What was your biggest technology mistake?

Hello all,

We all make mistakes -- especially when it comes to technology -- and that's nothing to be ashamed of.

Sometime in the near future, TechSoup hopes to publish an article that will help our readers avoid common (or major) technology mistakes that other organizations have made. One of the best ways we can collect these kinds of stories is by asking all of you out there to relay your tech mistakes, then tell us how you rectified it or what you learned.

For instance, maybe you forgot to install antivirus software and then got hit by a nasty worm. Or maybe you kicked down $1,000 for a new desktop, only to find out you could have picked up a refurbished computer with enough power for a fraction of that.

So feel free to share your stories with us; your input might just save someone else a lot of trouble.

Leases for technology

In the two orgs that I work with, they both bought technology with a lease. Now in my understanding of the NPO world there isn't a tax advantage of a lease so you end up paying a monthly fee to won nothing.

In one instance we had great difficulty closing the lease and getting the server packed and ready to return as we did not want to pay the buy out that the lease holder demanded. The whole thing caused us much grief in the phone tag and emails, and just being pushed to replace a server on the time table dictated by the lease expiration.

The other lease problem was on a photo copier that the person who set up the lease was no longer with the org and when the lease term expiered no one knew to get the buy out and we kept paying for an extra 18 months as the lease converted to a month to month with out the buy out request.

Dave

So far, our biggest technology mistake was picking the wrong hardware for the job.

We purchased a Xerox 8400 printer with solid ink technology - a great machine - in theory. But we did not fully consider all the needs of the organization when choosing this printer.

Don't get me wrong, it is a great printer, but you cannot use it for anything that needs to be folded, such as letters or flyers nor can it be used for photo printing. Solid ink scratches and cracks. You also cannot laminate (solid ink melts). It is great for inhouse flyers and posters.

I can think of three BIG mistakes. Here they are in the order I discovered them:


Mistake #1: No standard software installation

At the time I started the Agency had roughly 50 computers spread across five sites. A few of the computers were identical only because they had been donated to the Agency that way. But the majority had what seemed to be random software ranging from Windows 95 to Windows 2000, MS Office 97 to Office 2000, Symantec Antivirus to McAfee antivirus. Each computer I set down to inventory was different. Fast forward four years. I now have all the computers with a standard installation of known software. Trouble calls have been reduced to mostly hardware failures. There is a rare call about a software glitch.


Mistake #2: Outdated antivirus definitions

Most of the computers at our Agency had Symantec corporate edition installed. It's a wonderful product and is very lightwieght in terms of system resources it uses. But if the virus definitions are 2 years out of date the software is useless. Two months after I started I discovered the BugBear virus was floating around the Agency. It only got in because none of the computers were getting virus definition updates from the server. I straightened out the auto-update problem and then took one week to fix the elusive bugbear. Four years later we haven't had another virus outbreak!


Mistake #3: Tape backup blunders

Our Windows 2000 server does a nightly tape backup using a script and the Windows Backup software. It's a totally free solution and works wonderfully. But... about one year ago an employee accidentally wiped out a whole set of records from the financial database. I thought: "No problem, the database in on the tape from last night". So brought it out and voila! The databases weren't there!! After 15 minutes of head scratching it occurred to me that the SQL Server databases cannot be backed up if the server has the database files open and locked. So as a work-around I now bring down the SQL server every night, perform the full tape backup, and then restart the SQL server. Yes, there are other solutions but I like this one since it's command line driven and integrated into the nightly tape backup script.

Jason Morrill
IT Manager
Child & Family Agency

As the founder of the agency with no prior nonprofit experience I was easy prey for the aggressive sales force at Blackbaud. We cannot afford the upgrade or the technical asistance and are considering replacing our data base management with Exceed by Telosa. I'd love some feedback if anyone is using the software.

I've worked with Exceed! and believe it is an excellent software for small to medium nonprofits. I suggest you go with Exeed Premier if you're coming off of Raiser's Edge, as it has some basic functions you'll expect that Exceed Basic does not have, such as ability to create a library of saved queries, which Exceed Basic does not allow.

Starting to work with IBM in 1978 in an office too far from the beach - meant giving up my dreams of a surfing career (instead I now spend all day sitting in front of a computer screen)

Don

Choosing a web host because they were local, not because they were any good. Local tech support isn't that great if they can never answer your questions!

Our next host is on the other side of Canada, but they're a solid company with major clients.

