executive Committee and past Governing Council
member. Donny was recognized as one of the 2013 Top 100 Influential
People by Accounting Today, Top Thought Leaders by CPA Practice Advisor in
2012, 2013 & 2014, received the 2009-2010 President’s Award from the
Hawaii Society of CPAs, was named to CPA Technology Advisor’s 40 Under 40
list in 2007 & 2009, and was also a Hawaii Top High Tech Leader in 2004.
 Donny works with a variety of nonprofits including foundations, social service
agencies, educational institutions, and membership associations.

Audience Polls – Demographics
 Organization Type/Size
– Small Org
– Medium Org
– Large Org
– CPA Firm
 Part of Organization
– Accounting/Finance
– IT
– Programs
– Audit
– Consulting
 Role in Organization
– Lead Executive
– Executive Leadership
– Dept Director/Manager
– Dept Staff
Choose one from each set of
options that best matches how
you view your organization
and your role at work.
© 2013 IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Managing Information for Impact
 Nonprofit Technology in Perspective
– Developing the IT Strategy
 Information’s Role in the Organization
 Understanding the Value of Information
– Collecting the “Right” Information
– Evidence-based Decision Making
 Developing Your Enterprise Architecture
– Information Lifecycle & Information Architecture
 Selecting Your Information Systems
– Selection Criteria, Strategy, and Integration
– To Customize or Not to Customize
4 © 2013 IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC. All Rights Reserved.

• Alignment between the mission, business
strategy and the IT strategy is critical.
• Analyze the ecosystem, drivers, and
business strategy—the combination of all
of these drive the IT strategy.
• Use the IT strategy to drive the IT plan
and associated initiatives
Nonprofit Technology
in Perspective
© 2013 IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC. All Rights Reserved.5

Developing the IT Strategy
Cloud
Computing
Mobile Big Data
• Evolution of Service Offerings
• Workflow & Process Efficiencies
• Staff Enablement & Work-Life Fitness
• Local to Global Opportunities
Technology
Drivers
Mission
Enhancement
Strategies
Economic
Uncertainty
Donor /
Funding
Pressures
Increased
Oversight
Business
Drivers
IT Strategy

Back Office Programs Fundraising
Impact of the IT Strategy
to your Mission
Key Outcomes:
• Automated & efficient processes  Improved execution/”profitability”
• Improved work processes  Increased employee satisfaction
• Better workflow and program management  Reduced risk
• Higher quality of service  Increased constituent satisfaction / impact
• Efficiencies
• Effectiveness
• Innovation
• Efficiencies
• Collaborative
• Transformative
• Efficiencies
• Revenue Growth
• Innovation

 Once you know your IT Strategy then you
can determine your IT Plan (tactical)
 Identify technology initiatives that will
provide the expected outcomes
– Identify the initiative and expected impact first
– Then determine the technology
 Sometimes selection of the technology will be
determined by the current infrastructure
 Sometimes you purposely want to consider a new
infrastructure, especially the cloud
– Once you have all your initiatives, budget and
prioritize them © 2013 IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC. All Rights Reserved.8

• Information is essential to building a
sustainable organization.
• Better info enables organization efficiency,
effectiveness, and transformation.
• To add-value, information must be
delivered to achieve impact.
Information’s Role
in the Organization
© 2013 IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC. All Rights Reserved.9

Shifting the Sustainable Value Chain
 A shift is required in the Sustainable Value
Chain of nonprofit competencies
 Historically nonprofits could be very operationally
driven. As the need for transparency and impact
increases, nonprofits must be more strategic to
be sustainable and achieve their mission10
Adapted from: CIMA’s Sustainable Value Chain of Organizational Competencies
Mission,
business
strategy, and
constituent
needs
Brand, values
and
organization
positioning
Develop
service
offerings and
value/benefit
proposition
Obtain
funding and
source
resources
Deliver
services and
measure
impact
Constituent
satisfaction
and retention
Operations driven
Mission/strategy driven impact

Benefits of Better Information
The potential benefits from business intelligence
(better information) depends on your ambition.
11

Information’s Role in Achieving Impact
 We often stop at the Reporting or Analysis stage
(which is where technology will also take you).
 We need to go all the way through to IMPACT!
12

• Information is the most important asset
of an organization, after its people.
• Collecting the “right” information is
essential to making better decisions.
• Evidenced-based decisions are usually
better than “gut feel” decisions.
Understanding the
Value of Information
13

Information is an Important Asset
 Nonprofits use better information to
– Increase reach and highly engage its donors
– Understand the needs of its service recipients
– Quantify the outcomes and impact it is having
on its constituents
 As we transition from the Information Age
to the Knowledge Age
– Better information = Competitive advantage
– Competitive advantage in the nonprofit world
can mean more funding and better outcomes
14

