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Amy Drapcho, Northwoods’ fiscal advocate, helps human services agencies of all sizes navigate the complexities of budgeting, planning, and all things finance. Amy recently attended the Human Services Finance Officers (HSFO) Conference in Nashville and brought back a ton of insight on hot topics and opportunities impacting agencies today. Here’s a recap of her favorite sessions and resources.

As your human services agency navigates the complex technology buying process, you may find yourself wondering what external funding streams are available, outside of your agency’s budget, and how to access them to support or enhance your upcoming project. Local, state, and national grant opportunities are a resource you can strategically leverage to support innovation, modernization, and workforce initiatives.

How much does human services technology cost? It’s a simple question with a complex answer.

You want to read up on the important topics and trends impacting human services, but that’s much easier said than done when you’ve already got so much else on your plate.

Sound familiar? If so, we’ve got you covered.

Is your human services agency planning to purchase new technology in 2021? In today’s world, agency leaders struggle to justify the need for new technology amid budget crises while IT leaders have been forced to cut many planned expenses in order to focus on the few that directly support COVID-19-related initiatives and precautions.

A comprehensive and compelling business case that presents three critical components—hard return on investment (ROI), non-quantifiable benefits, and the social/community impact of your purchase—may be a determining factor in whether your request gets the green light.

Convincing administrators, board members, legislators, and general stakeholders that your human services agency needs to purchase new technology is hard, no matter how essential. You’re up against several roadblocks—finite budgets, shrinking revenues, and competing priorities, to name a few.

How can you make a compelling case to get support and overcome these roadblocks?

Buying technology for human services can be hard, especially for agencies that have never done so before. (Of course, working through this process amid a global pandemic and economic instability adds a new layer of complication!)

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a wake-up call for human services in many ways.

Initially, it forced agency leaders to rethink how and where mission-critical work could be done, as well as which tools and technology were truly essential to support this new way of operating. Now, the focus has shifted toward determining the best way to allocate shrinking budgets and limited resources to sustain these changes and navigate the new landscape for the long term.

Editor's note: this post was originally published on August 15, 2017. We recently refreshed the list to give you twice the amount of helpful tips! 

Human services agencies face several hurdles when it comes to investing in technology.

Yet, even when resources are limited, it’s not impossible to come up with the money to purchase and maintain innovative technology solutions. (Plus, the short-term cost won’t seem so bad once you realize the long-term value of your investment!)

All it takes is a little upfront planning and creative thinking.

Government’s IT procurement process is under fire.

For starters, it’s rigorous, antiquated, and time-consuming—a sentiment that rings true whether you’re the program administrator requesting technology, the state official managing access to the technology, or the provider, like us, working diligently to get your technology in agencies’ hands to help them help others.