The Institute of Public Administration in Australia needed a software company to design a module for events that would manage memberships, handle issues surrounding the ever increasing number of workshops, and web enable the whole system. They wrote a tender and put it out in the open marketplace, hoping to receive a reasonable offer from a Software company. Read this to learn why Certain was the right choice for the IPAA.
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Challenge
IPAA Queensland is a non-profit, membership based organization, specifically for people working in, or with an interest in the public sector. Membership ranges from middle to senior level managers from the Australian, State and Local Government sectors, as well as government owned corporations and large consulting fi rms. There are some 750 individual members and 55 corporate members in Queensland.
Certain Events was not new to the IPAA. Diane James of the IPAA Queensland team explains, “We had found it an exceptionally powerful program for event management - conferences, workshops and seminars, and I had done a fair amount of work with the program to manage our membership. But as we grew, this became quite unwieldy, and eventually we needed a program that could annually manage over 200 workshops of around 15 people each, 20 seminars of around 300 people each, and to better manage our memberships. We also wanted all this to be web enabled.’
‘We wrote a tender and put it out to the market place - mostly to software companies that were already offering off the shelf packages, as we couldn´t see why the basics we required were any different to any other membership-based organization.’
‘We ended up with some very good proposals - every one of which required some customization to the existing software. However, when Trevor Gardiner (COO of Certain Software, formerly Amlink Technologies) met with me and offered to look at designing a module for events that would manage membership, handle the issues we were having with the ever increasing number of workshops, and web enable the whole system, I decided it was worth some further discussion.’
‘We were already using the system, knew how to use it, and it already contained all of our data. Trevor came in to see us and explained in about five minutes exactly what we were looking for. It was then that I knew that Trevor understood our organization and what we knew we needed, and even more so, what we didn´t know we needed. Along with this, Trevor offered us a very generous partnership that was within our budget.”
Solution
IPAA Queensland’s Dianne James, who was one of the first to use Certain memberConnect in its original development, says, “What we have is a system that will improve and develop over time as more and more organizations use it - and so it will always keep up with the latest technology and the latest way of doing this.” memberConnect has since become a highly fl exible package designed to meet the information management needs of any association. It´s web enabled and can be customized to suit the requirements of any membership-based organization - from professional associations to sports clubs. Most importantly, memberConnect uses eventsPro and eventsInteractive as its event management system, meaning it smoothly integrates with these existing products.
Results
Following is a short question and answer session with Dianne James on the success achieved by IPAA Queensland.
Q: What features of the system have been most useful and in what way will you use them to manage your membership?
“Web enabling the entire system will be most beneficial and it is the way of the future. We are encouraging our members to go to the web and manage their own details, pay their renewals online, register for member functions online, and keep a track of their activities. Confirmation letters are all automated via email, and invoices and receipts are attached as a PDF.’
‘Financial integration has also been a useful feature, allowing us to export journals from events and import them into MYOB, with all the correct accounts amd correct timing for accrual based accounting.”
Q: To what extent does this software add to the events software you already used?
“It has solved a lot of the doubling up issues we had with our workshops and seminars. We now keep everything in the membership module - except for conferences. We are much more efficient in the way we market and manage our membership and our events.’
‘We only have to enter information into the system once - and it is then live on our website. Online registrations are also a huge advantage to us. In fact we have already felt the impact of the system - and the person who was responsible for registering workshop participants is fi nding the nature of her job is changing.’
‘It´s likely that the amount of processing will be reduced, and the tasks will be more associated with data based integrity. The financial integration with MYOB is extremely important, and is already making our financial administration easier.’
‘The system that has been developed has made one of the biggest and most positive impacts on our organization, with respect to administration systems, since I have been with IPAA (8 years). Other benefits of memberConnect include:
- Reduced duplication and doubling up of tasks
- Information retained in membership module, except for conferences
- More efficiency in the way membership events are marketed and managed
- Information is entered only once into the system
- Online registrations are more efficient and save administration costs.’
‘Trevor and his colleagues gave us the best possible customer service that I have ever experienced. The team members involved in the development were patient, easy going, always happy to help, and never made us feel that we were asking too much of them.”