Collecting the “Right” Information
 It is important to ensure that you’re
gathering the “right” information and
tracking the “right” metrics
– Tracking the wrong metrics can result in
undesired outcomes
– Tying performance to the wrong metrics can
incent the wrong behaviors
– Both of the above can lead to incorrect decisions
 Consider different types of information
– quantitative and qualitative data
– positive and negative indicators
15

Collecting the “Right” Information
 Management Information
– Financial Statements – Managerial/Budget
– Key Performance Indicators
– Key Predictive Indicators
 Tactical Information
– Service delivery (e.g. # of constituents served)
– Service quality (e.g. constituent satisfaction)
– Messaging/outreach (e.g. # opens/open rate)
– Fundraising (e.g. total $, $ per donation)
– Outcomes indicators
16

Evidence-based Decision Making (EbDM)
 EbDM is generally better than “gut feel” decisions and
evidence can be gathered to validate “gut feel” decisions
17 Source: Evidence Based Decision Making: using Business Intelligence to drive value, Bernard Marr, Management Accounting Guideline CMA, AICPA, CIMA 2009

• How you collect, store, maintain, archive,
and dispose of your data is important.
• Use an Information Architecture model to
manage the flow of information.
• Use an Enterprise Architecture model to
visualize the processing of information.
Developing Your
Enterprise Architecture
18

Understanding the Information Life Cycle
 All information follows a lifecycle and must
be managed throughout its lifecycle
19
Source: Information Integrity, AICPA, January 2013
Source: Information Integrity, AICPA, January 2013

Understanding the Flow of Information
Use an Information Architecture model to
understand the flow of data in your org
Staging
Area
Extract,Transform,Load
Data
Warehouse
TransactionalDataStores
Operational
Data Store(s)
Extract,Transform,Load
Data Mart
Data Mart
Data Mart
Data
Access
Tool
Data
Access
Tool
Meta Data
(including Business Rules, Data Dictionary, Data Model, and Data Security Model)

Understanding the Flow of Information
Deliver info to users via the best reporting
vehicle:

Understanding the Processing of Info
 Use an Enterprise Architecture model to
understand the processing of information
22
General
Ledger
Sage
Budgeting &
Forecasting
CPM
Accounts
Payable
e-AP
Cash
Disbursements
e-AP Sage
Corporate
Expense
Reporting
P-Card
Contract
Administration
DWFM
Case
Operations
SMS
Board
Oversight
ExtNet
Case
Collaboration
CPortal
Operational
Reporting
ODS
Budget
· Budget & Forecasts
Plan
· Estimates & Intentions
· Soft Commitments
· Hard Commitments
· Cash Flow Projections
Actual
· Expenditures
Performance Management
Financial
Budget
· Corporate Strategic Plan Goals &
Targets
· Program Strategic Plan Goals &
Targets
Plan
· Program Goals & Targets
· Contract Goals & Targets
· Other Quantitative Targets
Actual
· Actual performance measures
· Actual outcomes measures
Non-Financial
Management
Oversight
Intranet
Case Document
Management
SMS
CPM
Commitments
Management
CPM
Employee
Expense
Reporting
e-Exp
Timekeeping
SMS
SMS
Quality
Assurance
SMS
Sage
Constituent
Management
CRM
Fiscal
Program
Management
Intranet
Payroll
ADP
HR
DMS
ADP

Capture major operational processes (rectangles),
supporting systems (cylinders) and flow of data (arrows)
23

Look at management needs, including the non-
financial information needed to improve program
management and achieving of outcomes/impact
24

Obtain an understanding of the flow of information
needed to optimize the organization’s performance
25

Using the Enterprise Architecture
 An Enterprise Architecture model allows
you to see the entire org on one page
– Use it to analyze the current state of the org
– Use it to visualize the future state of the org
 Identify the functional needs of the org and
the systems supporting those needs
– Identify which areas may not be optimized or
have additional complexity
– Assess the impact of any information system
changes to business processes and info flow
26

• Your Mission, IT Strategy, Information
Needs, and Information Architecture drive
your Information Systems selection.
• Each element of the Information
Architecture has different types of
systems supporting it; some systems
support multiple elements.
Selecting Your
Information Systems
27

Information Systems Selection Criteria
28
 There is no “correct” system for every
organization or every function.
 Selection criteria is driven by a variety of
factors.:
Information
System
Selection
Criteria
IT Strategy
Mission
Information
Needs
Information
Architecture

