Alive HR

For three days this week, I had the pleasure of attending the Side-by-Side Technology conference in Baltimore featuring Therap, an online documentation system for organizations serving people with developmental disabilities;  College of Direct Support, an online training system geared toward professionals in our field; RestAssured, a web-based “telecare” system; and Talintel, an online psychometric tool to pre-screen potential staff.

Obviously, what we do is pretty specialized and I wouldn’t presume to think most readers will be interested in all the details. But our specialized work–and the smaller resources available to small nonprofits and human services providers–is kinda the point of this whole post. Most of our service providers struggle with declining budgets; some are struggling to keep their doors open. It is a challenge for many of us to stay abreast of technology. On the other side of the equation, how can we interest vendors and tech companies in developing software and applications designed for our work?  How do they make it work? As Therap CEO Richard Robbins reminded us, there are a lot of exciting and free (e.g. Google) or low-cost (Droid, i Phone) applications out there that could transform the way we do business–but they aren’t HIPAA-compliant, which means they don’t work for our field.

It’s an interesting conundrum: we who arguably have the least resources also have significant roadblocks around technology.

At any rate, I am grateful that the entities at the conference have invested blood, sweat and tears; have aligned themselves with and collaborated with various other organizations or institutions; and have been creative, determined, and down-right dogged in their determination to make something happen despite the odds stacked against them.

My co-workers and I came away incredibly energized and excited about the possibilities available to us. Technology makes such a difference and we look forward to harnessing its power in new and thrilling ways, thanks to our future partners.

photo by aranarth