As 2016 Technology for Innovation Award winners, leadership of Lupus Foundation of America, North Carolina Chapter (LFANC) knew Apparo well and knew we would be there to support them in their ongoing business process and technology needs. They recently reached out to Apparo to address their very slow internet speed and aging telephone system.
“We are such a small organization. We knew we needed to make a change, but we didn’t have the staff and could not invest in an IT person. We were debilitated,” explains Joanne Reda, Office Coordinator of LFANC.
“We had to send staff home to work some days because our internet was so slow. Our previous provider blamed it on the number of people using our network, which was 4! Our staff was frustrated and our clients were being impacted by our slow service. Our fundraising was also hindered as pulling the data we needed for grants took hours instead of minutes. To top it all off, we also knew that we were paying too much for this service.
At no cost to us, Apparo assessed our internet and telephone systems. We have implemented their recommended changes and they have increased our efficiency exponentially and have also resulted in a $2400 annual savings,” Reda continues. “The service we received from Apparo was phenomenal. They handled everything in our best interest. Apparo analyzes your needs and connects the dots. They understand the nonprofit world. When you run a small nonprofit, so many other areas would fall off if you focused on technology; we are here to serve people, and taking on this work without Apparo would have cost us in our ability to serve. We would have served fewer people.”
“When we went live with the new system, it was such a pleasure,” says Jenny Prince, LFANC President and CEO. “Our staff was thrilled. It’s a night and day difference. We can now provide the level of service we want for our clients and we can also pursue more grants because of the speed of pulling data together. We are better at fulfilling our mission because of our work with Apparo. The lives of Lupus Thrivers are improved every day.”