Ours is a very small organization that has really been able to ramp up our technology in the last 12-15 months thanks to some truly forward looking leadership.

Prior to that time, much of the desktop hardware was woefully under-configured (128 Mb of RAM and 10 Gb hard drives) with little or no potential for an upgrade path. The three main PCs now are early 21st century capable - but investments in current software are still in the future - but we are now budgeting for software upgrades and maintenace as well.

We are using Blackbaud as well. It has a continuous learing curve and with staff turnover, there have been a few hiccups. Eventually, we will having doing what we need it to do, but the initial data migration from a myriad of Access databases did not have the desired results.

Last, speaking to leased office equipment - postage meters and photocopiers - this is a must. Technology changes so quickly and three years is about the max you can expect these pieces of equipment to hang in there. Simple record keeping - or just placing a sticker on the equipment with the lease expiration date and contract information can avoid problems.

Please note to all of you with postage meters that do not produce two-dimensional barcoding - your machines become no longer usuable as of December 31, 2007 (http://pe.usps.gov/cpim/ftp/manuals/qsg300/q604c.pdf)USPS Postage Meter Info.

When it comes to copying solutions, we typically have one or two months of peak usage every year. Many current copies include network printing and document storage functionalities that reduce looking for "masters" and generational losses that result from making copies of copies and copies from laser or inkjet printer output.


Guy VanderLek
DFRC, Inc.
www.dfrcfoundation.orgDFRC Website

Thanks for the thoughtful replies everyone. I'm waiting on some responses to this question from sources from other avenues. Once that comes through, I'll begin weeding through these and compiling the story.

If we decide to use your story, I will probably need be in contact with you to get more details and flesh out responses. In particular, it will help our readers a lot if you explain how you rectified your mistake.

Along the lines of web hosting, we had a problem with a web designer. I did not know HTML and was intimidated by the whole process. We explored many options and found someone local who would work next to nothing. Big hint...YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!! Anyway, the initial site design turned out great. The updating of the calander and news articles was a work in progress but the guy liked to change things up. When it came time to do a site overhaul the problems really started. The guy was going though serious financial and emotional troubles at the time. Things kept going from bad to worse. All I wanted was a little redesign and a way to manage my content.

Needless to say parts of our site are outdated and broken and we haven't been able to find the money or talent to change. I am pretty sharp when it comes to technical stuff but I am no layout designer.

Lesson...get with someone that can give you what you need with off the shelf programs. Stay away from custom programming when you can. I wish like hell we'd have demanded him do it in FrontPage.

I have gotten rid of my postage meter leases. They cost more than postage stamps and if I am doing bulk mail, I print the bulk mail indicia directly onto the envelope.I also found a store that gives me a percentage discount on the regular postage stamps.

I also discovered a lease company that will give non-profits the equipment free if you maintain the lease with them.

My biggest mistake is letting my life partner (husband--I am old fashioned--sometimes) play with the computers and fix(?) them.

>> My biggest mistake is letting my life partner
>> (husband--I am old fashioned--sometimes) play
>> with the computers and fix(?) them.


Oh no! What did he do?

Biggest IT mistake:

#1 Uninstalling IIS

We run Windows Small Business Server 2003 (SBS), and I was having some small issues with my local intranet pages and SBS monitoring. Rightfully determining the problem was in the configuration of IIS, I decided to just uninstall and reinstall it. Big mistake. Apparently, almost everything in SBS is tied to IIS, and when I reinstalled, problems galore. It took two days to get Exchange and the intranet up and running again, and I'm still fighting problems with SBS monitoring & reporting. Lesson learned: always double-think yourself, and research before you change anything on your server.

Mistake 2: A battery backup without auto-shut down.

We're in Louisiana, so there are thunderstorms and power outages a few times a year. About 6 months after I started working here, we had a storm and the power was out for about 2 hours over the weekend. Come back to the office on Monday, boot up the server, and Exchange is completely fried - won't work at all. The battery backup we had did not have the auto-shutdown feature, and the server just crashed when the battery ran out. So, two days and a Microsoft Customer Support call later, things were up and running again. There were lots of lingering twitches and glitches, so I ended up having to reformat and reinstall... and that long weekend is another story.

Hello all,

Here is the article that resulted from this thread about technology mistakes:

http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/techplan/page5729.cfm

Thanks to all who contributed, and if you're new to the thread, please feel free to tell us your own story.