Leveraging Relationships to Drive Technology Value
The Center for the Visually Impaired and TechBridge

Helping people with unique learning and training needs often requires highly specialized equipment. Organizations that work with special needs clients typically have staff that is well versed in purchasing and implementing custom technologies. One such nonprofit, which did not necessarily need project management help to upgrade its computer systems, discovered that partnering with TechBridge gave it a resource boost and created new technology opportunities that added considerable value to the upgrade project.

The Center for the Visually Impaired provides equal access to jobs and education to people who are blind and visually impaired. The organization teaches its clients to become totally self-sufficient and competitive in today’s job market by teaching computer training and other technical skills. CVI has a computer lab equipped with special use technology for its clients, but the systems had become outdated. CVI applied for and secured a grant from the United Way to upgrade its computer equipment. This particular grant came with a prerequisite that TechBridge serve as consultant to ensure that the project stayed on track. Initially, CVI accepted the provision with a healthy dose of skepticism.

"We questioned the value of using a consultant, because we know the equipment we need and we have strong relationships with the vendors that supply it," said Bill Woolf, associate executive director, CVI. "Partnering with TechBridge, however, turned out to be a real plus for us. In addition to providing some very welcome manpower, they brought their technology partnerships to the table, which helped us significantly enhance the scope and value of our acquisition."

TechBridge worked closely with CVI technical staff to negotiate favorable deals on the specialized hardware CVI needed. This included an embossing machine, which allows CVI clients to print documents in Braille, and 19-inch split screen close circuit TV monitors that can magnify images on a computer up to 80 times, allowing partial vision clients to read material on screen. The project team also tapped into Hewlett Packard to obtain special optical character recognition (OCR) scanners, which transfer scanned material to a computer or directly to the Braille embosser. The team acquired software to run the embossing machine and magnification software for the split screen monitors. They also installed Dragon Naturally Speaking, a program that uses voice recognition to read spoken text into word processing systems.

"Organizations like CVI are the reason we work at TechBridge,’ said Greg Sims, senior consultant at TechBridge. "One visit to their offices and the value of technology becomes immediately evident. CVI’s clients are exceptional people who really are driven to determine their own paths in life. They were using the new equipment almost before it was out of the box, and they knew exactly what to do with it. That type of instant feedback and impact reminds us that we work to make a positive influence on the nonprofit community."

Thanks to its membership in the NPower Network, TechBridge was able to help CVI apply for and receive a technology grant for free Microsoft software, including Windows Server and 50 licenses for Windows XP operating system. TechBridge and CVI negotiated service maintenance agreements that allow CVI to upgrade its systems in the future as new versions of the software become available. "We hadn’t really considered a comprehensive systems upgrade because of the cost," Woolf explained. "TB introduced us to the NPower program, and as a result, we were able to standardize our technology on the latest Microsoft platforms. As an added touch, we also obtained multiple versions of the software to match our clients’ specific systems needs."

TechBridge also leveraged its partnership with techfoundation.org, to obtain a new Dell laptop that was desperately needed in the CVI classroom. (Techfoundation.org is a service organization that matches NP technology needs with major hardware to provide low cost, tax-exempt equipment.)

"TechBridge proved to be much more than just a project manager," said Woolf. "By putting their relationships to work for us, they became a real technology enabler for CVI.

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