Information Systems Selection Criteria
 System selection should be driven by
– Type(s) of data you need to manage
– Who needs access to the data
– How you want them to access the data
– The business processes the data supports
 Consider transaction processing needs
versus decision support needs
– Availability of information at the point of action
– Timeliness of information for decision support
29

Information Systems Strategy
 Single Vendor / Product Suite
– Pros: tightly integrated (data flow and security),
single support contact
– Cons: usually generic functionality usable by
many, harder to leave vendor
 Best of Breed
– Pros: best functionality for each need, deeper
functional understanding by vendor
– Cons: data and security not integrated (must be
done by you or pay consultant), multiple vendor
contracts to manage, multiple support contacts
30

Information Systems Strategy
31
Source: Idealware via NTEN Technology Leadership Academy
Deep functionality vs. broad functionality

Integrating Information Systems
 Integration Options
– Manual – usually via batch export and import
using Excel or CSV file
– Automated Point-to-Point – direct system to
system usually using APIs, web services, or
back end database triggers
– Automated Synchronization Tool – intermediary
tool connects to various systems usually for
pre-defined data exchanges
– Automated Hub & Spoke – data warehouse or
master data serves as “hub” and “spoke”
systems report change to and query changes
from “hub”
32

Integrating Information Systems
33
Sample Manual Integration using Excel

To Customize or Not to Customize…
 Customization is often a bad word
– In general it results in higher total cost of
ownership over the long run
 Differentiate between:
– Custom Configurations – works within the
built-in functionality of the vendors system
(e.g. custom fields and macros)
– Platform Customizations – works within the
vendor’s application platform to add tables or
functionality to the purchased system
– Custom Development – adding functionality
developed “from scratch” and integrated into
or along side the purchased system
34

35
Use of broad CRM system with
customizations to meet specific needs

36
Use of best of breed in two areas and
custom app and API for integration

Tie Back to Enterprise Architecture
Map your info sys strategy and customization decisions back
to your Enterprise Architecture to validate the “big picture”
37
General
Ledger
Sage
Budgeting &
Forecasting
CPM
Accounts
Payable
e-AP
Cash
Disbursements
e-AP Sage
Corporate
Expense
Reporting
P-Card
Contract
Administration
DWFM
Case
Operations
SMS
Board
Oversight
ExtNet
Case
Collaboration
CPortal
Operational
Reporting
ODS
Budget
· Budget & Forecasts
Plan
· Estimates & Intentions
· Soft Commitments
· Hard Commitments
· Cash Flow Projections
Actual
· Expenditures
Performance Management
Financial
Budget
· Corporate Strategic Plan Goals &
Targets
· Program Strategic Plan Goals &
Targets
Plan
· Program Goals & Targets
· Contract Goals & Targets
· Other Quantitative Targets
Actual
· Actual performance measures
· Actual outcomes measures
Non-Financial
Management
Oversight
Intranet
Case Document
Management
SMS
CPM
Commitments
Management
CPM
Employee
Expense
Reporting
e-Exp
Timekeeping
SMS
SMS
Quality
Assurance
SMS
Sage
Constituent
Management
CRM
Fiscal
Program
Management
Intranet
Payroll
ADP
HR
DMS
ADP

• Follow the methodology for a structured
approach to system selection.
• Go past reporting and analysis for impact.
• Better information increases the
sustainability of the organization and its
ability to achieve its mission.
Managing Information
for Impact
38

Managing Information for Impact
 Recap of methodology
– Identify your information needs (IN)
– Understand your information architecture (IA)
– Understand your enterprise architecture (EA)
– Visualize your future state IA & EA
– Strategically select your information systems (IS)
– Implement the (new) information systems
 Remember that things change over time
– Reassess your IN, IA, and EA periodically
– Reassess IS capabilities periodically
39

Provide Information with Impact
Go past the Reporting and Analysis stages
and ensure you are providing information
that has IMPACT!
40

Impact Must Be Mission/Strategy-Driven
 Don’t let only Operations drive information needs
 Drive information needs from the org’s
mission and strategy to increase org
sustainability and overall IMPACT.
41
Adapted from: CIMA’s Sustainable Value Chain of Organizational Competencies
Mission,
business
strategy, and
constituent
needs
Brand, values
and
organization
positioning
Develop
service
offerings and
value/benefit
proposition
Obtain
funding and
source
resources
Deliver
services and
measure
impact
Constituent
satisfaction
and retention
Operations driven
Mission/strategy driven impact

Thank you for your
attention and participation!
Any Questions?
Donny C. Shimamoto, CPA, CITP, CGMA
Email = donny808@cpa.com
Voice = (808) 735-8324
Twitter = @donnyitk

Managing Information for Impact

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