How a Nonprofit Transformed Its Fragmented, Reactive IT Organization Into A Strategic Business Partner

A leading nonprofit research and exploration organization faced a critical challenge: its technology landscape was fragmented despite efforts to centralize IT.

Leadership recognized this approach couldn't scale with their ambitions, particularly after a major media partnership. A dual transformation initiative aimed to create an agile, product-focused technology organization and a strategic business partner, but progress stalled.

The CTO faced leadership gaps, teams struggled with a product-over-project mindset, and a lack of clear enterprise architecture hindered coordinated efforts. A key issue was the disconnect between technology teams building solutions with minimal business input and business units operating "shadow IT," preventing product visions from being realized.

When technology and business speak different languages

The technology department was not seen as a business enabler. Its absence from the 80-page strategic plan underscored its perceived tactical role. This misalignment led to pain points like business units engaging IT only when directed, tool proliferation, and inefficient manual reporting.

Without intervention, the gap between technology and business threatened systematic failures, including a crucial visitor attraction project. This represented a broader organizational pathology of poor communication and understanding between business and technology.

Previous attempts to fill leadership gaps or promote agile practices failed due to attrition and lack of traction. The situation worsened with frequent post-release failures, mounting technical debt, security vulnerabilities, and inconsistent development standards.

The CTO, having prior experience with Ten Mile Square, sought a comprehensive, independent assessment.

Diagnosis before prescription: Uncovering root causes

Ten Mile Square conducted an assessment of the technology team structure, enterprise architecture, vendor practices, and infrastructure.

This deep root-cause analysis revealed that technology teams had minimal direct interaction with business stakeholders.

Communication happened by proxy, and requirements from business units lacked clear links to measurable outcomes.

There was no senior-level process for prioritizing IT investments; technology was viewed solely as a cost center.

Architecting a multi-faceted transformation

Based on the assessment, Ten Mile Square developed a comprehensive solution addressing core challenges. This included filling critical skill gaps for the data platform, establishing dedicated teams for key initiatives, defining agile development processes, and restructuring stakeholder engagement by centralizing request intake.

With our help, the organization was able to embed architects within teams for support and oversight, reorganize data product teams for value delivery, and implement data-driven agile coaching. The focus was on depth over breadth, starting with income generation to build capability before expanding.

Ten Mile Square’s expertise in enterprise architecture, modern engineering, and large-scale transformations, combined with our deep technical and strategic business acumen, was essential to the success of these efforts.

The challenging journey of cultural transformation

Implementing the solution demanded significant cultural shifts, particularly in enabling technology teams to deliver measurable business value. This required clarifying decision-making and linking requirements to outcomes.

Challenges included vendor resistance, balancing technical debt with new features, limited time with offshore vendors, and gaining proper engagement from business users. Delivering rapid, consistent value was key to overcoming this resistance.

Delivering tangible efficiency gains

Tangible results quickly emerged.

A weekly report that took days of manual work became available on-demand with live data.

Development velocity dramatically accelerated, with new data products created in less than two days, down from full development cycles.

Request fulfillment time plummeted from weeks to hours or days.

These improvements fostered trust and collaboration, creating a virtuous cycle of alignment and delivery.

Building capabilities for future innovation and strategic growth

The transformation yielded lasting benefits:

• The data platform became a core capability for surfacing business data, enabling higher-order analysis and AI applications.
• New standards and decision processes streamlined change implementation.
• Emphasis on non-functional requirements led to more resilient and maintainable systems, with integrated maintenance costs.
• Standardized processes minimized knowledge loss and boosted vendor flexibility.

As a senior technology leader stated: "What used to take a request to IT and several weeks can now be done without IT help in a matter of days or hours". The organization transformed its fragmented, reactive technology into a strategic business enabler, poised for future growth.

Read the full case study on the Ten Mile Square website to learn more about how comprehensive organizational changes, process improvements, and capability building can transform your technology department into a strategic business partner.