by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

March 12, 2009

Started nine years ago with 100 computers and “one-and-a-half technicians,” the Information Technology department at United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey is experiencing — and even enjoying — growing pains.

The department has grown to include 20 staffers who work with 1,400 terminals and an integrated telephone system in 11 different locations.

More than a tech service for just the federation at its Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus location in Whippany, the department provides services to Jewish communal agencies and clients around the region — essentially allowing those agencies to “outsource” their IT needs.

Now, the department is trying to expand.

“We are looking to get as many clients as we can,” said Carl Scalzo, chief information officer at UJC MetroWest.

“They don’t necessarily have to be part of the federation, or even the Jewish community. But for tax reasons they must be nonprofit only,” he added.

Scalzo was the department’s only full-time employee when he fired up the federation’s IT system in 2000. His assistant divided his workday between IT and the UJA Campaign.

During the years since, the MetroWest computer network has continued expanding — to the Jewish Historical Society of MetroWest and The Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life, both on the Aidekman campus in Whippany; the JCC MetroWest branches in West Orange and Whippany; and the Daughters of Israel nursing home in West Orange.

Two Jewish day schools — Nathan Bohrer-Abraham Kaufman Hebrew Academy of Morris County in Randolph and Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union in West Orange — signed on as clients. So did NJ Jewish News.

Scalzo is pitching cost savings at a time when the nonprofit world is struggling under the weight of stagnant donations, shrinking investments, and a growing demand for their mental health, vocational training, and direct assistance services. 

“We can buy cheaper; we can deliver services more cheaply,” Scalzo said. “In theory, and it seems to be working this way, the larger we get, the less expensive it becomes for everybody. We have better buying relationships. We can get better prices from Dell than almost any other nonprofit organization in the state of New Jersey. There aren’t any other nonprofits buying as much as us.”

In addition, the IT department manages a complicated telephone system linked with its computers. Phone service can be expanded as needed on special occasions.

For UJC MetroWest’s Super Sunday fund-raiser in December, “we put 225 telephones in the conference room,” said Scalzo. “In years past, we would buy dedicated connections to the telephone company. It cost us $21,000 for the phone company on that one day, but last year we did not spend a penny. We just connected it all up ourselves.”

‘Quality service for less’

With technical powers that can reach far beyond Whippany, the IT department enabled the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, DC, to make use of MetroWest phone lines during its Super Sunday event in February.

“We are sharing the costs and responsibilities and taking advantage of economies of scale,” Scalzo said.

“Typically, the prices we are seeing in the community right now are about $100 to $150 an hour for IT support,” said Kerry Goldflam, the department’s operations manager. “We are generally charging $75. It is a dramatic difference.”

Goldflam is charged with maintaining customer relations, recruiting new clients, and trying to establish a bigger base of customers.

Currently, he is seeking to sign up the Jewish Family Service of MetroWest, which maintains some 50 computers and four different telephone numbers at five different locations.

“We are looking at any and all efficiencies here,” said JFS executive director Reuben Rotman. “We invited them to look at our systems, and the matter is still under consideration.”

The Solomon Schechter school has been using MetroWest IT for some three years. “They are great,” said head of school Joyce Raynor. “They are a pleasure to work with.” 

NJJN, located downstairs from Scalzo’s office at the Aidekman campus, has been a client since the department first sought to expand.

“For the cost of what we would pay a dedicated IT person we get access to an entire department and 24-hour help, and there are cost savings in not having to duplicate the major servers and other hardware,” said Andrew Silow-Carroll, NJJN’s editor-in-chief and CEO. “We weighed these advantages against not having a direct say in the staffing of the department, and realizing the needs of the newspaper don’t always match the protocols for the IT department. But that’s always the trade-off when you essentially outsource a business function.”

Scalzo said he is seeking to work with smaller institutions such as synagogues, even as he tries to recruit “a few private schools outside of the Jewish community.

“It is even more beneficial when we go into a nursing home or a school where they are spending typically hundreds of thousands of dollars and they have a core infrastructure in place that is being maintained,” he added. “Generally we are trying to get bigger organizations, because they will help lower the operating costs for everybody.

“Our goal is to provide better quality service for less than what an organization is currently spending.

“If you work together, the barriers that used to exist no longer exist anymore. It’s great,” said Scalzo.

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