CIO 100: The Salvation Army

MARK BENNETT, IT director at Salvation Army in New Zealand, is looking at a range of analytics projects this year to aid the charity in making better decisions.

He says the not-for-profit organisation will deploy “data analytics to drive improvement that consist of connecting different data sets to make smarter decisions and make them faster”.

The Salvation Army in New Zealand covers the group’s operations in Fiji and Tonga, and Bennett and his team of 13 staff provide ICT support for the group’s offices in the Pacific.

Bennett says apart from analytics, the technology initiatives that will drive the most IT investments in coming months are mobile, cloud services and collaboration.

The ICT team will continue to work on mobile projects as well as additional automation and acceleration of systems.

Bennett says the ICT budget this year will remain steady, but the team will be working on up to 20 per cent more projects.

A recent project was the launch of an online food bank www.foodbank.org.nz with Countdown supermarkets. Donors can buy essential grocery items – the website lists items that are most in need for the week. Donors can also choose from a range of bundles that would provide, for instance, a lunchbox for a person in need, or essentials for a small or large family.

Countdown delivers the items to the food banks, and donors receive a tax-deductible receipt and a thanks for their support.

The project was rolled out nationally in December, following a three-month pilot in the Salvation Army food bank in Royal Oak, Auckland.