YMCA starts IT transformation

Charity creates role of head of information systems ahead of complete technology revamp

Central YMCA will be concentrating on data management

Central YMCA has hired Nick Gatt as its head of information systems to lead a three-year transformation plan which will see a complete overhaul of IT systems and services.

Under the newly-created role, Gatt’s initial brief is to improve efficiency, reduce costs and introduce greater integration across YMCA operations.

Gatt said the transformation will be broken down into “mini-projects”, which will initially aim to tackle inconsistencies in the way data is processed.

“I would like it [data processing] to be as automated as possible, by centralising information and let systems intelligently feed each other,” Gatt told Computing.

"There is a lot of duplication going on and that must be stopped.”

To promote automation, the charity will carry out an implementation of Microsoft Dynamics software as well as SharePoint collaboration tools, said Gatt.

The systems will be integrated and are expected to improve efficiency in areas such as timesheet data entry by human resources, with data automatically fed onto the financial systems – also due to be replaced next year.

YMCA will remain loyal to Microsoft due to the advantageous pricing it can get as a charity, but will not be ruling out use of open-source software “to bridge gaps” in some parts of its operation, such as basic PDF generation.

A hardware refresh which will replace server kit dating back from the early 1990s and desktop equipment in use for the past five years, will also take place in parallel to the rollout of new applications. The charity will also give a sharper focus to rebuilding its network infrastructure and virtualisation over the first half of 2009.

Other IT projects to be carried out next year will include the introduction of improved data warehousing through simplified reporting and web-enabled portals.

“It will be a huge undertaking but before I joined, the business had already established that it needed change, so people were prepared to make an extra effort to improve the business and go through bad weather to get the good,” said Gatt.

Gatt joins Central YMCA from data warehousing provider Kalido, where he worked as IT manager and had responsibility for the virtualisation of systems for their UK, US and India offices. Prior to that he worked as the IT systems manager at palmtop computer company Psion during the dotcom boom of the late 1990s.