The St. Albert Senior Citizen’s Club, Alberta, Canada, is a bustling activity center for some 670 members. The non-profit relies on a small staff of dedicated professionals and a bevy of volunteers to run the organization. However, volunteer training and retention is a constant challenge. Using the IT expertise of MPECS, a Microsoft® Small Business Specialist, St. Albert is exploring the benefits of the new Windows® 7 Professional operating system. The initial results indicate a very positive impact on the organization. Feature such as Federated Search, Problem Steps Recorder, Aero® Interface and Taskbar Customization are making the computer easier to use and significantly reducing training time.

The Business Transformation Coalition (BTC) is a group of Canadian United Way organizations working together to maximize their impact on improving lives and neighbourhoods across Canada. The organization needed a better way to analyze and understand donor trends, track and monitor campaign results and report to donors how their investments impact their communities. To do this United Way developed a new business intelligence platform based on Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005, Office SharePoint® Server 2007 and Office PerformancePoint™ Server 2007 – ProClarity Analytics. The new system will boost productivity and fundraising efficiency by helping United Way staff collaborate, develop timely reports and effectively plan, monitor and analyze campaign results.

CNIB is a nationwide, community-based, registered charity committed to research, public education and vision health for all Canadians. CNIB depends on email, voice mail and instant messaging to stay connected to clients and the workplace. With offices all across Canada and more than 1,100 employees and 10,000 volunteers, including people living with vision loss, the organization needed a more intuitive and cost-effective infrastructure to support its communication needs. To improve productivity, CNIB deployed Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging. CNIB now has more flexible access to voice mail – staff can read email messages and listen to voice mail within Microsoft Office Outlook® or listen to email over the phone. As a result, CNIB is benefiting from better communication, increased efficiencies and an estimated 60 per cent gain in productivity.