What did the launch of cloud based
membership management mean for
members and staff?
"For members it went relatively smoothly with few hiccups and questions and only positive feedback. However, the experience was markedly different for staff. Given the small size of our team, much of the development work on the new solution was done by one or two members on top of regular duties. This meant that although there was an open atmosphere to encourage discussions, the particular details of the platform were only fully revealed once the project was complete. The subsequent launch meant that there was a lack of continuity in responsibility and tasks for some staff members."
Q
How important is training?
"Very. We are providing internal training on the
critical components and creating user guides. The
mid-term strategy is to continue
with the training and provide support to staff as they are trying to get used to a very different logic and ways of performing tasks. The user guides will be perpetually updated and expanded to allow our internal users to work with the new tools independently.
As for members, individual presentations will be made to our Working Groups during face-to-face meetings throughout the year. Together with informal one-to-one discussions, these will allow us to further explain the major improvements and additional capabilities offered by the new solution."
Q
What were the main challenges
leading up to implementation?
"We’re a small team so a big challenge was the lack
of available resources and staff
having multiple responsibilities. It is important not to underestimate the workload that migration to a different solution creates, especially a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution.
A lot of creativity and flexibility was needed by key staff in order to find workarounds and solutions that are a good fit with the critical components being transferred from the old system. Often, although thorough analysis and planning were done during the platform selection stage, many details do not become clear until the individual stages of the project.
The debate about the physical location of the servers and the background of the solution provider – a US-based company - was also very challenging. As luck would have it, our initial presentation of the selected platform to our governing body took place right after the first Edward Snowden revelations which meant a highly politicised atmosphere. Of course we were well aware of the importance of security during the selection process itself. Despite the Safe Harbor agreement, which has now become standard for almost any US company having customers in Europe, it is very important to be aware of the implications of migrating your data outside of Europe. Although it can be as simple as requiring approval from your members, it is critical to start any discussions about security and server location with the basic premise that regardless of where in the world the data is located, it is not safe anywhere. Given the global nature of the internet, there is a good chance that even if a provider has their primary servers located in the European Union, their back-ups are likely to be done through Amazon or Google services."
Q
What are the greatest benefits of
migrating to cloud computing?
"An ‘office in the cloud’ means major benefits such as
fixed costs, increased security, standard
configurations, centralised software licenses and access from ‘everywhere’. However, this means staff are reliant on internet access, which is not always available or can be unreliable in hotels, airports, etc. The biggest long-term benefit is the future proofing of our web development which was too costly and time consuming to do in-house."
Q
What difference has the cloud made to
costs?
"Adopting cloud has allowed us to budget and fix our IT
costs in a reliable and predictable way. Our biggest
savings will come from future development costs as they are built into the service and driven by a large association community."
Q
What feedback have you had from
members on the success of the project?
"Our members are IT managers and quite web-savvy.
Most of the feedback received complimented the
new design, ease of use and extra features. The challenge is to get them to use all of the new features. If we provide them with the right tools there will be no excuse to jump to another platform, as was the case with our older websites."
Q
What advice can you give other
membership organisations planning
cloud migration?
"Do not underestimate the importance of data location and the resistance of internal staff to adopting new platforms and working tools. Even if it takes more time and effort involve the staff and provide training well before the platform is launched." platform, as was the case with our older websites."
Q
What are your plans for future IT
development at ETIS?
"We are planning to launch an iphone app for our new
online community as well as a Social Mention
and social media management tool. We have also added a VoIP video conferencing solution to our tool portfolio which is highly cost-effective and can be used for internal and external communication. Hopefully, our new online community platform will help our association stay up-to-date and relevant for members. However, continuing travel restrictions make it difficult for members to attend our Working Group meetings and depending on the future economic situation we might consider expanding our online communication capabilities to include a webinar and large-scale video conferencing tool."
Q
Fred Werner is Communications and Programme Director at The IT Association for Telecommunications
He is the Keynote speaker at the Technology for Associations Congress, 2-3 July 2014.
www.associationscongress.com/tech