Community IT Voices: Erik Fernandez, IT Business Manager

Community IT Innovators Nonprofit Technology Topics

In today’s interview, Carolyn talks with Erik Fernandez, who is an IT Business Manager at Community IT and has been with us for nine years.

IT Business Managers are a unique aspect of account management at Community IT. They have senior technical expertise but also business and strategic knowledge. ITBMs function as a general strategic IT advisor; a liaison between our clients and our internal department at Community IT. ITBMs advise clients on improvement projects, IT budgeting, licensing software, hardware recommendations, general short- and long-term goals and initiatives and provide a central point to coordinate such initiatives. ITBMs help clients be forward-looking, and act as a vendor-agnostic, trusted advisors with deep knowledge of the nonprofit IT software and platforms available.

“…When you’re working with nonprofits, the people part is very important. You need to have soft skills and an attitude of helpfulness and kindness. The human component is very important, I would say … My previous work experience in IT related jobs was in kind of cutthroat environments. While I was prepared for the same here, I found the atmosphere of camaraderie, service, helping and learning at Community IT proved me wrong on that.” - Erik Fernandez, IT Business Manager

Join us for our series featuring interviews with Community IT employees. In this series, we talk about nonprofit technology career paths, career resources, skills, and certifications. We will also touch on mentoring opportunities as you start out on your career and ways to give back if you are further along. If you are wondering what it is like to work at a place like Community IT, you can learn about it here.

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