The 2014 Excellence in Social and Community Investment Awards: CapTech Consulting

At CapTech, we strive to be leaders in business and the community, Restellli says. "In June of 2013, we began a partnership with Apparo through their Skilled Volunteer Engagement Program (SVE). The SVE provided us a great opportunity to review needs of a few local non-profit organizations. Apparo facilitated a joint selection process where we were presented the opportunity to work with The Joe Martin ALS Foundation."
The Foundation had a great need for a website tool to help families improve their quality of life by offering solutions to challenges presented by ALS.

"At CapTech, one of our services is to design and develop web content management systems. This project was aligned well with our core capability. Restelli says. "Apparo helped organize the project from conception through going live. They helped manage scope and controlled expectations, which then allowed CapTech to do what we do best which is provide a fully functional Web site that provides great resources to ALS patients and caregivers."

The project was setup like many in business where the firm had a Project Manager/Facilitator from Apparo, a Project Sponsor from The Joe Martin ALS Foundation, and CapTech provided a project manager, business analysts, web designers, developers, and user experience experts, Restelli says.

Some of the project details include the implementation of an open source CMS for free use and easy maintenance. Also, the design was built to be responsive for desktop, mobile, and tablets, he says.
As the endeavour progressed Restelli says that CapTech learned that the project was unlike some of web content management projects in business.

"We learned about the mission of The Foundation which is the only organization to offer homecare at no cost to people fighting Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS)," Restelli says. "We learned how families are struggling today providing care to a loved one with ALS. We learned how simple improvements in functionality of everyday home items can improve the quality of life for an ALS patient. We learned about the potential far reach of the website outside of our small Charlotte community."

But mostly, Restelli says, the firm learned that it's a powerful combination "when you can leverage the skills and expertise of your organization to support a non-profit that has a greater need," he says.
"We started this project to become more visible in the community and to build our brand. We finished the project because we believed in the mission and were invested in supporting The Foundation.
For our staff, they gained friendships, knowledge, and were fulfilled knowing they built something that's truly making a difference."