Technology donation to benefit
Central Aroostook ARC
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
PRESQUE ISLE – Central Aroostook ARC, which offers numerous programs to assist individuals with developmental disabilities reach their highest potential, is on the information superhighway’s fast track thanks to a recent donation by MMG Insurance.
MMG INSURANCE recently donated a volume license agreement with Microsoft to Central Aroostook ARC. The agreement contains a Microsoft Exchange 2003 mail server and 130 client access licenses. Steve Richard, executive director of Central Aroostook ARC, said the donation will help the staff and the whole business organization because “we can be networked now and can run like a real business.” Here, Richard, left, accepts the donation from Stacy Shaw, vice president and information systems manager at MMG.
“We donated one of our volume license agreements with Microsoft to Central Aroostook ARC,” said Stacy Shaw, vice president and information systems manager at MMG. “The agreement contained a Microsoft Exchange 2003 mail server and 130 client access licenses.
“MMG upgraded from 2003 to what was the current version – 2007 – and we’re in the process of migrating again to the latest 2010 version,” he said. “We purchased and owned the 2003 product, and when it became outdated for our purpose, it was just going to sit on the shelf. It was old enough that it really wasn’t of any use to us, so it made sense to donate it.”
Steve Richard, executive director of Central Aroostook ARC, was overwhelmed by the gift.
“MMG could easily have put that [system] on the shelf and been done with it, but instead were very thoughtful and said, ‘There must be somebody that could use this,’” he said. “We’re very appreciative of their generosity.
“The donation is great for us; that’s not something we would have put into our budget,” said Richard. “Our resources go to help support individuals, so having companies like MMG allows us to somewhat stay up with technology and not have to invest our own money in that. The donation will help the staff and our whole business organization because we can be networked now and can run like a real business. It’s being used as businesses should use it.”
This isn’t the first technology donation MMG has made to Central Aroostook ARC.
“Two years ago MMG upgraded their Microsoft Office Suite to 2007 and they had a volume license of 130, so they got permission to donate a transfer of that license over to us so we were able to upgrade all of our systems totally free, totally legal,” said Richard, “which is really good for a non-profit.
“We figure this donation is valued at around $12,000-$14,000,” he said.
Shaw said the company was happy to help.
“It was really a simple decision for us and made complete sense,” he said. “Part of our value offering here is we love to help the community and be involved and sometimes we can do that in the form of donations and sometimes we can do that in the form of technology support, and I think this is one of those cases where we could do both.
“From the executive management down to our IT staff, we’re very thrilled to be able to go through this process and provide another local company that we’ve got a great relationship with,” said Shaw, “with some tools and software support that can help them manage their business better.”
