Founded in 2008 by Holly Dunn Pendleton, Holly’s House is an advocacy center for adults and children who have been victims of intimate crimes. As a safe location where victims of intimate violence are interviewed and connected to community resources and services, Holly’s House serves as a place of empowerment and healing.
The operations side of a non-profit is often unseen by the larger community, but it is the day-to-day business occurring in the office that allows a non-profit to continue to be effective. Infrastructure services are an important part of operations for any non-profit, and must be planned with both an eye toward the mission as well as toward the bottom line. A well-planned infrastructure appears seamless and offers an easy way for members of the non-profit to communicate and operate.
As is the case with many non-profits, Holly’s House operated with a hodgepodge of services and equipment that served their needs but not as efficiently as it needed to be. When an issue arose involving their data backup that their previous provider could not solve, Holly’s House contacted Lieberman Technologies for a fresh look at their infrastructure. LT conducted a network assessment to establish a starting point for the improvement of internal communications.
The network assessment took into account the various pieces of equipment accessing the network, and helped to determine the needs of the staff in using the network. Both the wired and wireless networks receive ongoing support from Lieberman, as do the server, workstations, laptops, and phone system. Lieberman also helped to establish a hosted email solution and hosted backup and disaster recovery, which solved the data backup issues Holly’s House had been experiencing.
“In all my years managing IT for non-profit organizations, I have never experienced the level of professionalism and knowledge that we receive from Lieberman Technologies.”
Beyond the establishment of services for Holly’s House, the ongoing support provided by LT has made a significant difference in the daily operation of the center. Recently, Holly’s House began experiencing power outages that caused problems for their server and workstations. Technicians were immediately dispatched to Holly’s House to ascertain which workstations were affected by the outage and determine why some units would not power on. After a second round of outages in the same day, the staff at Holly’s House made the decision to close the office for the day. LT remained on the job, however, figuring out the problem and getting the system operational again. Sidney Hargrave, Executive Director at Holly’s House, was impressed by LT’s level of commitment to the issues at hand: “I received a call late that afternoon letting me know the server was back online and appeared to be functioning well. A minor phone issue that had been mentioned in passing was corrected, too. I was so grateful for this call and even more grateful that LT was checking up on us after I had given up all hope for a productive day.”
Just as Holly’s House is committed to providing support to victims of sexual violence, Lieberman Technologies is committed to providing Holly’s House with dedicated and ongoing support for their infrastructure. A company’s infrastructure is only as good as the service provider that supports it, a fact that Hargrave understands well. “In all my years managing IT for non-profit organizations, I have never experienced the level of professionalism and knowledge that we receive from Lieberman Technologies. Since beginning our relationship with them in 2013, we have seen nothing but quality and thoughtfulness of service every time. Lieberman Technologies focuses on our IT so we can focus on our mission, and that’s huge.”