This workbook will help you create an information technology environment that we call Healthy and Secure Computing (HSC). It is not a technology guide or user's manual. Rather, it is a guide to making decisions that will minimize the costs and increase the reliability and security of your information technology.
Use this workbook with the full Healthy and Secure Computing support documents, located at http://www.compumentor.org/HSC, and as a companion to workshops and seminars explaining HSC.
Our Healthy and Secure Computing methodology takes a 'one-size-fits-most' approach to basic information technology. Because most nonprofits use information technology in similar ways, we developed guidelines to minimize support and maximize reliability of the most common technology configurations and situations. It does not cover the specialized applications and databases you might use, as this is typically where their information technology use differs.
Of course every rule has its exceptions, so we begin the HSC with a series of planning exercises to help you determine how well HSC fits your organization's actual technology needs and uses.
Next comes a basic inventory of your technology systems, a baseline from which to make technical decisions. These core HSC processes of information-gathering and decision-making are the components you can most effectively do yourself.
Guidelines for basic information technologies commonly used by nonprofits are intended to achieve a robust, consistent, easy-to-use, and easy-to-maintain computing environment.
Following the HSC process, and implementing the technology guidelines can be easy, or difficult, depending on the state of your organization's IT resources. If you have mature IT systems or available support resources, you will find that adopting the HSC methodology is relatively simple. If you have a less well-developed infrastructure or a dearth of support resources, you will find it more difficult to adopt the HSC guidelines. In any case, deciding to use the HSC guidelines requires you to put significant resources toward your IT infrastructure, either in staff time, financial outlays, or both.
We hope you will find this workbook and the HSC program useful. We invite your feedback, at this address: