1. Audit your Digital Technology

PLAN//THINK//DISCOVER

Auditing your Digital Technology

Use the Digital Technology Audit template to help you do this. Once you have completed the digital technology audit use the Digital Technology Planning Template to list issues, details, assign priority, and allocate timescales.

Describe what you have done in terms of digital development so far. What impact have these developments had on your organisation’s core objectives and/or particular strategies? What digital technology systems are in place in each department? You need to describe all the functions that you use IT for operationally, and list which software and hardware is utilised. What’s your support, back up and replacement procedures? Do you have any policies relation to IT or digital in place?

How do you use digital technologies to communicate with:
- each other
- your stakeholders
- your audiences
- potential audiences

You also need to describe how the organisation’s webpresence is set up. What platforms do you use to do what, and who updates them? What digital content is made? How and by whom? Capture baseline information on webpresence platforms (eg. How many Facebook Fans like your page? How many unique monthly visits to your website? How many podcast downloads? YouTube/Flickr views? etc.)

Note what systems do or do not interface with each other (eg. “we use ConstantContact for our subscribers email list, but our education database of teachers’ emails is on a different Access database”).

Start an organisational “Tech book” – this could list the kit and software that you have, as well as key contacts and other documentation such as policies and set-up/back-up procedures.

 

What’s next?
You might want to additionally audit your digital proficiency, your digital assets, and your business model to see where digital technologies play a part/are business critical. You might also want to gauge where your customers and stakeholders are at digitally, to see how they respond to your current digital set-up, and what they would like to see.

At this stage you might feel a bit overwhelmed! It’s normal for cultural organizations to get a fright at this stage, particularly if the IT set up and digital developments have previously been ad hoc or piecemeal. But you know where you are at, now. The next stage of The AmbITion Approach is the uplifting and exciting part: brainstorming and thinking about where you would like to be! You will also be diagnosing what IT and digital developments you will need to implement to get to where you want to be, from where you are now.