The Journey of Humanitarian Relief

Avanade: Nonprofit Saves 20 Percent in Data Center Costs with Cloud Solution

2012-01-20T10:11:00.000-06:00

Avanade and Accenture expertise reduces migration costs

Business Situation

The Aidmatrix Foundation has developed a global reputation for helping business, nonprofit, and government partners make a difference in the lives of people around the world. When disaster strikes, organizations in charge of providing humanitarian relief—food, clothes, medical supplies—turn to Aidmatrix for its webbased, supply-chain technology. The company’s solutions cover procurement, warehousing, donation management, transportation, and consulting and are built from the ground up with one goal in mind: to help disaster response organizations deliver aid as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.

Natural and human-caused disasters follow no agenda, so Aidmatrix must be ready at all times to quickly deliver its solutions to partners anywhere in the world. Unlike typical businesses, demand for the nonprofit’s products follows unpredictable spikes interspersed with periods of relative inactivity. During and immediately following a crisis, demand can reach up to 1,000 times the normal rate. Aidmatrix stays prepared by hosting its solutions in three data centers across the United States and one in England.

“We have to maintain a certain level of assets at these data centers to be prepared for any eventuality,” says Michael Ross, Vice President for Delivery at Aidmatrix. “Until recently, outsourcing the management of the physical servers at the data center was an ongoing expense. We paid up front for space and physical infrastructure that we didn’t use all the time. We also paid for server maintenance and for updating our software. We would have preferred to allocate our IT resources toward enhancing our solutions.”

If a crisis occurred where Aidmatrix had no preexisting infrastructure, the company used to go through a long and expensive process of identifying a location to host servers and run its software to help local aid delivery.

Read the full case study from Avanade

Aidmatrix President & CEO Keynote Speaker at the International Disaster Conference & Expo

2012-01-19T11:53:00.000-06:00

Aidmatrix President & CEO Governor Scott McCallum was a keynote speaker at the International Disaster Conference & Expo in New Orleans on January 18th. He also served as Moderator on a panel titled "Public-Private Sector Synergies - Mobilizing International Resources for Global Disaster Aid, Response and Recovery". Panelists include:

John "Jock" Menzies (American Logistics Aid Network)
Ty Prettyman (AirLink)
James Lee Witt (Witt Associates)
Dan Stoneking (FEMA Private Sector Office)
Ky Luu (Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy)

Accenture: Helping Aidmatrix deliver critical humanitarian relief assistance via the Microsoft Windows Azure cloud platform

2012-01-19T10:24:00.000-06:00

Client Profile
The Aidmatrix Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit organization committed to providing supply chain management, fundraising and volunteer management solutions that, in turn, help relief organizations procure, manage and deliver aid when humanitarian crises arise around the world. More than 40,000 business, nonprofit and government partners use Aidmatrix’s solutions to mobilize more than $1.5 billion in humanitarian relief each year.

Business Challenge
While Aidmatrix had historically managed its applications from third-party data centers in the United States and several other countries, the organization recently decided to move the provisioning of its IT infrastructure to “the cloud.” Aidmatrix believed a cloud-based IT infrastructure would not only lower its operating costs, but also allow it to access additional computing capacity as needed to respond more quickly and effectively to crises anywhere in the world.

Ultimately, Aidmatrix selected Microsoft® Windows® Azure™ as its cloud platform because of its high efficiency, agility and ease of use. Also important was the fact that Windows Azure is hosted at one of six data centers worldwide, meaning that Aidmatrix’s critical applications would almost always be hosted close to a disaster area.

Microsoft, which had helped Aidmatrix develop a proof-of-concept to confirm the appropriateness of the Windows Azure platform, suggested that Accenture and Avanade—an Accenture majority-owned company dedicated to helping clients maximize returns on their Microsoft investments—be engaged to help migrate and integrate a number of critical applications to the new platform. Aidmatrix agreed. In addition to having extensive Windows Azure skills and experience, Accenture brought a deep understanding of the Aidmatrix organization, its technical environment and its business objectives. For nearly 10 years, Accenture had provided technical and consulting services to help the organization chart a course toward high performance. As Michael Ross, Vice President of Delivery at Aidmatrix, noted, “We had a long relationship with Accenture, so we had no questions about the quality of the work that would be delivered or the experience that would be brought to bear.”

Read the full case study

Microsoft: Organizations Solving the World’s Toughest Problems Turn to Windows Azure

2012-01-18T10:55:00.000-06:00

REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 12, 2011 — When the 9.0 magnitude Tohoku earthquake struck off the east coast of Japan last March, it took the lives of more than 20,000 people, destroyed or damaged nearly 750,000 buildings, and wiped away virtually all aspects of the region’s critical infrastructure.

With lives on the line, Dallas-based nonprofit Aidmatrix needed to deliver services immediately to help more than 40 humanitarian organizations throughout the region affected by the disaster. Aidmatrix quickly created a Windows Azure account and got its aid application up and running in two hours.

The University of Washington Baker Laboratory also works to save lives by developing cures for diseases such as HIV, malaria and anthrax. When scientists at the laboratory needed more computational power for their research on salmonella, they chose Windows Azure for instant access to high-performance computing capabilities and on-demand scalability.

Here are two examples of how academics, scientists and humanitarian organizations are using Windows Azure and the power of the cloud to make an impact around the world.

(Today, Microsoft is improving Windows Azure with a series of updates to its platform, offering customers greater value, simplicity and interoperability. More details of today’s update can be found in the Windows Azure blog.)

