February 2000
This survey was conducted through the IOLTA listserv in December 1999 and January 2000. Thirty-eight programs responded to this call for information.
Almost every person who responded chose "intermediate" as the category that best describes the way they see themselves when it comes to skill regarding technology. There were two wizards. Only three did not have access to either a paid consultant or a wizard in house or at a sister organization.
Thirty-three out of thirty-eight programs have their computerization needs as part of their regular budgets.
Thirty-seven out of thirty-eight use IBM compatible.
All IBM compatibles use some version of windows- equally divided among Windows NT, 95, 98, and 2000.
Twenty-eight programs have all workstations connected to the Internet. In states where this is not the case, the director’s workstation is connected to the Internet.
Fourteen programs outsource data processing activities – most often IOLTA revenue tracking, payroll and bookkeeping. Two programs outsource attorney compliance.
Although thirteen programs use ACH (two programs are working on it), and twenty programs use EFT, it is clear that most programs receive most of their revenue in check form. Only four programs use a lockbox, and one receives wire transfers.
When it comes to determining the top three computerization goals, twenty-two programs chose collecting funds/data from banks, twenty-one chose tracking IOLTA accounts, and fifteen chose collecting data from grantees. Thirteen programs chose communication with boards or committees.
Many people do want to have discussions with others about similar technology concerns, most often concerning the above goals. Other areas of interest include: using the net for fundraising; Windows-based IOLTA systems; web pages; grant management (including data transfer between IOLTA and grantees); better e-mail; and six or seven programs are interested in EFT and ACH and the corresponding benefits and costs.
A concern is what technology works best for small IOLTA programs? What are the costs? What data is kept and why? There is interest in discussing the best uses of technology.
The following is a list with the kinds of software in use by the programs by category:
Accounting: QuickBooks - 9, Peachtree Accounting - 5, Excel - 3, One Write plus - 3 and Great Plains Dynamic - 2, CYMA - 2, Black baud, cougar mt, MIP fund Accounting, Acc Pac, Quicken and Lotus 123, TimeSheet Professional 5.0.Communications: Desktop Fax, Fac sys, Zeta fax, NovellGroupWiseFaxServe.
E Mail: Microsoft outlook express - 16, earthlink, groupwise, aristotle, AOL - 2, Eudodra - 4, nets communicator 5, Ethernet, AS 400, NovellGroupWise 5.5, Mindspring.
Database: Roger’s AIM - 7, paradox - 2, AREV - 2, magic, MS Access -14, D Base - 2, Fox Pro - 4, Kaufman - 3, Lotus Approach, Alpha four, Sybase SQL, Anywhere 5.5.
Grants management: Roger’s AIM - 4, MIP, Ken Smith, Al Kaufman, AS 400, ACT, Word -4, Excell - 4, Novell InForms 4.3 and Paradox 7.0.
Internet Research: Netscape - 4, Internet Explorer -14, Yahoo -2, Alta Vista, Group Lexis, Sherlock, AREV, MSN
IOLTA Revenue Tracking: Roger’s program AIM - 7, Quattro pro, Quickbook - 2, Foxpro -3
Excel - 7, D Base, Kaufman’s system - 3, Lotus Approach - 2,
Spreadsheets: Quattro pro - 5, Lotus 123 - 4, Excel - 21.
Web Pages: approximately 11 programs have them, with additional 8 citing sister organizations web sites, and six in the process of developing one.
Grant Reporting: Ken Smith - 2, Kaufman – 2, Kemp, Lotus, WP, Word – 7, Quattro Pro -1, Corel Presentation -1, Adobe Pagemaker 6.5 and Abobe Photoshop 5.0 –1.
Grant Applications: Ken Smith - 2, Kaufman - 2, Pagemaker 6.5, Word and Excel – 6.
Word processing: WP-10 and Word -19, Novell Informs 4.3 and Paradox 7.0 for storing data -1.
Other: Donor Perfect for Contributors, Black baud’s Raiser Edge for fundraising, Adobe PageMaker, Microsoft publisher-2, PowerPoint, Norton Utilities, PC Anywhere32, TeamFlow 6.0 and MapInfo 4.0 for mapping processes and data, Data Junction Enterprise for converting data, Adobe Acrobat 4.0 for creating documents for the Web.