Data Transparency Demands Present Service Opportunity

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TechNetworks of Boston, a 21-year-old solution provider located in South Boston, has identified a new space where service is in big demand: data transparency.

TechNetworks' customers include nonprofits, such as social organizations, that often look to the solution provider as their full IT staff. They depend on TechNetworks to build out and manage their technical capabilities. "We've done a ton of Office 365 migrations," TechNetworks President David Gleason said. "But the real thrust now is in data."

Gleason said in that funders and activists want to see where their money is going, as well as exactly how nonprofits operate. Customers are aware that big data services can now translate that information to them, and they’re demanding it as a service.

"The questions are: 'How did you serve them? What did you do for them?'" Gleason said. "We're working with clients on capturing data, and then being able to report the outcomes to the funders, so that they can say, 'Our dollars went to something really important that made a big difference to people.'"

"It helps the funders know that their dollars are going to good uses. It also helps the organizations because they can adapt their services. They see in quantitative terms if something's not working; they're going to stop doing it and refocus their energy in something else," Gleason said.

TechNetworks also continues to see demand in migrating information to the cloud via Office 360, which Gleason called a "no-brainer."

PUBLISHED MARCH 31, 2015