Organizational Software

In addition to the kind of software that individuals use, most organizations need software that everyone can use to collaborate and share their information. There are several approaches to sharing software and information: the general approach that we use is to host the software on a website. This means that any person working from any location who has the proper credentials, can access the software. This robust solution facilitates easy tele-working, multiple regional offices, as well as contributions from staff and volunteers who are home-based.

There are many types of software applications which can be hosted in this way, and which can facilitate many different types of information being shared and stored. For example:

• Contact Information: most organizations need to record information about the people and organizations that they work with, and a category of software tools known as Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) systems exists to address these needs. Find out more about the CRM systems we use and deploy.
• Project Management Information: most organizations need to organize themselves around projects and tasks and deliverables, especially when grant-funding needs to be reported on and accounted for. There are a number of systems which operate in this space. Find out more about the one we currently use, and others that we have considered.
• Community/Outreach Information: many organizations want to make information available to their communities. By definition, sometimes this 'community' is the general public, in other cases, the audience is much smaller. A class of systems exist, known as Content Management Systems (CMS) which cater to these needs. Find out about some of the CMS systems that we have used and deployed.
• Ad-Hoc Record Keeping: sometimes a class of systems to fit your organizations record keeping doesn't yet exist. In the past you might have had somebody create a spreadsheet or an Access database to record such information. We have something better: follow this link to find out more.

Of course to run any of these applications, you need a site on the internet, and someone to host that site. Freeform Solutions is one of many organizations who offer hosting services. However, sometimes it is fun to try before you buy. It is easy to set your own computer up as a test server by using one of the personal servers described in this link. By installing the relevant software, you can make your own computer act as if it is a site on the internet so that you can test out how any of these applications work. If you like what you see and you decide to proceed, you can simply transfer all of your experiments to a publicly hosted server.