ConnectIT Day Bengaluru

Harnessing Information Technology for Not for Profits

ConnectIT Day Bengaluru NASSCOM Foundation, the social development arm of NASSCOM, India’s pioneer IT-BPO industry body, organized ConnectIT Day in the state capital on 24th of March. ConnectIT is a series of workshops for Government officers and NGO managers aimed at building capacities in using technology for development. This program is conducted in partnership with Microsoft.

Speaking on the ConnectIT initiative Ms. Rumi Mallick, AVP, NASSCOM Foundation said, “NASSCOM Foundation through the ConnectIT initiative strives to enhance the potential of NGOs as well as government officials. The ConnectIT Day is a platform for development practitioners to share their experience and deliberate on technology use in development.”

The agenda for the ConnectIT Day included panel discussion on:

Unleashing Technology to Advance Social & Economic Development: The session hds eminent personalities from the field namely Sucharita Eashwar, Senior Director, NASSCOM (Session Chair), Kshitija Krishnaswamy, Vice President-Corporate Citizenship, Accenture, Mahantesh, G.K, Founder Managing Trustee, Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled, Baljeet Aasthana, Joint Director, Information Technology, Helpage
Harnessing Information Technology for increasing productivity: Non Profits are responsible for serving a social bottom line, which means the ‘Mission’ is what makes the non-profit sector matter. The goal of IT alignment is to use technology to support and enhance the work that NGOs do to meet their mission. In other words, IT alignment should help to select and implement technology to achieve the mission and to avoid the trap of implementing the latest technology, its trendy! The kind of efficiencies that well-implemented technology affords can allow NGOs to serve better. Discussing this aspect were Raja Shanmugam, CEO, Mindtree Foundation (Session Chair), Bhaskar G, Site Operations lead, Microsoft,Introduction to Cloud and key productivity features of Win7 and Windows Live services, Suresh Ramani, CEO, Techgyan, Tools for collaboration to increase productivity, Abhijeet Mehta, Partnership Manager, Quest Alliance, Why and how to align technology with your organisation mission
Leveling Web. 2.0 for social cause: The session aims to sensitise the participants on how web.2.0 tools are affordable and are available to help nonprofits of all sizes and budgets to leverage to further the organizations cause, integrate their campaigns and garner support. Participants include Sachin Malhan, CEO, Inclusive Planet (Session Facilitator), Aniisu K Verghese, India Internal Communication Lead, Sapient, Anu Unnikrishnan, Marketing Consultant, Jaago Re, Marketing division, Tata Global Beverages

ConnectIT Day Bengaluru ConnectIT workshops have been conducted in Hubli, Dharwad and Bangalore and have enabled participant NGOs and government officers to draw on best practices and uses of technology for their own specific environment and areas of effort, and enabled them to deliver top-of-the-line service in the areas in which they operate. The four day training programme included hands-on training and problem solving on advanced MS Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint), communications (outlook), online tools (Internet applications useful for government work), new technologies (mobile phones for development) besides providing an exposure to the flagship ConnectIT Day Bengaluru eGovernance project.

Considered to be an important catalyst in bringing change, IT use can support NGOs by increasing theirproductivity; cut down operational costs; improve communication and collaboration; organize critical information and facilitate skills development training of others.

Under the ConnectIT program, NASSCOM Foundation has previously conducted successful workshops for non-profits and government officials in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Orissa and Gujarat.