Helping a Nonprofit Organization Help Others
Client Profile
Any Baby Can has been ensuring that children reach their potential through education, therapy, and family support services for over 21 years. They are a nonprofit organization that offers support for families with children who have special needs as well as programs on pregnancy, childbirth, parenting and literacy.
Located in Austin, TX, ABC strives daily to help Central Texas children and families lead healthy and happy lives. Their strong commitment to their community is reflected in the important difference they make.
The Situation
Any Baby Can devotes itself entirely to those it helps, therefore its scheduling procedures took a back seat in terms of priority. As a result, most of their processes were outdated.
A closer look by the organization's IT and management team revealed that their reservation system was slowing them down and consuming more time than necessary.
- All scheduling was done by hand via the receptionist Jessica Tristan who found the process to be both tedious and unorganized.
- ABC utilizes two separate appointment books: one for reserving its vans and another for requesting conference rooms. This complicated the process and introduced a greater possibility of scheduling errors.
- The pencil and paper method was inflexible when changes had to be made to the schedule and ultimately became a messy, inefficient undertaking.
The Solution
Any Baby Can knew that they could benefit from a more concise computerized scheduling system. However, like any nonprofit organization, budgetary constraints were a major issue. The situation shifted when NetSimplicity’s Meeting Room Manager scheduling software was brought to the attention of General Operations Manager Mike Herrold. The cost effectiveness of the product made it an obvious choice for ABC.
ABC got up and running with Meeting Room Manager in April 2004 and reports that they are highly pleased with the results. The software has proven to be easy to install, very user friendly, and a valuable asset to their organization.
Results
Any Baby Can’s transition from its pen and paper scheduling system to the utilization of NetSimplicity’s Meeting Room Manager has been a smooth one without any complications.
- All 60 office employees now e-mail their requests for vans and/or conference rooms to Jessica Tristan who inputs them directly into the database. All reservations then reside in one centralized location.
- The graphical user interface is very intuitive and easy to navigate.
- The schedule is posted on the wall each day for everyone to see and any changes can be quickly addressed and implemented.
- A written e-mail record of requests avoids any miscommunication or scheduling errors.
- Plans are underway to implement the web user interface in the near future so all employees can access the schedule.