#42: IT Professionals Day
“Call Jake.”
“Hi, Dominic, it’s HAWS again!”
“Hey, Corey, our printer is doing this weird thing…”
Whenever there is a problem with our server, individual computers or one of our printers, three gentlemen who don’t wear capes (but probably should) come to our rescue. They are unfailingly polite, don’t sigh (too loudly) when we have the same problem for the fourteenth time in a week, and solve situations so quickly we usually don’t even have time to worry. (Especially the time the menu for the printer in the development office started communicating in Cyrillic!)
Just like any other, IT is critical to our business. Our animal records are maintained on a software program that needs to be accessed by staff both in and outside of the shelter walls, for medications, behavior notes and just general information. Our donor and service user databases are updated with every transaction we run, hundreds each day from strays being reclaimed to memberships to class and program registrations.
As our shelter has grown, so has the number of computers and computer users. Hard to believe that at one time HAWS only had two computers – a Mac desktop and a sizable CPU tower running DOS versions of Word and Excel (and, of course, a dot matrix printer). Now, staff and volunteers have access to both CPUs and laptops as needed to make our services run smoothly. All must be networked together, and our IT superheroes make that happen!
Yes, there have been days when our system is down and work comes to a virtual standstill, but usually those are due to regional power outages! And anyway, at those times we just take a break and do some dog-walking and cat cuddling. Win!