Hinds’ Feet Farm leadership credit Apparo with the fact that their organization is finally in “a much more stable place.”
Hinds’ Feet Farm (HFF) in Huntersville, NC, is dedicated to maximizing the post injury potential of persons living with brain injury using integrated, unique and holistic programs, including therapeutic horseback riding.
Cat Fulbright, HR Administrator for HFF, explains what first drew her to Apparo. “I first came to Apparo to look into a CRM. We had been doing fundraising for 26 years and had our constituents all over the place. They were in Quickbooks, in an Access database, in Excel spreadsheets, and we were trying to combine them so that we could do some reporting.”
Marty Foil, HFF Executive Director, continues, “We realized we couldn’t do that until we fixed a lot of our other technology. That will be Phase 3 with Apparo. Now we’re in Phase 1.”
Stephanie McKee, Apparo’s Director of Technology Engagements, explains how the work has progressed. “We started with putting infrastructure into place so that they will eventually be able to move to the cloud for file storage. We’ve gotten better phone and internet into place. We’ve also planned the AV and network infrastructure for their new building.”
Marty explains the significance of the improved phone and internet service. “Before we were able to follow Stephanie’s advice and move to Spectrum, we were losing phone and internet service every other week due to all of the construction nearby. We would spend 4 hours a day on the phone dealing with the problems when the service went down. We couldn’t do payroll or run any background checks without our internet and my work is 90% over the telephone.”
Cat shares their satisfaction with the new service. “We are very pleased with our internet service now. It felt like we were holding our breath a lot with AT&T and then Verizon. If Spectrum has a problem, it’s fixed very quickly. It’s been a good decision to go in that direction, per Stephanie’s direction.”
Marty explains how well the new building is now working for them and the significance of Apparo’s support in planning and implementing the network infrastructure. “The way this building was designed made running cable a nightmare. Now that we’ve gotten that done with Apparo’s support, we are so much more efficient. We use the new recommended AV system all of the time. From trainings to meetings, it’s been great.”
Cat reflects on the support HFF has received from Apparo. “We are in a much more stable place thanks to Apparo. They were a huge help in getting over hurdles. If we had done it ourselves it would not have been nearly as efficient and smooth. We don’t have an internal IT department. We have Apparo, who has been our guide to help us along our technology path. Apparo’s knowledge and experience has been a huge help. Stephanie and Ben have been here each step of the way, to make sure we are comfortable with each installation that has taken place, and they’ve always been there to answer questions. We have a partner now that can help guide us.”
