Two disparate charities have successfully implemented
open source software, saving money and creating happier users in
the process. Jane Dudman looks at how open source can give
smaller organisations greater control at minimum
expense
If you still think of charities as the Cinderella of the IT
world, languishing in a corner, with little resources and no
budget, working on aged, donated equipment, prepare to think
again.
These days, larger UK charities are multimillion-pound
organisations, which need top-flight IT and communications skills
and technologies to put them in touch with a younger audience of
potential donors and volunteers.
Smaller charities are also benefiting from an innovative
approach, aided by organisations such as the Home Office-funded ICT
Hub.
The ICT Hub is a group of voluntary sector bodies that provides
a framework for IT planning and advice, using its £4m funding to
set up a website and material that can be delivered to local
voluntary bodies.
Open source software has proved a key tool for small,
cash-strapped organisations looking to implement cost-effective IT.
These two case studies illustrate how two very different charitable
organisations have been able to use open source systems.
Migrant Helpline
Established as a charity more than 40 years ago to assist
migrants and passengers through the port of Dover, UK charity
Migrant Helpline is now one of six agencies providing assistance
and support for asylum seekers and refugees entering and living in
the UK.
Migrant Helpline’s head office is still in Dover, but it has a
second large office in Croydon and 11 smaller offices throughout
the UK. The charity has 170 users, and runs fairly straightforward
office administrative systems.
Migrant Helpline has opted for open source software not only to
save money, but also to cut down on time-consuming red tape.
“We do not have a huge amount of money and all the money we do
have comes from the Home Office, so it is not just the cost of the
system, it is also about the admin involved,” says James Dayborn,
IT manager at Migrant Helpline.
“We have to get purchase orders done and approval from civil
servants. It may be standard business practice, but it is very
painful.”
The charity wanted to move to a straightforward open
source-based administrative system that would be easy for its users
to run. “Most of our users are using Openoffice in an
administrative role, but our case workers also use it to write
letters.
“Our staff are not recruited for their computer skills. They
need these systems for fairly simple administrative tasks,” says
Dayborn.
“The IT team are all proficient in open source systems, so we
were confident about downloading Openoffice. We thought it seemed a
good idea, so initially we rolled Openoffice out to a few users, to
see how it would work.”
Unfortunately, this initial approach ran into some difficulties,
but the problems were not technical. “There was some user
resistance,” says Dayborn.
“The IT department has to take this on the chin. We went
blundering in without a great amount of consultation and it was a
little bit of a battle.”
The answer came in the form of Sussex-based Burningsuit
Consultancy, which came into the charity and looked at the problems
it was facing. “One recommendation was that we go completely for
Openoffice and that we should do that all in one go,” says
Dayborn.
“Burningsuit also went further and suggested we should run
Linux. When we looked at the extra savings we would make, we
agreed.”
Burningsuit also provided training for Migrant Helpline’s staff.
“People get a little frustrated when they first use Openoffice
because things are in different places,” says Stuart Box, senior
partner at Burningsuit. “Once they understand that, it falls into
place.”
According to Box, training is vital to the successful adoption
of any computer software, but this is especially true with open
source applications.
“Many companies try Openoffice but give up because it is
slightly different and not an exact copy of what they know.
Properly configured, training in Openoffice and other open source
applications can overcome these difficulties.”
Migrant Helpline now has 120 PCs running Openoffice and has
linked its offices together using open source system IPCop as a
virtual private network.
Dayborn estimates that Migrant Helpline may have saved up to
£750,000 by implementing its open source systems, although this is
a headline figure, based on the savings that the charity would have
made if it had been paying full price for its Microsoft
licences.
Even taking into account the discount Migrant Helpline receives
on some of its Microsoft software, the savings are still
substantial, and the users at the charity are now much happier with
their system.
“We have a lot more control over the system. It has really cut
down on our admin time as well. We can do more interesting things,
now we do not have to spend so much time upgrading Microsoft
licences and killing viruses,” says Dayborn.
Contact a Family
The UK charity Contact a Family, which provides information,
support and advice to families with disabled children, has upgraded
its central information system infrastructure for under £50,000,
spread over three years, mainly through the use of open source
software.
The charity has a head office in central London, employing some
35 staff. It also has a number of smaller offices around the UK,
with a mixture of paid staff and volunteers.
Several years ago, Contact a Family realised its existing
computer systems were no longer meeting its needs. The charity had
grown and needed an integrated infrastructure and a dedicated IT
employee.
Ryan Cartwright was appointed five years ago as the charity’s
first full-time IT manager and has overseen a systems upgrade,
including the implementation of a new database, to give all staff
access to accurate information about services and support groups. A
list of more than 3,000 medical conditions also had to be included.
The database has been integrated into the charity’s main system to
ensure information can be shared as effectively as possible.
Cartwright was keen to build a web-based system, which would be
easy for staff to use and would require little extra support. But
this approach looked too expensive, even with a grant from the
Department of Health.
“Initial discussions with suppliers and advisers suggested that
a web-enabled solution could be prohibitively expensive,” says
Cartwright, who soon realised that proprietary-based systems,
running Microsoft Windows 2000 and MS Exchange would eat up a
“significant proportion” of the budget on licensing costs.
“This did not bode well for the organisation’s intended future
expansion.”
Instead, the charity decided to work with its existing support
provider to build its new system on open source. The quote for the
new system was a quarter of the cost of a proprietary system, but
there were drawbacks. The open source system would not have all the
functionality of MS Exchange, but after user consultation,
Cartwright realised that with some extra programming, all the main
functions needed could be provided.
A further challenge came when there were misunderstandings about
the database requirements between Contact a Family and the
consultancy with which is was working, and this led to delays,
according to Cartwright.
After the database was delivered, further development was
carried out in-house by Cartwright.
The system runs on two servers, both running SuSE Linux, one
housing the database, web and mail servers, and the other acting as
a file and print server within the charity’s head office.
Extra consultancy time for adapting the software was added, but
the system was still within budget.
The main advantages of the upgrade have been the integration of
the charity’s IT system and a high level of system reliability.
The use of open source software has meant the systems were not
only substantially cheaper than proprietary systems, but have been
adjusted to the charity’s needs.
External support requirements have been minimised. In fact, by
investing in its own staff, Contact a Family has benefited by
drawing on a wide set of internal skills, well-tuned to the
organisation’s needs, says Cartwright, who is a member of Social
Source UK, a group of people from the voluntary sector who seek to
promote the use and good practice of open source software within
the voluntary sector.
“Another key benefit has been that the systems have been able to
grow and adapt to the ever-changing needs of the charity, with
minimal additional outlay,” he says.