Read the full story

Trucks For Change Launches New Online Freight Matching Tool

2012-01-17T15:43:00.000-06:00

TORONTO, Ont. -- Trucks For Change Network, a nonprofit association of leading Canadian trucking firms helping community charities with donated transportation services, has launched MOVEmatrix, an online freight matching tool developed for the exclusive use of its member trucking and charity partners.

"MOVEmatrix offers our members a quick and secure way to find and respond to charity needs which match their available resources," said Pete Dalmazzi, president and founder of Trucks For Change Network. "It has all the features to become the one-stop transportation marketplace for charitable organizations across Canada."

MOVEmatrix was developed in a partnership between Trucks For Change Network and The Aidmatrix Foundation, a Dallas-based firm specializing in supply chain management technology for humanitarian relief.

Read the full story

TechSoup App It Up Presents: Apps By and For Nonprofits

2012-01-11T14:23:00.003-06:00

Blog entry by agilbertknight, a Technology Analyst for TechSoup

We've talked a lot about mobile apps during the App It Up project. But apps come in many other forms. Browser plug-ins, widgets, web apps, and templates: all of these are apps, too. And they all have the potential to help your organization do its work more efficiently and easily.

That's why we’re excited to highlight two great (non-mobile) apps built by and for nonprofits, over on our App It Up page.

Simplifying Online Fundraising with Aidmatrix

Virtual Aid Drive is a set of web-based online fundraising and donation drive management tools. It's a cloud-based tool, built on the Windows Azure platform. Virtual Aid Drive helps organizations run drives to collect food, books, clothing, and other needed items.

The cool twist? Virtual Aid Drive does away with the collection boxes and shelves full of donated items and replaces them with an easy-to-set-up, easy-to-run online drive.

Virtual Aid Drive was created by Aidmatrix, a nonprofit organization that develops technology, processes, and partnerships to increase the efficiency of gathering and distributing humanitarian aid.

Read the full story

Microsoft Case Study: Humanitarian Aid Provider Uses Cloud Solution to Respond Faster to Global Needs

2012-01-05T16:29:00.000-06:00

The Aidmatrix Foundation

Humanitarian Aid Provider Uses Cloud Solution to Respond Faster to Global Needs

The Aidmatrix Foundation creates web-based supply-chain management solutions that simplify the distribution of humanitarian aid. To meet growing demand for its expertise from partners worldwide, it sought a more cost-effective, scalable method for delivering its solutions. After evaluating several cloud services solutions, the organization selected Windows Azure. It wanted to take advantage of existing skill sets and investments in Microsoft technologies while maximizing the global reach of its services through the use of Microsoft data centers worldwide. Aidmatrix worked closely with Accenture and Avanade, members of the Microsoft Partner Network, to convert three of its standard web applications to cloud services. By adopting Windows Azure, the organization has reduced its data center costs by 20 percent while providing more responsive, scalable service to help those most in need.

Situation
Increasingly, technology plays a vital role in enabling the rapid, targeted distribution of relief supplies to those affected by catastrophic events. Formed in 2001, the Aidmatrix Foundation specializes in developing web-based supply-chain management solutions that make it easier to get the Right Aid to the Right People at the Right Time™.

The organization’s software-as-a-service–based solutions are designed to address the two main challenges of disaster response: the efficient collection of donated materials and the precise matching of those supplies with evolving needs on the ground. To capture and accurately process the maximum number of donor offers, Aidmatrix needs to ensure that its applications can consistently deliver the highest levels of stability and throughput performance. Because Aidmatrix works with so many different kinds of partner organizations, its solutions—most of which are based on Microsoft technologies—need to synchronize with business systems that run on diverse operating system platforms. Also, its applications need to flexibly scale to handle massive bursts in demand. Following several recent natural disasters, Aidmatrix applications have experienced usage spikes on the order of 1,000 times the standard rate.

Read the full Case Study on Microsoft.com

FareShare North East Hunger Relief Warehouse in Newcastle, England, Now Live

2011-12-19T15:51:00.001-06:00

FareShare North East – in Newcastle – went live yesterday with the On-line Warehouse Hunger Module. The last depot (aka warehouse) in Edinburgh is next on the schedule.

"This is exciting seeing the whole United Kingdom network live on our solution. Thanks for everyone’s help in making this possible," stated Shari Temple of Aidmatrix [14:53 GMT December 16 2011].

Aidmatrix CEO & President Scott McCallum Travels to Aidmatrix India

2011-12-06T11:58:00.000-06:00

Our CEO & President Governor Scott McCallum spent the last week traveling to India to visit our Aidmatrix India office. There were three major events that took place during his time spent with Aidmatrix India:

The Corporate Disaster Resource Network (CDRN) National Stakeholder Council Formation Dinner: 23 corporate and 3 government officials were present and interacted with the Governor and the Aidmatrix Idnia team with a focus how improve and grow the CDRN. The CDRN is a web based supply chain management system that helps Relief agencies, Response agencies and Local governments access and feed in real time information on products and services required for emergency humanitarian relief.

Aidmatrix received the "Best IT Implementation for Greatest Social Impact" from PCQuest at an award function organized by Cybermedia Group
Read the full story

Aidmatrix India hosted a symposium, organised in collaboration with the Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry, on "Preparedness & Relief management at times of emergencies & natural disasters." 40 Companies and 4 government officials attended the event.

Governor McCallum was also interviewed by the Economic Times in India, which you can read here

Aidmatrix Featured in NAPA (National Academy of Public Administration) Annual Meeting Highlights

2011-12-06T09:53:00.000-06:00

Mr. John M. Kamensky, Senior Fellow with the IBM Center for The Business of Government and an Associate Partner with IBM's Global Business Services blogged about the highlights from the NAPA Annual Meeting last month (for The IBM Center for The Business of Government), and Aidmatrix was featured as the Nonprofit Network for Disaster Management and Recovery.

Here is the excerpt about Aidmatrix:

Non-Profit Networks. I had no idea that a non-profit electronic supply chain network has been created to coordinate a “national donations management network” that responds to disasters and other urgent local needs such as food banks. This organization, AidMatrix, links corporations such as the Oscar-Meyer food company, non-profits such as the Red Cross, and government agencies such as FEMA. The electronic network allows all its partners a view into what is in the supply warehouses around the world in order to get “the right aid to the right people at the right time.”

Aidmatrix President Scott McCallum, former governor of Wisconsin, said that the network not only wants to coordinate the distribution of needed supplies in disaster zones, such as Haiti, but also prevent a “secondary disaster” of sending the wrong people or supplies to a disaster area, such as the donation of a hospital to Haiti after the earthquake – but without a place to set it up, or doctors, or supplies, etc. He also cited the intercepted delivery of a shipload of teddy bears!

Read the full story here

The Hindu : Sport / Football : Polio awareness campaign at I-League

2011-12-01T14:53:00.000-06:00

The Hindu : Sport / Football : Polio awareness campaign at I-League

Polio awareness campaign at I-League

IMG Reliance and the I-League have joined hands with the polio eradication campaign ‘India Unite to End Polio Now’ (IUEPN).

On the opening weekend of the I-League (October 22 and 23), there will be an awareness campaign in Kolkata and Pune which will include distribution of t-shirts, visors and banners to fans at the match venues, a press release said.

Following matches would be covered as a part of the initiative: Pune FC v/s Shilong Lajong (at Pune), East Bengal vs Churchill Brothers (Kolkata) (both today) and Indian Arrows vs Mohun Bagan Ac (Kolkata); Air India vs Mumbai FC (Pune) (both tomorrow).

IUEPN is an initiative of Aidmatrix Foundation, supported by UNICEF, and a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), World Health Organisation (WHO), National Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP), Rotary International and US Centre for Disease Control (CDC).

The I-League started today and will go on till April 2012 end.

Fourteen teams are participating in the League, comprising 182 matches across 26 rounds.

UNICEF Polio Eradication Communication Specialist, Rod Curtis, appreciated the I-League and IMG Reliance’s support to India’s fight against the crippling disease.

“For far too long, polio has been crippling children but we are now in sight of a polio-free India,” he said.

Aidmatrix President & CEO Scott McCallum Featured in D Magazine "Meet the CEO"

2011-11-30T11:05:00.000-06:00

Story by Clair St. Amant for D Magazine
Pick up a copy of the October 2011 issue to read the full article

Meet The CEO: Scott McCallum

When Scott McCallum, former Governor of Wisconsin, told me his management style was perfection, I'll admit I doubted him. But from the second our interview began precisely at the appointed hour, McCallum proved that striving for perfection is a worth and attainable goal. For him, at least. As the President and CEO of Irving-based Aidmatrix, the leading global technology nonprofit, McCallum conducts business on six continents, reaching 65 million people and handling $1.5 billion worth of products annually. And he does it all with just 50 employees. "We're very efficient," McCallum says. With 96 percent of company funds going towards programming, that's an understatement. "If your heart is in the right place," he says, "the other things will follow." From cataloging warehouses in India to tracking food donations from the United States to developing countries, Aidmatrix is upgrading the world of humanitarian relief.

[The following are select parts of the interview. Read the unabridged interview by picking up a copy of D Magazine Ocotober 2011]

Title: President and CEO

Best part of your job: Our mission is immensely satisfying. To have the opportunity to help so many people on a large scale is really amazing.

Life in the office: Everybody is so driven. It's a team atmosphere with everyone willing to help each other but still understanding we have a job to be done.

Management Style: It's very easy to understand me. All I expect is perfection. I definitely run the office like I did my kids' basketball teams. I had a 97-5 overall coaching record with my sons, but some of those best learning experiences were the losses. Basketball is a game of mistakes, just like life. At Aidmatrix, there have been occasions when we celebrated mistakes because we'd learned from them. I don't want us to be so risk-adverse that we're afraid to make mistakes.

Strengths: Surrounding myself with good people. I'm also a very hard worker

Something people don't know about you: I get up at 4 a.m. and go to the gym every day.

Aidmatrix Choice System Featured in Interview with Feeding America Online User Support Specialist in issuu.com/universumusa

2011-11-29T16:51:00.000-06:00

Working at Feeding America allows Albert Gonzalez the help the greater good through his career

Text by Liz Seasholtz for issuu.com/universumusa
Read the full interview here
Read more about Aidmatrix's partnership with Feeding America and the Choice System

Q: How did you first become interested in Feeding America?
A: I worked in IT for a long time, but September 11th changed the IT industry completely, and I was laid off. I then realized I had options for my career: I wanted to find a deeper meaning to life and work somewhere I could make a difference. I started looking into nonprofits, and heard about Feeding America from a friend. Truthfully, at that point I realized how ignorant I was about hunger in the U.S. Now I'm helping solve the problem.

Q: What is your favorite service offered?
A: Selfishly, because I work on it, the Choice System. The Choice System is a web-based application that allows members to acquire product donations made available through the national office. I've been working with it for five years and I'm involved in all aspects of it.

Q: What perception of Feeding America do you want others to have?
A: When I started working with Feeding America, there was a stigma associated with working for nonprofits, that it may not be as rewarding as the corporate world. I now know better and disagree. In the nonprofit world, I have found personal gratification, talented and very diverse colleagues, and a family-like atmosphere with people that care about their jobs and care about the mission. I am no longer making the rich richer. I am Feeding America! And there's nothing more attractive and important to me than that.

Audio & Recap From the UPS Humanitarian Relief Program Capacity Building Call

2011-11-22T14:55:00.001-06:00

You can download and listen to the audio from the call by clicking the link below.

UPS Urgent Humanitarian Relief NGO and Blogger Call.wav

Highlights of the call:

UPS

As economy has been down, individual giving has been down as well. Corporate philanthropy also down. As economy goes so does philanthropy. Nonprofits need to do more with less, work smarter, and seek out key partnerships. We deliver more services electronically, and many nonprofits need to do a better job of keeping up technologically; be on the cutting edge and make advances with UPS, especially in warehousing and tracking. It will be a key in the future for UPS to partner with an expert in logistics to show how to use technology to deliver smarter and more successful.

Maximize very limited resources that nonprofits have by partnering with businesses that have those resources.

Aidmatrix:

We really try and help our partners be more efficient in their implementations.

Our partners measure their successes through savings or measure and visibility of their gross output.

CARE

We really value the accompaniment from the partnership with UPS on a day-to-day basis. UPS was very keen in on learning what was needed on a field level, before discussing what was needed strategically.

We recognize that supply chain and logistics is critical to have, and recently we’ve been able to build that internally. A number of the things that we need we could not build alone. So we’ve been seeking significant collaboration with other agencies, and trying to build systems and tools, and Aidmatrix has been instrumental in doing that for us. UPS opened up their network of strategic partners, and Aidmatrix has been one of those organizations that has stepped up significantly.

Commodity Tracking System (CTS): Online warehouse that allows NGO to track items within warehouse & also across multiple warehouses.

2 Big Themes:

Focus on Impact, measurable and demonstrable impact. Makes sure organizations are held more accountable. Increasing emphasis on collecting real-time data: RFID & Commodity Tracking.
Leverage: How can they leverage fairly targeted investments of funding skills, in-kind, into having a broader impact? UPS has been bringing in other partners to help with this.

UPS Humanitarian Relief Capacity Building Blogger Conference Call

2011-11-18T14:38:00.000-06:00

On Tuesday, November 15, Aidmatrix joined UPS, CARE, UNICEF, and the American Red Cross in a joint panel discussion about capacity building best practices for humanitarian relief as it relates to warehousing and logistics. We came away with several messages that the whole panel echoed in that in recent years with the large scale disasters that have happened requiring multi-country, multi-agency response efforts, many of our NGOs have been stretched very thin. There is an escalating need to serve more people and an escalating need to reach out beyond the cities into rural and remote areas where logistics can be even more challenging. The concept of “last-mile logistics” becomes all the more important as NGOs strive to track distributions to beneficiaries. We all recognize that we cannot do it alone. These large-scale disasters and changing needs to reach remote peoples require significant collaboration with other agencies. In addition, there is a need to have systems in place to facilitate the tracking of these logistics at a time when donor scrutiny is at an all time high.

It was an insightful conversation and a great springboard for future discussion on the matter of how the public and private sectors can collaborate better to serve those in need.

A recording of the discussion should be available soon and we’ll be sure to post a link to it once it is available.

Dynamic Custom Validation in ASP.NET - Sounds Technical, but the Results are Practical

2011-11-10T12:05:00.001-06:00

We are so fortunate to work with some of the most passionate and talented technologists in the world. While we benefit tremendously from technology and Supply Chain thought leaders at Accenture, Microsoft, UPS and others, today I’d like to brag on one of our staff.

Sangeetha Srinivasan recently had an article posted on ASP.net – a leading edge Microsoft Technology forum. The topic is regarding an innovation she developed in the field of “Dynamic Custom Validation”. While you can read more from the technology perspective at the link to Microsoft’s site below, from a human standpoint I wanted to share what this means.

In the Aidmatrix community, we tackle some of the toughest humanitarian aid challenges. We bring highly sophisticated technologies to those who serve people in need. These technologies are complex, but we and our community of partners become more expert every day on how to make these systems useful to the daily front line user who may not have much computer or business experience at all.

Sangeetha’s work with Dynamic Custom Validation helps our software capture the complicated data that is required, but only requires the front line users to see and work with the exact information needed. This reduces complexity without reducing the power of the solutions. It is innovations like this that enable a former custodian in Sri Lanka, whose first exposure to a computer was only a few months before, to leverage powerful supply chain solutions in a manner similar to a professionally trained logistician who has benefited from a top university education and years of computer experience. It also allows both of these types of users to connect in a “supply chain of giving” to serve more effectively those in need.

- Keith Thode, Chief Operating Officer

FareShare Hunger Relief Warehouse in Merseyside, England, Now Live

2011-11-07T16:27:00.000-06:00

FareShare Merseyside went live today with the Aidmatrix Online Warehouse Plus+ module. Merseyside is the county in northwest England where Liverpool is. "13 down and 2 to go! We are approaching the finish line," stated Shari Temple of Aidmatrix (16:12 GMT November 7 2011).

2012 DFW Digital Ball Founders' Dinner - A Success!

2011-11-07T16:07:00.002-06:00

A tremendous amount of excitement was generated in DFW at Aidmatrix’ Digital Ball Founders’ Dinner at Las Colinas Country Club on Thursday, October 20, 2011. The event was the introduction of the Digital Ball to Texas and some of DFW's most elite technology innovators and thought leaders gathered to lay the groundwork for the 2012 Inaugural DFW Digital Ball. Key corporate sponsors were recognized at the event including Derse, supporting at the $10,000 level, as well as Michael McGrath, Mary Elizabeth McNeely of McNeely Technology Solutions and Sam and Judy Smart, who also were high dollar supporters.

Founding Members will be engaging with Aidmatrix as well as with technology and other corporate leaders to launch the DFW Digital Ball in 2012, an event modeled after the successful events that have been in place in Atlanta, GA and Charlotte, NC for many years.

DFW Digital Ball Founding Members enjoyed a networking cocktail hour followed by an elegant dinner and program which included:

- Welcome and Aidmatrix Overview by Aidmatrix President and CEO, Gov. Scott McCallum

- Digital Ball Overview by Aidmatrix COO Keith Thode

- Information about the Digital Ball Technology Innovation Award by Aidmatrix VP of Programs Melis Jones

- Sponsor’s View of Digital Ball by long-standing Atlanta and Charlotte premier sponsor Accenture, given by Accenture Managing Director David Rich

- Engaged Partner View of Digital Ball by long-standing Atlanta and Charlotte sponsor, partner and liaison Pyramid Consulting, given by Pyramid’s Director of Strategic Accounts Mark Farbman

- Closing Remarks, including some motivational sentiments about Aidmatrix and potential Digital Ball impact for the Texas nonprofit community by Michael McGrath, Executive Chairman of the Thomas Group and Aidmatrix Chairman of the Board

Aidmatrix is proud to introduce our Digital Ball Founding Members:

Keith Arnett, Director of Sales, ii2P

Noel Barnard, President & Founder, CxO Connections

Patrick Brandt, Chairman & CEO, Telligent

Frank D. Brienzi, Senior VP and General Manager, Oracle

Jeff Butcher, Sr. Account Executive, ClearPointe Technology, Inc.

Dr. Clarke Caywood, Professor of the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University

Bryan Chan, President & Founder, SupraNet Communications, Inc.

Thad Chapman, Founder, Artis Consulting, Founder

Sarinder Chhabra, President & CEO, Claims-X-Change & MediVeda Solutions, Inc.

Kory Kellogg, Director of Sales, Statera

George Ellis, Friend of Aidmatrix

Mark Farbman, Director of Strategic Accounts, Pyramid Consulting, Inc.

Wendy Gibson, CMO, Telligent

William Haney, CEO, Derse Exhibits

Tricia Holderman, President & CEO, Elite Facility Systems

Trent Humphries, President, Strategic Introductions

International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners

Andrew Jackson, President & Co-Founder, Bravo Tech

James Maynard, Account Group Executive, Mid Americas, Avanade

Sean McCaffrey, Aquifer Group, LLC

Governor Scott McCallum, President & CEO, Aidmatrix

Matthew McGaughey, Chief Technology Officer, Stream Energy

Michael McGrath, Executive Chairman of the Board, Thomas Group

Mary Elizabeth McNeely, President, McNeely Technology Solutions, Inc.

Charlotte Medley, Program Manager, Aidmatrix

Gwen Moore, Founder, The PLAN Fund

Neil Nobie , Chief Operating Officer, KEDARit

Dr. Ramesh Raghunathan , Sr. VP of Business Development, Claims-X-Change & MediVeda Solutions, Inc.

David Rich, Managing Director, Accenture Analytics of Accenture North America

Josh Ridker, Vice President Knowledge Leadership, Thomas Group

Michael Rochelle, Business Development Executive, Avanade

Carla Rolinc, Vice President of IT, Safety-Kleen, Inc.

Dr. Shiva Shenoy , CTO, Claims-X-Change ; CTO, MediVedia Solutions, Inc.

Larry Shosid, Partner, Bell Nunnally & Martin LLP

Samuel B. Smart, III, Accenture, ret.

Barb Stinnett, Founder & CEO, Timmaron Group

Keith & Amanda Thode, Aidmatrix

Terry S. Thomas, VP/GM Dollar and Convenience Gas Channels, PepsiCo

Time Warner Cable Business Class

UPS

Tish Whitcraft, Chief Customer Officer, Tagged.com

Carlos White, General Counsel, SoftLayer Technologies, Inc.

Charles Williams, CEO, KEDARit

Aidmatrix Attends Annual Feeding America Conference in Chicago

2011-11-01T16:17:00.003-05:00

Aidmatrix Vice President - Delivery Michael Ross and Product Manager Bob Good attended the annual Finance, Technology and Human Resources Conference hosted by Feeding America Conference in Chicago, Illinois. This conference was attended by representatives from Food Banks around the country to discuss the behind the scenes aspects that make food banks run as effectively as they do. It was also a chance to discuss new innovations in the hunger relief field, in particular new advancements for Aidmatrix's AgencyExpress, a hunger-relief program that uses online ordering technology to enable Feeding America's network member food banks to list food inventories online, providing hunger-relief agencies the opportunity to view and order food from their food banks in a simple and efficient manner.

Aidmatrix Attends 28th International Supply Chain Conference in Berlin

2011-10-31T16:43:00.003-05:00

On October 19, I had the opportunity to attend the 28^th German Logistics Congress in Berlin. As a supply chain person, it is always interesting to hear the latest information about what organizations are doing. The conference was well attended with about 3500 participants from about a dozen countries.

I was part of the panel in the breakout session on Humanitarian Logistics. It was great to see several hundred people in the audience – that so many were interested in the topic. I enjoyed learning the new happenings in academia in this area. During my part, I explained the role that logistics has for saving lives – giving 2 examples – disaster relief in Haiti and hunger relief in the UK. It was great having the opportunity to share how Aidmatrix software can assist logisticians with humanitarian aid. After the session, several people asked how their corporation could help.

Shari Temple

Aidmatrix Global SCM Senior Principal

View images from the conference on Facebook

FareShare Hunger Relief Warehouse in Birmingham, England, Now Live

2011-10-31T12:24:00.003-05:00

FareShare Birmingham went live today with the Aidmatrix Network Online Warehouse Plus+ Module. "FareShare is a great example of how each go live gets easier as they do more. This was done with minimal help from Aidmatrix," reported Shari Temple of Aidmatrix (15:47 GMT October 31 2011)

The depot is in Birmingham, England. They are in the West Midlands of England. FareShare now has 11 live depots (warehouses) on Aidmatrix' Online Warehouse. Thanks for all that have made this a successful partnership.

Aidmatrix Attends Fleet Week in San Francisco

2011-10-10T12:32:00.005-05:00

Gov. McCallum and I had the honor of joining senior military personnel in San Francisco as part of the city’s Fleet Week. We spent the afternoon conferring with government officials, military personnel and members of industry in a session chaired by former Secretary of State George Shultz. The session was hosted on the USS Bonhomme Richard.

See Keith standing outside a US Battleship

Scott joined other prestigious panelists and presenters in sharing insights from all sectors involved in humanitarian response. Below is a picture of Scott speaking with fellow presenters Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and George Shultz.

See picture of Gov. McCallum, Gov. Barbour and George Shultz

Aidmatrix plays a strategic role in the area of “Private Sector Engagement” where the US Government and Military works with non-government entities to coordinate their efforts to advance society and care for those in need. Aidmatrix technologies create a social network of engagement that helps individuals, businesses and nonprofits get past the good intentions of wanting to help and accomplishing real cooperative action. Aidmatrix helps accomplish the goal of, as one speaker put it, “Unity of Commitment but not Unity of Control.”

Through this trip a new class of military leaders are better equipped to leverage the private sector via tools such as The Aidmatrix Network™

-Keith Thode, Aidmatrix COO

Aidmatrix Partners with the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano to Help Increase Hunger Relief in Northern California

2011-10-10T10:24:00.000-05:00

Aidmatrix recently announced its partnership with the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano to implement AgencyExpress® to increase their hunger-relief capacity for the people of Northern California. AgencyExpress is a hunger-relief program that uses online ordering technology to enable Feeding America's network member food banks to list food inventories online, providing hunger-relief agencies the opportunity to view and order food from their food banks in a simple and efficient manner. AgencyExpress is powered by Aidmatrix in collaboration with Feeding America.

"We are very excited to be the newest food bank to sign an MOU with Aidmatrix for the online shopping solution, AgencyExpress. AgencyExpress will provide efficiencies for our food bank staff as well as our agencies in the Contra Costa and Solano counties of California," commented Steve Linkhart, Director of Operations for the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano. "Facilitating the distribution of food to our 180 agencies can be a daunting task. With AgencyExpress, we are able to receive orders through a single online system. We are able to coordinate all the orders in a simple and efficient manner, enabling our employees and volunteers to make better use of their time."

Read the full story

Seeking Small-Value Prizes for Summer Food for Good Program

2011-10-03T11:40:00.002-05:00

The Summer Food for Good Program provided food to as many as 10,000 children in need each day this summer and engaged them in physical fitness activities to encourage them to be physically active. This program was sponsored by an Aidmatrix corporate partner, CitySquare in Dallas and Catholic Charities in Chicago. At 50-100 locations in each city, the Summer Food For Good Program provided breakfast and/or lunch directly to the participating youth every weekday along with physical activities and coaches who play fun, active games with the kids. The kids would be lined up waiting for the food everyday, excited to play dodge ball, hot potato, or any other game they wanted with the coaches.

We are currently seeking prizes for the children, in quantities from 200 to 10,000, such as toy cars, bubbles, bouncy balls - just about ANYTHING! The prizes will be used as an incentive to keep kids interested in the healthy meals and physical activities through the end of the summer.

Please join Aidmatrix, our corporate supporters, CitySquare and Catholic Charities in making a difference in the lives of thousands of children this summer. Your consideration is appreciated.

Prizes can be offered via this online donations form, the use of which has been generously made available by our nonprofit partner Powered By Action.

Logistics key to food aid

2011-09-27T11:29:00.002-05:00

By Jim Devine on www.hu-online.org

By the end of October this year, the UN estimates there will be seven billion people on the planet.

The International Federation of Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies says one billion are famished and another billion obese.

