Skilled volunteers streamline Microsoft processes, helping Bee Mighty deliver critical support needed to even more families of babies born needing NICU care
Bee Mighty provides support and resources to families before, during and after their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) journey. Their services include NICU Care Packages, NICU Support Services, Grants for Mental Health Counseling and Grants for Developmental Therapy and Equipment. Bee Mighty leadership reached out to Apparo for support to improve their process for managing applications for one of their grant programs. As Katie O’Connor, Executive Director of Bee Mighty explained, “Our process to handle grant applications, from families in need of financial support to address post-NICU care for their babies, was a frustration point for us due to lack of automation. The process required a lot of copying/pasting from forms, downloading/uploading of attachments and tracking down missing information. We work in the Microsoft platform, but spent a lot of hours researching third party applications to help us with this. I was at my wits’ end. I spent nights hovered over my laptop going down Google rabbit holes on how to make this work. I was in over my head and frustrated. That’s when we got the advice to reach out to Apparo.”
Through Apparo’s Tech Therapy program, Katie was matched to skilled volunteers Cory Aurandt and Brit Kwait. “At my first meeting with Apparo,” shared Katie, “I had this huge sigh of relief. This is possible. We have a solution! I was very encouraged.” Her volunteers assessed Bee Mighty’s current processes and helped identify and execute an automated solution within their existing Microsoft platform that Katie estimates will be twice as fast as the current process.
With the new process in place, Katie anticipates:
- Increased bandwidth to process additional applications, as funds allow
- Increased job satisfaction for her team
- Avoiding additional staff and software expenses
Importantly, with these improvements in place, Bee Mighty will have bandwidth to deliver more critical grants. As Katie explains, “These grants are very important because these babies often depend on multiple therapies that exhaust families’ insurance. I’m very pleased with our volunteers and the end result of working with Apparo.”
