Data Systems International (DSI) is a Silver Sponsor a the upcoming NTEC conference in San Francisco. The Conference is hosted by the Nonprofit Technology Network and will be April, 3-5 at the Union Square Hilton in downtown San Francisco.

The three-day gathering brings together nonprofit professionals from around the world to collaborate, innovate, and maximize effectiveness. With a wide mix of social events, seminars, trainings, and resources, the 2012 NTC will help put technology to work to further the causes of various nonprofit organizations.

Scott Collins, Brad Ball, and Darin Patterson will be attending the event to participate in the various educational workshops and interact with clients. They also plan to showcase some new features that will be incorporated in the upcoming 2012 release of ClientTrack.

If you're attending the event, keep an eye out for ClientTrack and stop by booth #59 during the Science Fair for information and prizes.  As a Silver Sponsor, we're heavily promoting our brand and we're even distributing lapel pins of our "skippy" logo to all attendees. "We'll have something special for Clients that come by our booth" say's Brad Ball, Director of Marketing for DSI. "This is one of the biggest conferences of the year, and we're excited to showcase ClientTrack and participate in the events." Clients planning to attend NTEN can schedule a meeting our conference participants by contact their Account Advocate or by sending a request to info@clienttrack.com

The Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) recently hosted a webinar entitled “Becoming A Data Driven Organization” which introduced viewers to high level concepts in gathering, combining and better using data within their organizations. As an organization, NTEN’s mission is to help nonprofits use all aspects of technology more effectively including facilitating the exchange of knowledge and information among the community.

In the webinar, presenter Jake Porway, the CTO/Founder of Data without Borders and Data Scientist for the New York Times outlined a few key concepts around how data collection can be applied within an organization. Jake also shared some suggestions for getting started:

·         Pre-Data Questions – Start with “What question do I want to answer”

·         Use data you already have – Look at data you have in a different context or view point

o    (e.g. using grant application data you already have to determine where people know about you – using this data as an outreach measurement)

·         Leverage data from others – Data.gov has aggregate data that can be useful when looking for specific information (e.g. general population data to compare your data against)

·          Combining data – Twitter, Facebook and Google Analytics are all free sources of data that can be combined with your own data to gain insights like how you are perceived in the community, etc.

·         Consistency and Technology –Make sure you are measuring “apples-to-apples” by being consistent in what you measure and leveraging technology to help you do it.

At DSI, we recommend our clients really focus on what they want to measure and WHY they want to measure it. Putting the proper time into understanding the reason for data collection allows an organization to define the right data points to help them accomplish their goals.  Data without a purpose is often meaningless. Start with the objectives of your organization and/or programs and define what information will help you answer whether you are successful in meeting these objectives. A little effort in this area can really go a long way in measuring your success.

On Dec 9^th 2011, HUD released a “proposed rule” for Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) requirements. In general, this proposed rule seeks to solidify the role of the Lead Agency within a Continuum of Care (CoC), outline the regulations surrounding how an HMIS is administered and formalize data management policies between the Covered Homeless Organizations (CHO) and the Lead Agency within a Continuum. Many of you are already practicing these policies within your own CoCs but these regulations will officially formalize these policies and procedures.

• Go to www.regulations.gov
• Under “Select Document Type” choose “Proposed Rule”
• Under the “Enter Keyword or ID” field type in “HMIS Requirements Proposed Rule” and click on the “Submit” button
• Once you have received the search results, scroll down the page to “FR-5475-P-01 Homeless Management Information Systems” and click on “Submit a Comment” at the far right of this row
• Follow the instructions to submit your comment

Join us for the Fall 2011 National Human Services Data Consortium (NHSDC) Conference and Institute in Washington DC October, 12-14th. Session topics such as overcoming local reporting and policy analysis challenges as well a HUD-led discussion on the future of performance measurement, system change, and techniques for better collaboration. We would love to see those of you who will be attending the conference or who are in the DC area. To facilitate meeting with each of you, we are in the process of planning some activities to help us get your feedback on Clienttrack and also show our sincere appreciation for what you do everyday. Let us know if you will be attending by sending an email to your Account Advocate so we can plan accordingly and make sure you are included in our invitations. Look forward to seeing you there!

 We will be attending the NTEN Conference and we are looking forward to meeting all of you who are attending the NTEN Conference in San Francisco next year! We have submitted a proposal to present at the conference. The proposal is entitled “Technology Change Management – How do organizations ensure their technology solutions live up to their vision” and focuses on some of the organizational challenges and solutions to ensure success. We are very excited because over the years we have seen what works and doesn’t work when implementing Clienttrack in our own customer’s organizations and realized that these "best practices" are applicable to any technology implementation and adoption initiatives. Part of the criteria for being selected to present is based on popular vote. We encourage you to go to http://www.nten.org/ntc-session/11843 and vote for our proposal.  Even if you aren’t attending, this presentation will be the basis for future work so please go and vote. For those of you who are attending, we look forward to seeing you there!