Unsurprisingly, most of the obese are in the developed world; most of the underfed are not.

The 2011 Index of Global Philanthropy and Remittances, produced by the Hudson Institute's Center for Global Prosperity, says private capital investment ($228b) remains the largest single financial flow from developed to developing nations. Remittances ($174b) are the second largest, followed by overseas development aid ($120b) and global philanthropy ($53b).

You'd think half a trillion dollars a year would be enough to sustain a billion. Apparently not.

The IFRC says the increasing frequency of disasters due to population explosion, climate change or both, is inflicting ever greater damage, loss and dislocation on vulnerable communities worldwide.

At the same time food prices are rising to the point where, according to Oxfam, the global food supply chain is "bust".

Read the full story

FareShare Hunger Relief Warehouse in Kingston upon Hull, England Now Live

2011-09-26T17:18:00.000-05:00

FareShare Hull is now live on Aidmatrix' Online Warehouse solution. “The system is live and the first food items should be arriving any day. The first shipments will be the first of October,” reported Shari Temple of Aidmatrix (9:54 GMT September 21, 2011).

This is a newly opened FareShare depot. Kingston upon Hull is in the northern part of England near the North Sea. This is the 3^rd warehouse this month and the 11^th for the network. Thanks for all that helped make this another successful go-live!

Aidmatrix Network Fall 2011 Release

2011-09-22T10:53:00.001-05:00

Aidmatrix Network Fall 2011 Release Delivers New Virtual Fundraising Tool with Social Media Integration, Managed eMarketing Services for Nonprofits, and Windows Azure™ Cloud Platform for Disaster Relief Warehouses

Dallas, Texas - September 22, 2011 - The Aidmatrix Foundation Inc. today announced its Fall 2011 release of the Aidmatrix Network for Humanitarian Relief. This latest release is currently in production and delivered as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to partner NGOs and government agencies. The major additions to the product suite include the new Virtual Aid Drive Plus+ module, an online fundraising tool with Flash game-like components to engage and entertain donors through the giving process while also enabling the donor to further promote through social media. Several new managed service offerings are also included in this release: Event Site Development, Hosting & Support; eMarketing Managed Services; and Social Media Advertising Services. Enhanced modules within the Supply Chain Management Suite include the Online Warehouse module which was migrated to the Microsoft Windows Azure™ Cloud to provide even greater scalability and rapid worldwide deployment capability - especially important during times of disaster response. The Online Warehouse Plus+ module and Online Ordering for Feeding America modules were also enhanced. For complete technical details and screenshots, visit www.aidmatrix.org/Fall2011.

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FareShare Hunger Relief Warehouse in Dundee, Scotland, Now Live

2011-09-20T09:27:00.001-05:00

FareShare Dundee is now live on Aidmatrix' Online Warehouse solution – "They entered their first receives about 20 minutes ago and should be entering their first shipments any minute now," reported Shari Temple of Aidmatrix (12:14 GMT September 19, 2011).

The depot is in Dundee, Scotland. They are in the east coast between Edinburgh and Aberdeen. FareShare now has 10 live depots (warehouses) on Aidmatrix' Online Warehouse. Thanks for all that helped make this another successful go-live!

Save the Children & Aidmatrix Partner to Increase Efficiency of International Humanitarian Aid

2011-09-15T11:50:00.003-05:00

The partnership between Save the Children & Aidmatrix began as a pilot program in Ethiopia (Click here to see pictures from the Addis Country office kickoff). The team leveraged Aidmatrix's Online Warehouse Module and Procurement Module. The Online Warehouse Module is an online application used to manage the inventory of humanitarian relief warehouses. The Procurement Module is an online application used to organize the purchasing of products and services for your humanitarian relief efforts. This partnership will provide Save the Children enhanced transparency and accountability while increasing their ability to manage relief efforts around the world.

Central Texas Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) Texas Wildfires Call Notes

2011-09-14T16:19:00.005-05:00

UPDATES:

One Star Foundation

OneStar is putting up the Volunteer Portal as quickly as possible.

Texas Baptist Men Region 21

The shelter with our Austin Shower/Laundry unit at Ascencion Catholic Church, Bastrop closed at 8pm Friday night, and rolled up and returned the unit to Austin.

Many shelter residents with insurance are going to hotels, or are arranging to live with friends. Those whose homes survived by God's grace and are located where roads have been reopened away from areas still hot with potential to flare - are returning home even though weeks may pass before water and electrical services can be restored through adjacent burned out areas.

As the 12-15 original shelters coalesced into 3 shelters, other feeding and shower/laundry units are supporting at these sites.

We may be needed later to support clean-out and chainsaw crews although FEMA is currently bringing in private contractors to supply TX National Guard workers incoming into the area.

UMC-Austin

The United Methodist Church had Spiritual and Emotional Care Teams in Bastrop this past week serving the evacuees/survivors at the Bastrop Middle School shelter early in the week and then at the Convention Center the remainder of the week. We served hundreds of people there with: spiritual and emotional care dispensed information, assisted in rehabbing firefighters, and otherwise served to support and encourage the people as they came to the Convention Center to find out if their homes had burned.

The Austin District of the United Methodist Church have scheduled two training sessions (Sept. 16th and Sept. 24th) to train and credential other Early Responders for the clean up efforts.

Capitol Area Food Bank

Capital Area Food Bank of TX (CAFB) held an emergency meeting for Partner Agency food pantries in the Bastrop and surrounding areas at the Bastrop County Emergency Food Pantry http://www.bastropfoodpantry.org .

