Challenges and Problems Faced by Ngos in Terms of It and is

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Despite the governmental support, the sustainability of the NGOs is still influenced by many other problems and challenges which affects their effectiveness in society as well as their efficiency at achieving their goals. Fund development and fund-raising is a NGO’s greatest challenge, particularly during an economic downturn and when unemployment rates are high. The donors will extend their financial support only after a satisfactory evaluation of a NGO through its past activities and success stories and cost of their services. Particularly for a small organization, it is not easy to locate the donors or funding agencies interested in its information, especially if the organization is going remote. Thus, using online technology will enable new forms of information collection, processing and broadcasting that were never before possible. It is a consistently reliable and accurate source of information which will aid the fund-raising efforts. Another challenge faced by the NGOs is in cost management. The strategy of an NGO is to always maximize the percentage of its budget that is spent on its ultimate objective, and to cut down on overheads such as administration, internal training and petty cash and more. The Internet is low-cost, fast, easy to update, worldwide, relatively democratic and has two-way interaction which is an excellent tool to aid this problem. For example, using e-mail to gather, process and disseminate information is a great way to cut down on mail cost as compared to fax, courier and even regular mail. Via e-mail, mailing to a single person is as easy as mailing to thousands.

A NGO is generally run by the volunteers. The disadvantage of this is obviously the high turnover. Volunteers stay only as long as they have interest and time. New worker must constantly be trained in a variety of complex tasks. However, small budgeted NGOs have fewer training resources but the range and complexity of tasks each worker performs is often greater. Organizations usually reluctant to send volunteers to far-away training workshops afraid they might not turn up the following day. This definitely wastes time and money, and effects the efficiency of the organization. To help minimize the loss, long-distance training via Internet may be the only alternative to no training at all. The FAQ helps the novice get started, after which he may join the forum where experts participate. Moreover, these NGOs also face problems in recruiting technically qualified people as the IT knowledge is highly in demand now in the Kingdom of Bahrain. According to Evone Baskaran, the Head of Action Committee in MWPS, this happens because most of the IT skilled people are not aware of the connections between information system and its technology, to the organization’s mission and objectives. They assume that NGOs in the Kingdom of Bahrain still use traditional method to manage the basic administrative tasks. And if there is any IT skilled volunteer willing to work, they are not working full-time. Including current worker in the implementation process seems difficult because they couldn’t commit to participating full time in the designing and implementing process as they have many other important tasks to complete and projects going on.

Thus, there is a constant reliance on the skilled worker to help sort things out technically. This certainly affects the efficiency of the organization which leads to the issue of considering information system and its technology as not effective for NGO service and administrative works. When this happen its affects the organization as whole. Many NGOs fear this and therefore are willing to pay a high salary for those skilled people whom are willing to work. Otherwise, the organizations would have to allocate a huge sum of money just to use the expertise of an IT engineer or software engineer whenever needed even for a small project. However, once the software is designed, it can last for a long term. Therefore, both money and need for expert can be controlled during this period. All these issues results in the assumption of adopting information technology and information systems application is very expensive. However, no matter how much the cost can be, IT is a one-time investment. Sometimes the warranty covers a long duration and servicing comes free of charge. Fortunately, despite all the problems and challenges some NGOs reached some advanced levels of IT adoption whereas only a small number of NGOs in the Kingdom of Bahrain have reached a mature level of adoption. This proves that information systems are very beneficial for a NGO to achieve its goal.

The current information-rich media environment is demand driven rather than supply driven. At this level, all NGOs have adopted IT to add new innovative activities that can help NGOs achieve its missions and enhance their competitive strategies. Both MWPS and WCCI are different in terms of their missions, philosophies, skills and experience. But increasing financial security is an important part of planning for these two organizations to manage their daily operations. It is up to each NGO to consider all the funding options available and to choose the most appropriate mix, just as they must determine which core activities and implementation strategies are most appropriate to their mission and goals. Both MWPS and WCCI believe that IT is very important for improving internal and external communication and that monitoring activities leads to greater efficiency and productivity.

