Centric Consulting volunteers helped SouthLight Healthcare amplify their mission of providing a strong foundation for those in long-term addiction recovery by assessing their technology infrastructure and providing a comprehensive technology plan for the nonprofit.
Sponsored by Main Street Insurance Group
SouthLight Healthcare is a trusted provider of quality service for substance use and mental health treatment needs in the Triangle. The organization provides comprehensive, coordinated behavioral healthcare across three campuses in Raleigh, Garner, and Durham. Their mission is to provide innovative care for individuals and communities living with the harmful impact of stigma and untreated addiction and mental illness. Every year, their work helps transform the lives of more than 7,000 people in recovery.
SouthLight Healthcare came to Apparo seeking a comprehensive technology plan.
Nicholas (Nick) Senuta, Southlight’s Chief Organizational Excellence Officer, shared “I needed to understand what we had in place and what some of our weaknesses were so that I could better help our team address the needs we had going forward. I needed to understand what to pay attention to and to hear from our internal stakeholders, as far as what they were experiencing. This was an incredibly helpful process to understand more about what SouthLight needed. I think the project was very educational and was time well spent.” Through this technology plan, Nick was most interested in processing and trying to understand more about what Southlight needed to function most efficiently.
Apparo matched SouthLight a team of skilled volunteers from Centric Consulting who provided a technology assessment of the organization’s infrastructure, operations, security, and technology policies to create a comprehensive technology plan and roadmap, identifying technology challenges, gaps, and pain points. The goal of this Technology Plan Community Impact Project was to improve long-term efficiencies for the nonprofit so they can continue transforming lives in the Triangle area and expand their reach to help even more people.
SouthLight Health Care Nonprofit Team: Nicholas Senuta, Dr. Letitia Hazel, Adam Hartzell, Rachel Ferguson, Erika Carey
Centric Consulting Volunteer Team: Chuck Harshey, Milurka Sanchez, Jason Daniels, Bert Rodriguez
The nonprofit anticipated the following impact from putting the technology plan:
- Better understand their priorities and pay attention to key infrastructure needs.
- Clarity to IT support and maintenance needs
- Build out IT department, support logistics and personnel, improve employee satisfaction
- Become less reliant on outside agencies
After the project was wrapped up, Nick reflected on how implementing the technology plan has already begun to impact SouthLight’s operations positively and increased operating efficiencies for the nonprofit.
Nick identified several key infrastructure efficiencies. For instance, he realized their served had not been migrated to Azure, as they had previously been told. This allowed them to see they had been paying additional dollars to host servers that didn’t need to host. Infrastructure was a huge part of the plan, including looking at IT support and maintenance. The nonprofit found out they had been using an outdated version of software that was no longer supported.
The technology plan also laid out logistics for building out a department, something that Nick has already begun doing, by adding three new employees. He knew to move the organization forward they needed new staff members. Having the new technology plan in place allowed them to achieve this much more quickly. Due to increased efficiency, the staff is now able to be much more responsible for the needs of the organization. They can be less reliant on outside agencies for help and take care or more tasks in-house.
In addition to increased efficiency, the plan has also helped the nonprofit reduce risks.
A large part of this was understanding that they have aging technology and creating a prioritized plan for investing in new technologies. They also elevated the need for Cybersecurity and penetration testing, making that their first priority. The nonprofit is looking at their contracted services, and their cybersecurity policies to make sure they have them in place and are applying them in a consistent and thoughtful way.
The technology plan also allowed the nonprofit to take a critical look at the MSP they are currently using—revealing some issues that will have to be resolved in the long term. Because of this they may have some upfront costs to replace technology over the next few years, but once this is complete, they will be much more efficient, which will save them money and time spent.
Overall increases in efficiency will allow for providers to serve more clients, and ultimately this will increase more revenue. The nonprofit also reported that more streamlined data processes will aid in grant application and management, potentially increasing grant funding.
The impact of this project will help SouthLight as they expand into new geographic locations by increasing accessibility to clients in need through network reliability.
Because of this technology plan, SouthLight has been able to build new services and programs for their patients. In addition to amplifying their mission, this plan has also increased employee satisfaction by enhancing departmental transparency and insight. The nonprofit has focus on staff needs, improved comfort and stability, and reduced stress related to technology, training, and processes.
The Centric Consulting volunteers enjoyed working with Nick and the SouthLight team on this technology plan. Chuck Harshey said, “They were hungry for knowledge, and it was great. The team was so easy and fun to work with. They were driven to do the work, and it was such an enjoyable experience.”
Jason Daniels of Centric Consulting shared, “Adam and Nick approached the project with a clear vision, and Nick was given the autonomy to carry it out. Adam provided clear boundaries and was good at communicating well with the team. Nick empowered his team and made sure they had what they needed to do the work.”
“I appreciate how leadership recognized how much weight the team carried on their shoulders. The goal of Centric’s involvement was to work collaboratively to find a solution to better distribute responsibilities”
“This was my first project with Apparo. I love the fact that we had the opportunity to help a company like SouthLight. I also appreciate how effectively Brenna facilitated the project. Overall, the project went well, and I am looking forward to working on the next one.”
