By Steve Linberg, Silicon Goblin Technologies
This document can serve as a template for your organization's technology plan. You should of course feel free to modify it in any way you see fit, add sections you think might be relevant and remove any that aren't.
This document is hereby released under the Open Content License, version 1.0 or higher. For more information, see <http://opencontent.org/opl.shtml>. For questions or comments, please contact Steve Linberg at <steve@silicongoblin.com>.
The permanent location of this version of this document in Rich Text format is:
<http://silicongoblin.com/presentations/2005_ez_institute/tech_plan_template.rtf>
The OpenOffice .sxw version is also available:
<http://silicongoblin.com/presentations/2005_ez_institute/tech_plan_template.sxw>
|
Date |
Version |
Author |
Details |
|---|---|---|---|
|
April 2005 |
1.0 |
Steve Linberg |
Initial draft |
What is your organization's mission for integrating technology? What are the goals you hope to achieve with your use of technology?
What is the timeline for this technology plan? How long do you expect the technology described in this plan to serve your needs? When and under what circumstances will you revisit this document and re-assess your organization's technology use and needs?
Describe the ways in which your organization presently uses technology, if any. Include everything, and describe any way in which any of the categories do not meet your present needs.
How many computers do you have?
Is this sufficient? If not, what is your additional need?
Printers?
Is this sufficient? If not, what is your additional need?
Additional devices (scanners, CD burners, projectors, etc)?
Is this sufficient? If not, what is your additional need?
Do you have a local network?
Does it meet your needs? If not, why not?
Are you connected to the internet? How?
Does this meet your needs? If not, why not?
Do you presently have a website and/or internet presence for your organization? If so, how does it help you?
If not, do you want one? Why? How will it serve your mission?
Broadly, how does technology help your organization's primary mission right now?
In summary, what technology do you need in addition to what you presently have in order to more effectively pursue your organization's mission?
In this section, plan in detail the technology equipment you foresee needing to obtain.
The minimum / “heavy” recommendations are suggestions only, as of 2005. As time passes, these recommendations will undoubtedly need to be increased according to a variety of factors, so adjust accordingly. The minimum specifications are typically lower than the “baseline” of what you could purchase new, and are more often found in donated or used equipment, but would be needed to run most relatively recent software and so forth.
Quantity:
Type (Intel PCs / Macintosh / Other):
Minimum RAM (128mb minimum, 512mb & up for heavy processing)
HD storage space (10gb minimum, 60gb & up for heavy processing)
Processor speed (400MHz minimum, 1GHz & up for heavy processing)
Printers:
Storage (external hard drives, optical drives, etc):
Cameras:
Scanners:
Other:
List the software you anticipate needing for your organization. Remember that commercial software must generally be licensed for each computer it is used on, and the cost of this can be a significant factor in your plan.
(Please note that the commercial products listed as examples below are simply examples, and not meant to endorse or exclude any individual brands or titles.)
For each category, list how many computers you will need this capability for:
Office software:
Word processing
(Microsoft Word is the major commercial word processor; OpenOffice is one free alternative)
Spreadsheets
(Microsoft Excel is the major commercial spreadsheet; OpenOffice is one free alternative)
Presentation
(Microsoft Powerpoint and Apple Keynote (macintosh) are the major commercial presentation packages; OpenOffice is one free alternative)
Database
(Microsoft Access and Filemaker are two of the major commercial databases; MySQL is a popular free alternative, although it presently lacks some of the user-interface features of the commercial solutions)
Graphics
(Adobe Photoshop (professional) and Adobe Photoshop Elements (comsumer) are two of the major graphics processing suites; Gimp is a powerful free alternative)
Fiscal
(Intuit Quicken and MYOB AccountEdge are two popular commercial accounting packages; workable free alternatives are few in this category as of 2005)
Security
(Antivirus software is a common need, especially for Windows-based PCs connected to the internet; Norton and Symantec make popular commercial packages; ClamWin and ClamAV is a free alternative)
(Backup software is sometimes a good idea if manual backups will be too complex; Retrospect is one popular commercial system for backup)
Other software:
If you have needs for specific or custom types of software (for example, outpatient billing and tracking, reference or diagnostic software, multimedia processing), describe the functionality you need below:
Making sure your organization's data is safe and secure involves a backup plan and disaster recovery scenario. While this is more an issue of practice than funding, it must be planned and documented. Answer the following questions:
How frequently should you back up your organization's data?
Will your backups be manual (files copied to removable media
or CDs), or use commercial software (like Retrospect or other
automated systems)? Who will be responsible for initiating
backups?
Who will be responsible for collecting and storing these
backups?
How frequently will copies of backup data be physically moved offsite to a secure location? What will be done to keep these backups protected from loss / damage / theft?
What do you anticipate needing in terms of support for your organization's technology? Will you develop in-house expertise for common troubleshooting of problems, or will you need outside help?
If you will need outside help, will you have a budget (monthly, annual) for technical support? Will you need to rely on volunteers?
Before you can seek funding, you need an idea of what your hardware and software will cost, and this can vary widely (especially hardware) depending on where and how it is purchased.
If you have special access to vendors, list them below; if you do not, use this space to make notes and collect recommendations, so that you can begin to approximate the cost of the hardware and software you will need; knowing what your equipment will cost is an essential prerequisite of seeking funding.
List and keep track of the milestones for each phase of your technology plan's implementation. Sample milestones are included below; amend and revise them as appropriate for your circumstances.
|
Task |
Person |
Start Date |
End Date |
End Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
First draft of plan (excluding cost information) |
|
|
|
|
|
Investigate costs, get approximate total for grant requests |
|
|
|
|
|
Finalize plan (with review and help as needed) |
|
|
|
|
|
Write and submit grant(s) |
|
|
|
|
|
Acquire and install hardware |
|
|
|
|
|
Acquire and install software |
|
|
|
|
|
Train staff as needed to use hardware and software |
|
|
|
|
|
Review deployment against needs assessment, make adjustments as needed (typically ongoing, i.e. monthly) |
|
|
|
|
|
Create and publish usage policies for general computer use and privacy / security |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|