Company Background
The Council on Foundations (CoF), founded in 1949, is a nonprofit association of grantmaking foundations and corporations. It provides the opportunity, leadership, and tools needed by philanthropic organizations to expand, enhance and sustain their ability to advance the common good. The Council empowers professionals in philanthropy to meet today’s toughest challenges and advances a culture of charitable giving in the U.S. and globally.
Russ Barratt is CoF’s Vice President of Technology, and discusses the critical role that Partners International plays in the Association’s success.
An Unexpected Transition
Eight years ago, CoF’s Head of IT passed away and they needed immediate help. They talked to several managed IT services firms, but according to Russ, “most of them were very focused on getting a long-term contract rather than understanding the issues we were facing in this unexpected transition. The conversations we had were all very sales-y and frustrating, and didn’t help us solve our problem at all.”
“The conversation with Partners International was substantially different,” Russ continues. “Partners immediately focused on understanding our situation. They recognized that there hadn’t been any verified backups for the last six months, and that COF was at risk of losing our data.” Russ explains that “I’ve been doing this for nearly 20 years, and the way that Partners approached our situation is rare. Before even talking about a contract, they said ‘OK. You are in this situation. How can we help you?’ Partners is unique in that they don’t require their customers to sign long-term contracts. They have always made it clear that CoF could opt out of our contract at will. We work with Partners because they are right for us – not because we’re bound to a contract.”
How the Relationship Works
Partners International provides network administration, user support, and an on-site person 4-5 hours a day 2 days a week. There are about 6-7 people that CoF works with on a regular basis. At the start of each year, CoF and Partners get together and plan out the priorities. Then, there is a 30-minute call every Friday to go over the status of the projects and any open support cases.
According to Russ “Partners is refreshingly different than other vendors in the way they take ownership of their client work. Other vendors often tend to focus on their ‘company policy’ rather than what is right for the customer. Partners is different. They take ownership of all things IT related – even if it means interfacing with other vendors on our behalf. It’s never about just what their narrow responsibility is – it’s about what is in our best interest.”
Partners also provides all clients with a portal that lets them see the status of any outstanding or completed tickets, and how much time has been spent on them. Russ notes that “Partners has established SLAs for response times, and never misses them.”
Focus on the Client
Partners works with clients in a consultative rather than prescriptive way. The goal is to come up with a range of options, and then provide clients with the upside and downside of each one.
Russ explains that “in my 20 years of experience, I’ve only seen a handful of companies consistently show the same level of commitment to the customer that Partners does. They’re pretty unique in the amount of time and energy they spend to understand our business goals before thinking about what technology will help us achieve them. That’s my philosophy too: understand the business first, because technology is a means to an end rather than the end itself. On those occasions where Partners doesn’t provide the exact service we need, they recommend someone who does. I always feel they give me the information I need to make very informed decisions.”
A Long-Term Relationship by Choice
CoF and Partners International have developed a long term working relationship. This is demonstrated in the C-Suite as well. CoF has had 3 CEOs since since bringing on Partners and each has done an IT audit soon after coming on board. After every one of these audits, the CEOs have reaffirmed that Partners is a great fit.
Russ adds that “while the cost for Partners is reasonable, that’s really not the reason we stay with them. There’s no long term contract, so it’s really about the value they bring and the trust we have in them. If I was incapacitated for any reason, I would trust Partners to do the right things for the organization. We are pinged by other managed services firms about once a week, but enthusiastically remain with Partners. They understands CoF’s history, where we are, and where we’re going. They are a critical part of our team.”