Amplifying Our Network

Christian Lund, CLINIC’s information technology (IT) manager, likens his work to architecture. The IT systems he manages are the home base for the work that CLINIC staff and Affiliates do. Throughout 2022 and 2023, Lund led a complete overhaul of CLINIC’s IT systems, a task he compared to building a skyscraper.

“We’re building a huge skyscraper for CLINIC, and it’s got all these floors and all this great stuff that we can use,” Lund says. “And we’re about 50 percent of the way through the project, so we have a really firm foundation.”

That firm foundation includes a new Microsoft system that integrates customer relationship management with all business management tasks, like project management, finances, and accounting, plus a single login for Affiliates.

Before these updates, CLINIC was using multiple software services to complete these tasks, and they did not integrate efficiently. Now there is one database for all CLINIC processes, or a single source of truth, in IT-speak, Lund explains.

“If I look up John Smith, I can see that he’s made five Ask the Expert requests of this team, he’s receiving a grant from the Advancement team, and all that’s been paid out through finance. Before, that was being handled in three or four systems, so now there is ease of use,” Lund continues.

This single source of truth was the primary goal of the digital transformation project, and Lund and his team are focused on that and three other goals as they continue their work in 2024.

“We want to define processes and automate wherever possible. Take away the busy work and keep employees focused on what employees do best, trying to serve the network,” Lund says. “We also want to make and foster a culture of innovation. So we selected products that are either low code or no code, meaning that, eventually, people can automate things by themselves, without going to a developer.”

And the fourth goal is to only build new systems that have a tangible benefit to Affiliates. With this in mind, CLINIC launched an Affiliate Support Form in 2023. In the past, Affiliates could reach out to CLINIC staff directly with questions or requests. Now, with the new online form, Affiliates receive a guaranteed response within three days and their request is directed to the CLINIC staff person best suited to assist.

“The goal is to serve the network in a more streamlined, organized fashion, so that it reflects our growth,” says Leya Speasmaker, associate director of network engagement. “We can better track the types of questions being asked. In the previous model, the staff member owned the relationship. This was an effort to share the information, share the relationship.”

In addition to the technology infrastructure updates, CLINIC also launched an interactive digital storytelling platform in 2023, called Neighbors, Not Strangers (NNS).

“Immersive digital storytelling is the new frontier in communications, and this project will allow us to invest in a platform that will draw audiences into the powerful stories from our network," said Jeremy Weitz, director of communications at CLINIC.

CLINIC Affiliates and their clients represent a gamut of immigration stories, from communities rising to the challenge of welcome to family resilience in successful immigration cases. Sharing these stories of hope on the NNS site will help to shift the narrative of anti-immigration sentiment in the current public discourse.

Lund says he is excited for the work that will continue through the end of 2024 on this metaphorical skyscraper: “By the end of this project, we’ll have a team of innovators and a culture of innovation at CLINIC, where everybody feels as though they can build things and dream things, because they understand the pieces.”