MSP Envizion IT provides cash, tech, non-profit support

April 11, 2023, 05:49 pm EDT

Those hours are actually provided by the Invision team. You will work those hours over the next 12 months of support to do things like Microsoft 365 migrations, desktop deployments, MDM (Mobile Device Management) deployments, etc. They really give their own time to work on those projects. That was their idea,” said Marc Velhoff, CEO and founder of Envision IT.

Managed services provider Invision IT is preparing to make a donation, including IT equipment and services, to a nonprofit organization in the West Michigan area.

The Envizion IT Technology Grant, now in its second year, was established by MSP as a way to give back to the West Michigan community, said Mark Veldoff, CEO and founder of Zeeland, Mich.-based MSP.

“Our company is just over three years old, so we’re a brand new startup,” Veldhof told CRN. But we were looking for great ways to give back to the community, and one group came up with the concept of a tech giveaway. And it first started with, OK, let’s see what the nonprofit community wants.

[Related: Microsoft Partners Target ‘Underserved’ Industry With Cloud For Nonprofit]

At first, Envizion IT wasn’t sure what a nonprofit wanted to invest in given their IT needs, Veldoff said.

“Really, the demand comes from the fact that there are a lot of nonprofits that are lagging behind in their IT investments,” he said. “They’re not investing in IT. And this is not because they don’t believe in IT. All MSPs have encountered customers who do not believe in investing in IT. These organizations are busy putting all their money into their mission and giving the money to the people they help. And they spend their money on healthy IT.

Envizion IT is an MSP that serves everything from user support to cloud environments, networking and business analytics. The company has partnered with ConnectWise through RMM (Remote Monitoring and Management) as well as Microsoft Intune cloud-based endpoint management technology.

Envizion IT has begun accepting applications for its 2023 nonprofit grant. The winning organization will receive $29,000 in cash to spend on IT and 75 hours of volunteer time from the organization’s employees, Velhoff said.

“Those hours are actually provided by the Invision team,” he said. “They’ll work those hours over the next 12 months with the grant to do things like Microsoft 365 migrations, desktop deployments, MDM (mobile device management) deployments, etc. They really give their own time to work on those projects. That was their idea.”

In total, that’s about $49,000 that could be used for hardware licenses or additional hours, Veldoff said.

“If you need additional hours that don’t cover our 75 hours, we’ll start charging for that,” he said.

This is the second year for the Envizion IT Technology Grant. The grant last year went to Community Action House, Holland, Mich., which provides local families with food, clothing, shelter and a skill-building opportunity.

“Community Action House has a unique approach to food banking,” Veldoff said. “When people donate food, the organization puts them in boxes according to their ethnicity. So they had an American or Asian or Hispanic food box. And people don’t like it or use it all, depending on their cooking style, leading to a lot of waste. They now have an entire ‘grocery store’ where their members can log in and spend points instead of dollars. Every month you get a certain amount of points that you can spend at this grocery store and you get the food that you really want to eat. If you have vegetables, fruits, some healthy foods like grains, or other unhealthy foods, you will get less points than if you eat in a box.

For Community Action House, Envision’s IT staff initially envisioned a “big bang” project, but that didn’t happen, Veldoff said.

“It wasn’t just one project where we got this big bang,” he said. “The bottom line is that over the last 10 months we’ve slowly implemented IT efficiency and maintenance projects and revamped our legacy IT. So there was no point where you said, ‘Oh, this will save a lot of time and money.’ It is the accumulation of all these projects in one year that has made them reach their current level.

One big change for Community Action House was being able to improve staff efficiency to focus on their core mission, Veldoff said.

“They had an IT guy working part-time,” he said. “Now they are shifting all their time to other parts of the organization working on development projects for their mission.”

The Envision IT Technology Grant is a one-year project for the winning organization. After that, the nonprofit can continue to work with Envision IT for the nonprofit’s discounted rate for managed services, or it’s free to work with another vendor, Veldoff said.

“Even if they don’t have to stay with us, the company wrote the support to keep anything we implement,” he said. “The benefits of RMM and EDR (endpoint detection and response), new tools, should continue to hold those. That shouldn’t happen with us. You can get services from elsewhere or do it internally. Signing a service contract is not necessarily our goal. But if you want to continue using our services, you can do so at a non-profitable price.

The grant application process is open to non-profit organizations in West Michigan located in Allegan, Ottawa and Kent counties. The application deadline is April 30 and finalists are slated to be selected by May 5. The organization’s final selection to receive the grant is scheduled for June 2, and the organization must use the funding, hardware, software and volunteer hours between July. 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.