Business issue
YMCA is an Australian not-for-profit organisation. After developing a business strategy to address YMCAs business needs, Immersive was engaged to implement an extranet for the organisation. We had met with senior management to align YMCA's strategic direction with its online business requirements and worked out what online experiences YMCA needed to have with its customers. We had also determined what kind of online platform YMCA needed to manage communication and workflow across remote locations.
From a technical point of view, the main business challenges for YMCA were:
- Multiple systems spread over various locations, that were not ‘talking’ to each other
- Multiple systems doing same thing, but controlled by different people
- Lack of central control and coordination over the various systems, while people weren’t communicating effectively
Business solution
After putting together a business strategy and a 12-month implementation roadmap for YMCA, we developed the technology component for enabling the organisation to meet its strategic goals. The web-based platform that we have implemented provides the following tools to all 382 of YMCA’s centres:
-Content Management System (CMS)
-Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
-Knowledge Management tool
-Campaign management tool
The online technology solution uses the best available technology: reliable, robust and secure. It is designed to be readily supported by more than just a handful of technology providers in Australia. We developed the following customised systems for YMCA:
Content Management System (CMS) and Extranet
Based on our understanding of the YMCA business and its ‘users,’ we recommended a Content Management System (CMS) accessible via a sign-on extranet system.
Livelink Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
Immersive has extended the functionality of the Livelink to suit YMCA’s business needs. The next iteration of the project will involve porting the Livelink system to a customised public-facing website.
SharePoint workflow
SharePoint, a collaboration and document management platform was used as the primary foundation for the workflow system that we developed for YMCA. SharePoint allows users to access shared workspaces and documents from a web browser. It displays information as ‘web parts’ (components like task lists, or discussion panes). Users can view these web parts and interact with them via web pages.
Interactive features
Technology solutions should be about people’s needs and should provide valuable experiences, relevant to a person’s relationship to an organisation. Just as people need to actively control their environment based on the way they function as individuals, they need to have choices in the way in which they interact with technology. The systems we developed can be readily customised to support the way individual associations operate with YMCA, and allows them to retain control of their own data.
We provided a range of features that have been customised to enable YMCA staff to work more effectively. They can now set up an online collaborative workspace to develop, share and manage working documents, and capture project-related communications. It is now easier for them to locate, bookmark and share information.
Each association has the opportunity to provide an extranet for its staff to communicate at each individual site, as well as at association and national levels. Each association also has the opportunity to publish local websites that allow them to communicate local information, news and resources.
Examples of how this can help individual users:
The CEO of YMCA The CEO can access all areas of the organisation via the Extranet. He can now keep track of what his happening in the organization by customising his view of what information appears on his screen, adding his favourite internal and external online tools, news and information feeds.
YMCA swimming instructor Jane GoddardAs organiser of a taskforce to develop a new safety standard at YMCA pools, swimming instructor Jane Goddard needs to collaborate with others. Jane now has her own view of the YMCA extranet, which provides her with timely news and information based on her role and the site that she works from. She can also customise her view, adding her favourite online tools, news, and information feeds.
Jane often uses the YMCA computer system to search for manuals and other documentation. In the past, she has found it difficult to find what she had been looking for. But now, she is able to easily locate and bookmark the documents.
Business outcome
With this new strategy and technology implementation, we have given YMCA employees and management the ability to communicate better, and to collaborate more effectively across the whole of the organisation. The sign-on extranet system provides a unified working environment for staff, taskforces and associations across all YMCA sites, and it serves as a useful home base and resource centre for workplace communication, collaboration and marketing campaigns. It is designed to help portray the YMCA brand professionally and consistently, both to staff and to customers.
The technology solution allows YMCA national to perform its management role better. The online nature of the solution means that individual associations can reduce communication and IT infrastructure costs. Local YMCA associations benefit from the ability to better communicate and collaborate with other local YMCA associations. Staff can customise their own view of the YMCA extranet, which provides them with timely news and information to suit their role and the place that they work. YMCA customers can benefit from the improved overall efficiency that this solution will bring to YMCA, and from more consistent and engaging brand experiences.