Information System (IS) adoption in small non-profits: the Community Legal Centre sector

The small organisations non-profit sector stands to gain much from using Information Systems (IS), and IS evaluation represents an important field of research through identifying the root causes of IS failure. However there is a gap in research for IS in small non-profit organisations (NPOs). Information systems evaluation in small NPOs is of very high importance, as a failed project can threaten the continuation of the organisation. The Community Legal Centres (CLC) sector in Australia are a type of NPO, composed of small to medium size organisations. A project to implement a Customer Relationship Management system for use within the sector gained the interest of CLCs nationally and this project was the focus of the research presented here. The primary contribution of the resulting research is in the area of IS implementation in small NPOs, identifying pre-implementation environmental factors which affect the success of IS development, and evaluation. The findings were that individual experiences with technology in different organisations affected engagement, which in turn impacts successful implementation. In addition the findings support previous research which identifies factors creating inter-organisational collaboration among NPOs.