This post was originally published here (The TechSoup Blog)
Are you in the process of planning your summer holiday? Considering the beach, the mountains, visiting family, or camping? In your planning, you’re likely considering a budget and assessing what things you have in the house to take with you, including bathing suits and camping gear.
After much consideration and debate, you’ll list the things you’ll need to shop for — new flip flops, hats, or kid’s toys. That’s always the fun part for me!
Well, tech planning is really no different than how you plan your summer vacation. OK, true, you won’t be trying on any bathing suits or camping during tactical tech planning, but you will be doing a good bit of assessment. Let’s get started!
TechSoup, in partnership with Idealware, now offers a four-course tactical tech planning learning track. It will help you get out of the technology doldrums so that you can assess your organization’s technology infrastructure and address your current and future needs. And from June 19 to July 15, you can register for a discounted rate of $49.50 using this coupon: SummerTechPlan2017.
During the first, free, introductory course, Tech Planning 101: Getting Started and Assessing Your IT Infrastructure, you’ll start to build the foundation for your tactical technology plan. You’ll learn how to put together the team you’ll need to help you implement your own plan.
You’ll also take a step-by-step look at each of the critical pieces of your entire technology package so you can thoroughly assess your nonprofit’s infrastructure. By the end of this introductory course, you’ll have an understanding of how to assess each piece of your technology infrastructure; you can begin to think about a plan for the future.
“This course gives a nice, easy to follow guide to evaluating your organization’s strengths and weaknesses in regards to hardware and software and gives many good suggestions.” — Christine, Pace Head Start, California
Tech Planning 101: Getting Started and Assessing Your IT Infrastructure prepares you to enter our more advanced courses on tech planning. These courses include Tech Planning 201: Developing a Data Strategy, Tech Planning 202: Organizing Online Communications, and Tech Planning 203: Putting Your Tech Plan into Action.
Great news! You can take the online training at your own pace, and access videos and step-by-step handouts to help apply what you’re learning to your own organization. When you complete the training, you’ll have a fully realized tactical technology action plan to guide your nonprofit. With it, you’ll be able to solve your current technology issues and you’ll be better equipped to tackle future challenges.
“It [the course] worked well for me. I could go through the entire training in one sitting, or overtime as permitted with my schedule. I feel much more comfortable building a technology plan now.” — Karen, Housing Independence, Oregon
So while you’re packing your bags for your summer break, consider getting started with your organization’s tactical tech planning. TechSoup has you covered with these courses and a coupon. Register no later than July 15 to get the 50 percent discount using the coupon code SummerTechPlan2017 at check-out.
If this is your first time accessing TechSoup Courses, our new online learning platform, please remember that you will need to create an account before registering for any course. Note that this account will be different from your TechSoup.org login.
Think of TechSoup Courses like your local library — first you get your library card, and then you can check out any and all resources at will! With our online learning platform, you own your learning journey — you choose the time, location, and device that is most convenient for you.
We’re working to bring you some great courses to increase your tech confidence one TechSoup course at a time. Explore our ever-growing catalog here.
Image: Africa Studio / Shutterstock