Consequently, IT will play different roles to enhance the effectiveness of the service provided. Firstly, in managing the organization business, IT plays an effective role trough the adaptation of web technologies, internet and intranet. Organization website and web-based community helps in automating the administrative work. Internet is useful to manage the NGO resources and maintain financial records whereas the intranet contribution in providing a better customer service. Another role of IT is the strategic and innovative role. In this role, IT aids in securing confidential information through online social networks like Facebook, Tweeter and more. Lastly, IT play an efficient role in managing the business by the use of standalone computer for collecting and processing information and creating an easy access to the information. Information technologies such as E-mail service and networked computers also contributes to the role. E-mail enhances internal and external communication with volunteers, other organizations and ministries, needy people, and etc. whereas the use of networked computers improve the decision making and the strategic plans.

Generally, an IT manger’s role is to advise the organization on technology and how it can help the organization to perform better and to oversee new systems design and development by managing, planning and maintaining the process. Almost all NGOs don’t have an IT manager. More often than not, the head of IT in an NGO that inherits the job is already wearing many hats, and has little experience in IT or IT management. According to Evone Baskaran again, the organization was first setup with basic IT infrastructure and the information systems was designed for a long term about more than 5 years. That means a well-designed information system should require no modifications on a year to year basis because the database was designed from the start to be flexible and accommodate such changes. This eliminates the need for specific role of an IT manager in the organization.

Moreover, MWPS hires admin assistants whom are computer literate only. So that any uploading in the website, adding a few field to the database or even creating a new formatted excel sheet can be done easily without any cost or dependency. Besides, the computer technology in the Gulf country is designed in pro-Arabic concept that includes Arabic letters in the keyboard and dual language operating system. Thus, even the local volunteers can easily access the database to gather information. Furthermore, the maintenance and inventory of the hardware components and software are managed by the admin assistance. If there is a need for servicing, they engage outside source often from the place they bought it. These servicing or repair is done for free which is a plus point of any NGO but a minus point to the need of an IT manager. Most importantly, an IT manager’s major task is in and about IT management. This designation is not really necessary for the organization as the MWPS focuses more on their projects in realizing the objectives using the information technology in hope to improve operations, transform business models, enhance communications, or revolutionize inventory management.

Technology can be a powerful force that opens exciting opportunities for these organizations to achieve their missions and goals in an effective way. The information technology impacts the NGOs in different ways. When NGOs take full advantage of innovative technology solutions, their impact increases greatly as they can both improve their business operations and also how they deliver aid. For instance, with technologies like mobile, tracking, mapping, data analytics and the cloud, MWPS can zero in on the needs of the people they serve more efficiently and WCCI can help prevent crises and find underlying causes. IT also enhances internal and external communication such as communication with volunteers, other organizations and ministries, donors or key partners and the needy people. Moreover, the cost can be considered one of the major impacts of adopting information technology. For example, through using e-mail service to communicate with their customers, NGOs can cut down costs compared to using faxes or even the regular mail. In addition, using the internet for conducting online workshops and advertisements could minimize the cost used for paper, storage, and publication. The technology also impacts the NGO’s administration, as they are expose ways to benefit from the technology to handle various NGO tasks such as managing information, communicating with staff and volunteers, performing accounting jobs, and more. Online and web-based technologies impacts the NGO’s global service by providing new initiatives supporting the activities and services. It also provides an avenue for safe and secure online financial donations and contribution.

Furthermore, when it comes to political and power issue, it has repeatedly been shown that acquisition of new technology brings power. Early adopters of technology are those most likely to reinforce their position in the organization. Introducing information systems into organizations has often been shown to increase de-centralization. For instance, in WCCI the middle managerial layers are reduced, so that the basic volunteers and advocates can access direct contact to the highest managerial level without the mediation of the middle managers which only takes up time and cause more complication and misunderstanding. De-centralization is also due to social interaction and networking that comes with the new communication technologies. Lastly, impact to these communication technologies often leads to an increase in horizontal networks, and to re-structuring of networks and existing organizational boundaries. Increased horizontal networking is connected to the self-learning, empowered and self-organized employee. Information technology and information systems are thus powerful tools for change.