Yesterday I went along to the meeting of the Funders Forum hosted by the Funding South West group meeting and presented to those present a paper outlining how funders can improve their investment in ICT for organisations including ideas about how they could adopt good practice in supporting organisations prior to bids being submitted.
As a result of the meeting I am now working on a factsheet which can be circulated around by funders (and infrastructure organisations) about the good practices for developing ICT budgets and what to include in your bids. I will post a copy here once its ready too.
Also at this meeting was a demonstration of the new resources being promoted by CIB South West (Charities Information Bureau) – its funding database and an associated bulletin (George) which organisations in the South West can subscribe to for regular and updated information about sources of funding. I will be regularly providing them with information about ICT funding.
What’s the support for organisations moving away from Microsoft to sustainable IT like OpenOffice, Ubuntu and GNU/Linux like?
By: MJ Ray on 25 October, 2008
at 12:25 pm
This issue came up during the discussions at the meeting – when a member of the group was informing others of the help available through CTX and the MS Refurbishment Programme. I explained that organisations should also be encouraged to consider OS solutions and that funders should be more aware of the sustainability issues when considering applications with substantial software/licensing costs involved.
By: Julie Harris on 27 October, 2008
at 10:49 am
That’s good to know! How was the explanation taken on board?
By: MJ Ray on 27 October, 2008
at 1:14 pm
Well the funders represented at the meeting responded well and I have been invited to follow-up with some guidance notes for funders to use and will of course include a section on OS there too.
By: julzswitch on 27 October, 2008
at 2:46 pm
Let us know if we can help, but I suspect Bristol Wireless and M6-IT have more relevant experience. I feel it’s important to include “free software” in the name, because the freedom aspects should be important to many organisations.
By: MJ Ray on 28 October, 2008
at 12:19 pm
It would be good to meet up or tele/video conference and have a chat about this work and get your input. I am regularly in touch with people at Bristol Wireless and they always provide excellent advice and support on FOSS.
By: julzswitch on 29 October, 2008
at 10:15 am
Hi. Hope you don’t mind me chipping in although I see your chat took place some months ago.
My ICT business focusses entirely on Open Source CRM software. any business that is looking to grow their sales pipeline and look after customers better should be considering CRM technology.
What I would like to know is whether or not there is funding available to geographically challenged businesses who are based in the south west?
By: southwestcrm on 21 February, 2009
at 4:03 pm
Hi Simon – the focus of my work as Regional ICT Champion is to support organisations working in the third sector. That’s voluntary and community organisations, charities and social enterprises. Its good to know about your work and focus on Open Source CRM – a growing area of interest!
Julie
By: cosmicjulie on 23 February, 2009
at 11:34 am