The Challenge
ACA is a small association of financial planners headquartered in Eastern Michigan. When Vanguard Technology first met ACA they had a sub-par membership database that also hosted their website without any usable content management system. Their website was growing stale without the necessary technology for a small staff to continually update the content. Their hosting company was also essentially going out of business in a few short months so ACA needed a robust system to improve their technology footprint that could also be deployed rapidly.
ACA decided that while they were replacing their membership database and adding a CMS, they would update the look and feel of their website and add a private social network to their new site. Due to their limited technology budget, ACA felt they would not be able to get everything they wanted and needed or would have to settle for lower quality technology that would operate as disparate systems. They were especially concerned about the short timeframe for implementation.
The Solution
Vanguard Technology stepped in and assessed ACA's technology needs. We determined that Vanguard's standard approach of integrating affordable configurable commercial software and plugging in additional functionality as needed was a perfect fit. We proposed to ACA a website and CMS package and were able to configure a robust solution that would meet their needs within their somewhat restrictive budget. We chose Avectra’s netFORUM Pro knowing that was an affordable configurable membership management system for associations that had standard available integration points for single-sign-on with multiple systems. We recommended that Vanguard implement our partner Higher Logic's Connected Community software which integrates seamlessly with many association management systems. Most importantly, Vanguard chose Sitefinity from Telerik for the content management system knowing that it is a cost-effective easy-to-use software solution that could be implemented on a short timeline.
Due to Sitefinity’s open API, configurability and ability to deploy custom modules into each installation, it became the core application for ACA’s flawlessly integrated system. In fact Vanguard decided to build out-of-the-box integrations with netFORUM Pro and Connected Community from a module which started out as a custom Sitefinity module. We proposed redesigning the ACA website using one of our most affordable website packages and because we are using the Sitefinity CMS, we figured to have no issues implementing a custom design into Sitefinity and skinning the other two products to match. We proposed to ACA our standard VIP ongoing support package which includes ongoing training and support of the integration points which is a vital piece to any integrated system.
The Results
The proposed solution was implemented by Vanguard exactly as was planned and was live in production within the 90 day timeframe. All 3 systems are seamlessly integrated and have been in production since July 2009. ACA is thrilled with their new website and with Vanguard Technology. All 3 applications appear to the casual user to be one single system instead of 3 separate systems and we owe this to our methodology of sticking with commercially available software like Sitefinity that has open available integration and is highly configurable.
ACA is able to update their site more frequently thus providing more relevant and current content to their members and ACA has noticed more site traffic and an overall increase in membership due to this change. ACA loves Vanguard’s approach and continues to be a terrific reference for us. The ACA implementation is now listed as one of the featured sites for the netFORUM Pro sales team and is a case study on the Sitefinity website. This proves that there are affordable and robust technology solutions for smaller associations to fit their needs.