Nonprofit Finds Security and Flexibility with Boxtop

Philanthropy New York is a nonprofit membership association with 15 employees representing more than 280 foundations and corporate giving programs based in the New York metropolitan region. They transitioned to the cloud with another service provider in 2015, but they were unhappy with the security, speed, and technical support. After working with Tabush Group for other IT needs, Philanthropy New York made the transition to Boxtop in the summer of 2017 to move their entire IT infrastructure to the cloud.

Challenge

Philanthropy New York moved to the cloud in 2015 with a fully outsourced service provider, but they experienced issues that could not be resolved. The system ran slowly at the office, and even slower remotely, leaving employees unable to download documents, let alone watch videos. The system had bugs and connection issues. It disrupted their ability to work efficiently throughout the day, stalled productivity, and was a cause of frustration for the team overall.

Additionally, Philanthropy New York did not feel like their customer service needs were being met. As issues arose, there was very little technical support available to troubleshoot the problems. While some issues could be handled remotely there were others that could only be solved by examining the hardware in person, a service that was dropped mid-contract. The organization needed an IT help desk that was available to problem solve on-site in NYC. After working with Tabush Group for other IT needs and learning that a number of other organizations had seen success with Boxtop, Philanthropy New York decided to make the transition.

Approach

Tabush Group worked with Philanthropy New York to migrate their data from their previous service to Boxtop. The previous vendor sent all of the data over on disks, so Tabush Group got to work transferring the data from the disks to Boxtop. The staff was given the day off while Kathryn O’Neal-Dunham, Chief Operating Officer of Philanthropy New York, oversaw the process. “Tabush Group took a great deal of care to ensure that when they rebuilt everything we got every single detail,” she explains. Although she was initially nervous about the transition, in the end she says that “it was project managed seamlessly.” The Boxtop team worked overnight, and the process was completed in just one day.

Results

Philanthropy New York immediately embraced Boxtop, loving how  quickly it ran both in the office and at home. The organization immediately noticed the faster connection, which resulted in an immediate increase in productivity and efficiency.

They also appreciated how much easier Boxtop made working remotely. “There’s a real feeling that we can work anywhere, anytime,” notes Kathryn. She adds that she loved being able to pick up right where she left off from anywhere, whether that be sitting at an available desk in the office or working from home.

Shortly after switching to Boxtop, Philanthropy New York conducted a third-party cyber security audit and the results came back “clean and easy.” The audit found no open ports of concern and concluded that the organization’s data was secure. In the past, the team worried about bugs or viruses interfering with their work. There was always a nervousness that something would crash, but now they feel secure knowing that their data is safe, thanks to weekly updates and a responsive help desk.

When asked about her satisfaction with Boxtop Kathryn says, “It functions 99.9% of the time, which is wonderful and unheard of.” She also feels confident that the help desk will be able to handle any issues that might arise. With Boxtop’s help, Philanthropy New York increased team efficiency, flexibility, and security.