[Chapter-delegates] Update on Membership System

[Rajnesh D. Singh]

Hi David,

Good to hear of the positive progress and in particular the expected
reduction in signup screens.

Looking forward to further quick and efficient progress.


Regards,
R.


-----Original Message-----
From: chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org
[mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] On Behalf Of David
McAuley
Sent: Friday, 17 March 2006 11:04 AM
To: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
Subject: [Chapter-delegates] Update on Membership System


Dear Chapter Delegates:

This is further information since my mail to you on February 23rd
regarding the membership system and the issues regarding it raised by
some of the chapters.

Since that last mail ISOC IT in collaboration with admin staff has now
carried out an analysis of end-user and back-office aspects of the
membership system. This is a step to address immediately those issues
where we felt we had a solid understanding of the concerns.  This
activity highlighted two main areas where major improvements could be
made:

1) Administrative processes. In Phase 1 certain aspects of the sign- up
procedure involved manual intervention (approvals) on the part of ISOC
staff, this was part of the transition and inevitable clean-up processes
when migrating to a new system.  Automation of these manual steps was
always planned and will speed up the process significantly.  Here, steps
have already been taken to make better use of existing system
functionality and reduce the manual intervention and hence lag times.
More improvements are forthcoming and we have now contracted with the
vendor (GoMembers) for help in assessing ways to continue improvements. 

2) Member sign-up process. Signup involves navigating through a minimum
of 6 screens.  A logical (and so far theoretical) functional redesign
and proto-typing exercise carried out by staff shows that this procedure
could be reduced to one or two screens.  This has been reviewed with the
vendor who agrees with the analysis and is now scoping out support to
achieve this.

In addition, we've evaluated several options and are in the process of
working with GoMembers to build a new interface layer above the current
back-end system, exposing web interfaces to common sign up functions.

This will provide ISOC and Chapters with a much more flexible platform
which allows for greater freedom in integration of ISOC-developed and
hosted sign-up scripts with the back-end membership system.

This also opens the door to ISOC providing greater value-added
functionality such as local language sign-up form, etc. By developing a
generic interface layer, and publishing the specification of the
interface API, development of future functionality may be carried out by
parties other than the system vendor (e.g. Chapters, ISOC staff etc).
Furthermore the implementation of true web-based APIs would mean that
such developments will no-longer be dependent on the usage of
proprietary technologies or programming languages.

We have mandated Go Members to proceed with a short period of system
analysis in order to determine the form of the functions to be provided
through the required new interface layer. This analysis has been
discussed with GoMembers, has been ordered and is expected to be
completed shortly.  ISOC staff will then proceed to map out the precise
specifications of this interface in concert with a Committee to be
established - a committee which will include chapter and Board
participation.   This Committee will be led by a combination of Peter
Godwin for systems and David McAuley for Membership.

In summary for now, we are currently in possession of a large amount of
detailed commentary from Chapters concerning their requirements and this
has significantly informed our reviews and our ability to take steps to
provide quick relief for some of the more cumbersome parts of the
system.  And as mentioned above, a committee will be formed shortly
which will be governed by an express charter which we will share with
you.

Best regards,
David

David McAuley
Membership Director
Internet Society
703-326-9880, ext 104
703-963-5887 (mobile)
mcauley at isoc.org


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