All CAFB Partner Agencies report that they have been active in response efforts. All are providing food and other assistance to families and first responders. All report that their immediate needs are taken care of. Smithville reports that the Smithville Recreation Center is very organized and running smoothly. Primera Baptist has also been running as a shelter since Sunday.

CAFB Commitment and Long Term Care Plans

CAFB recognizes all Partner Agencies in the affected and surrounding areas as disaster agencies. These agencies have the commitment of CAFB that we will give priority in making sure all their needs are met so that they can meet the need of the community. CAFB is working with Central TX VOAD (www.centraltexasvoad.org) The Austin Disaster Relief Network (ADRN) (www.adrntx.org), Texas Food Bank Network (www.endhungerintex.org), Feeding America (www.feedingamerica.org) and State Emergency Mgmt to coordinate efforts.

· All CAFB Partner Agencies in affected and surrounding areas are instructed use the ADRN call center and refer victims to the ADRN Victim Hotline 512-331-2600 & ADRN Public Hotline at 512-331-2200which is open from 8am – 10pm

· CAFB Has appointed the Bastrop County Emergency Food Pantry as CAFB’s main point for centralized disaster coordination for all partners. Bastrop County Emergency Food Pantry will assist in continued coordination and unity of all affected partners. Please include Tresha Silva director@bastropfoodpantry.org on all future disaster updates

· CAFB will make a statement of visibility and response by having a mobile pantry distribution at Bastrop Emergency Food Pantry on Tuesday, September 13 from 2 -4 p.m. This distribution serves many purposes:

· First and foremost, to provide family boxes to families affected by this major disaster

· To make a statement to the media and community that the Capital Area Food Bank and its network of food pantries are present and are taking the leadership role in the area of food assistance, both disaster and daily

· Raise awareness that this pantry is where our victims can receive long term care

· Raise awareness of the needs of the community, to spur food donations and assure continued support

Vermont Joins National Donations Management Network to Aid in Flood Relief

2011-09-14T08:18:00.001-05:00

The State of Vermont joined the NDMN program to help manage the donations for the ongoing flooding across the state. The State is still in response mode after Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee came through in previous weeks. The NDMN program is sponsored by FEMA, Accenture, UPS & the Aidmatrix Foundation and it provides each State with a web portal and tools for managing donation offers online, enabling the relief community to post their needs and the State's office of emergency services to help connect the two.
You can visit the the site at www.ndmn.us

FareShare Hunger Relief Warehouse in North Wales Is Now Live

2011-09-13T11:18:00.003-05:00

FareShare UK's latest hunger relief warehouse just went live this week in North Wales on the Aidmatrix Online Warehouse solution. This is part of a multi-warehouse rollout plan underway this year. The depot is in Llandudno, Wales. They are in the far north part of Wales. "They entered their first receives about an hour ago and should be entering their first shipments any minute now," reported Shari Temple, Aidmatrix Global SCM Senior Principal Consultant (posted on Sep 12, 2011, at 12:57 PM GMT).

FareShare now has 9 live depots (warehouses) on Aidmatrix. The next one is scheduled to be in Dundee.

Congratulations to the FareShare team and for all that helped make this another successful go-live!

Remembering 9/11/01

2011-09-11T19:42:00.001-05:00

We take this time to remember all those who lost their lives and who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001.

Catholic Relief Services Partners with Aidmatrix to Improve International Relief and Development Efforts

2011-09-08T14:23:00.002-05:00

Aidmatrix recently announced its partnership with Catholic Relief Services (CRS), an international humanitarian agency that assists impoverished and disadvantaged people overseas. Through this partnership, Aidmatrix supply chain management technology will enhance CRS' global efforts.

"We believe that the Aidmatrix technology will greatly enhance Catholic Relief Services' programs around the world, and our staff is eagerly awaiting the opportunity to begin applying it to their work," stated Ken Hackett, President of Catholic Relief Services.

This program will begin with pilots in four locations: Kenya, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Palestine.

Read the full story

Texas Fires Continue to Spread

2011-09-08T10:52:00.002-05:00

As of this morning, it is reported that more than 1,300 homes were destroyed and at least 434 people in 4 shelters. One fire in Bastrop County is reported to have burned 34,000 acres Wednesday. The ARC reported a total of 18 shelters that are open but the numbers of victims is still climbing. Several projects are underway from VOAD agencies and lots of resources are available. Learn more at: www.statesman.com

Learn more about how you can help

Aidmatrix to Host "Digital Ball" Event for DFW Technology Community; Founders' Dinner Kickoff Planned for October 2011

2011-09-07T13:40:00.003-05:00

The Aidmatrix Foundation Inc. and NPower Texas announced plans to bring the "Digital Ball," a technology networking and charitable fundraising event, to the Dallas / Fort Worth area in 2012. This well-known annual event was introduced by NPower in Atlanta, Georgia, and successfully followed by Charlotte, North Carolina, as a leading annual convocation of local CIOs and technology companies focused on empowering the nonprofit community through the adoption of technology. This will be the first Aidmatrix/NPower Digital Ball in the DFW area. In preparation for the event, Aidmatrix is hosting a Digital Ball Founders' Dinner Kickoff for October, 2011, and interested parties are now invited to apply for committee membership by contacting Karen Krygowski at Karen_krygowski@aidmatrix.org or 972-869-8166.

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