The Nonprofit Association of the Midlands (NAM) is an organization devoted to helping nonprofits in our region run better, faster, stronger, and easier. They accomplish this mission by providing a range of vital services and capacity-building tools to their members. The people who make it all happen are NAM’s dedicated staff, a group of professionals and nonprofit specialists.
The original goal of NAM was to provide group employee benefits to its nonprofit member organizations. Eventually, retirement plans were added. Through the years, they added more and more services for their members based on needs they perceived among the community.
NAM offers its members board training, finance training, and HR training, all centered around the needs of nonprofit organizations. They organize large-scale nonprofit training events, run networking groups, and engage in leadership development training. All in all, NAM offers support for back-end business operations, planning, employee support, and strategic insights.
Why IT Support is Vital to NAM’s Mission
Thanks to their wide-ranging mission, Nonprofit Association of the Midlands requires a high level of IT support. All kinds of back-office support they provide their members rely on complex legal compliance systems. NAM offers extensive content libraries to its members, so its website needs to support content management and learning management systems for users who sign in.
Other back-office functions like scheduling and payroll have their own integrations. NAM’s accounting software, marketing software, and social media management tools are all crucial to daily operations. As a result, it is imperative that NAM’s staff feel comfortable using these systems and have access to support for troubleshooting whenever they need it.
The Director of Membership & Operations at NAM is Kelly Koepsell. In his role, Kelly recruits and retains nonprofit members who pay dues to NAM. He also runs the office, managing a team that handles data, marketing, office schedules, and other operational details. It is his responsibility to ensure the organization has reliable IT support so these functions can all run smoothly for NAM members.
Nonprofit Association of the Midlands Finds a New Partner in IT
Last year, Kelly decided it was time to make a change. Early in his time with NAM, he contracted a local IT service provider to offer IT support to his team and considered their service satisfactory. However, over time the vendor’s ownership changed hands and the company let many of its local connections and community engagement fall by the wayside.
Crucially, Kelly noticed it was taking longer for him and his staff to receive IT support. As response times continued to increase and overall service declined, Kelly knew his organization would need to find a new IT service provider.
In 2019, Virtual IT became a for-profit member of NAM and began to sponsor annual events, including give-aways and networking functions. Kelly was impressed with the professionalism and community engagement the Virtual IT team showed. So when Brad Queck, President of Virtual IT, approached Kelly to discuss the possibility of providing IT services for NAM, Kelly agreed.
In their first meeting together, Kelly says that Brad laid out the value that Virtual IT could bring to his organization:
- Virtual IT is local and committed to its community.
- Our team is proficient in all things related to Office 365 and antivirus software.
- Our customer service offers a distinct advantage—we resolve a high percentage of problems on the first call.
- We have knowledgeable backline engineers answering the phone so your issues get handled right away.
Kelly also shared that Virtual IT isn’t afraid to show you their customer feedback. Virtual IT has an exceptional customer survey response rate, and when issues arise, they do what needs to be done to make it right.
After their first meeting, Kelly Koepsell decided to bring on Virtual IT as the IT service provider for NAM.
How Virtual IT Empowers NAM Today
Today, Virtual IT manages NAM’s network, as well as their Office 365 account and its many integrations. Virtual IT’s team can view, administrate, and quality control all NAM’s work desktops, laptops, and projection stations. For all this hardware, Virtual IT supports endpoint security and manages wireless access points, ensuring constant, secure network access for staff.
When asked to sum up his time working with Virtual IT, Kelly plainly described his experience: “The Virtual IT team is great—they’re professional and succinct. They get the job done.”
Virtual IT also manages KnowledgeWave training for the NAM staff. KnowledgeWave offers a powerful library of training and reference media to help users get the most out of Office 365 and its ever expanding list of capabilities. In addition, the Virtual IT staff is always ready to provide immediate customer support by phone or email, depending on the nature of the issue.
Perhaps the strongest value Virtual IT offers NAM is the peace of mind and confidence their staff can have when it comes to IT. Since partnering with Virtual IT nearly a year ago, Kelly says he has not heard an negative feedback from his staff regarding IT support. Kelly appreciates the additional support when it comes to answering his cybersecurity census, knowing that Virtual IT can help him ensure compliance.
In addition to the knowledge and services Virtual IT provides NAM every day, their community engagement is incredibly important to Kelly and his team.
“The customer service is 1000% better. The leadership at Virtual IT knows our names, our events, our mission, and our association members. They know why we are important in the community and their actions back it up.”
-Kelly Koepsell
Director of Membership & Operations
Nonprofit Association of the Midlands
Today, the ever-expanding mission of NAM is powered by top-flight IT support from a vendor who acts more like a partner. Virtual IT is a local team that doesn’t just provide exceptional IT services, they align with and support the central goals of NAM, strengthening local nonprofits and building a better community together.
If your business or organization is in need of comprehensive IT support and you’re tired of waiting to resolve every issue, contact Virtual IT. Our team can help you understand your IT needs and how we can support your mission with fast, reliable support.