Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD) is New England’s largest human service organization, but it is not just size that separates it from many other CAAs—it is the approach to IT it has taken.
ABCD constructed its IT infrastructure as part of a conscious strategy for overall agency development. And senior staff point out that the benefits have outweighed the costs: the infrastructure positions them to do a lot of new things and gives them a strategic advantage in acquiring new services
The development of computerized information technology at ABCD has been an evolutionary process that has unfolded over the past decade or so. A key event came in 1987-88 with the introduction of PCs. However, according to staff who date back to this period, many PCs stayed in their boxes for some time until an internal process had begun to unfold. That process was planned by top management—and it took over a year. During the period, staff at all levels of the agency were involved in discussing the new technology, how it would be used, and other related issues. Top management worked hard to get staff to support the change, listening to their concerns and figuring out how to deal with the issues presented by the new technology—for programs, the workplace, and the staff.
Once managers and other staff felt their concerns were being addressed, they came to accept the change, and understood the organizational/cultural implications. This process made the road ahead smoother than it probably otherwise would have been.
The staff interviewed during our site visit know that the technology has changed the organization’s culture—they even refer to the integration of IT over the last decade as "building a new culture."
When ABCD moved to significantly expand its IT systems, it realized that the new technology required new skills. It decided that the answer was to make a major commitment to train its existing staff. It offered a variey of ways for staff to obtaining IT training—and still does. "When we made the change, we felt it was important to give staff an equal chance to stay," one senior staff explained, "and to do that, we had to invest in training. Also, we knew that it would take a couple of years to get staff up to speed and that in some areas we would have to bite the bullet for a while."
All the staff we interviewed believe that it has taken awhile, but that the investment has paid off. They say that they sought to change the culture at ABCD to integrate computer technology into work.
"We’re almost there," one of them concluded. "The new culture has now almost taken over, but at the same time it has created enormous demands of a new sort. And there is always room for improvement." He noted that now most staff will find a way to get through the day even if the roof leaks or the heating fails—but not if their computers go down. "That’s a big change," he reflected.