Case Studies

Contact Management System and Safety Website Increase Efficiency and Improve Collaboration/Reporting Capabilities

Project Summary and Benefits

RDA replaced our client's legacy contact management system using the Microsoft SharePoint platform and in the process migrated approximately 18,000 contact and communications profile records. The new system is 100% Web-based with no desktop software installation required. It features superior security, administrative, management, search, and design capabilities. RDA also migrated our client's public safety website content to SharePoint, improving navigation, organization and ease of maintenance.

About Our Client

RDA's client is an industry association that serves to promote the safe and efficient use of its product.

Following are descriptions of two projects that RDA delivered for this client.

Background

Contact Management Database System
Several years ago, our client contracted with a firm to develop a system for managing contacts, membership information and communications profiles. The system was custom designed for the association and functioned relatively well initially, but the software was owned by the vendor and not by our client. Hence, the implementation of enhancements to the system, development of new reports, database tuning and issue resolution were not performed efficiently or in a timely fashion and came with an increasingly steep price tag.

One particular issue, the lack of a password retrieval function, led to many duplicate username/password combinations in the original database, since council members were forced to re-register if they could not remember their password. In addition to the password issue, lax development standards had led to other problems. For example, the database schema contained many unpopulated or unused data fields, some of which, such as email address, are critical data and should have been required data. The application was heavily utilized for developing communications profiles but the design of the interface did not facilitate many of the required functions. The performance of the system degraded with time and documentation was poor.

In initial discussions with RDA it was apparent that our client sought a long-term relationship with a vendor to design, develop and implement a new contacts management system, and migrate data from the legacy application to the new system. The association was interested in maintaining and enhancing the application themselves, so documentation and knowledge transfer were critical to the success of this project.

Safety MOSS Site
Our client had an existing website that was maintained through a proprietary content management platform. This website provided support in the industry's efforts to define and achieve safe practices and methodologies. The site's audience includes industry contacts, regulators, emergency services, consumers, and the general public. The majority of the original site was comprised of static text content and links to documents of interest (in Microsoft Word, PDF, and HTML formats).

Our client was pleased with the content of the site but not with the way it was organized, its navigation topology or some of its functional limitations. The original site also presented a number of maintenance challenges and was not extensible enough to support a number of proposed new features. The association had also expressed interest in making minor improvements to the overall look and feel of the site.

Solution Detail

Contact Management Database System
RDA replaced our client's legacy contact management system with an interface built upon the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 platform and in the process migrated approximately 18,000 contact and communications profile records to SQL 2005. The migration process included data cleansing and the elimination of duplicate and invalid records through the application of complex business rules to data from a number of disparate sources, including spreadsheets maintained by the state and regional association executives, internal distribution lists and the legacy contact management system. The new system interface included a number of long overdue features and other enhancements.

Authentication was a very important aspect of this project. Previously, there were several different applications that required logins. RDA created a single sign-on solution, so users only needed to be authenticated once.

Safety MOSS Site
RDA migrated the site's content to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, improving navigation, organization and ease of maintenance.

Using native SharePoint capabilities such as document libraries and lists and extending functionality through the use of custom Web parts, RDA simplified the structure of the site while providing enhancements to legacy content. RDA assisted the client with defining and implementing a number of different search scopes in order to more effectively target site searching capabilities for users.

Benefits

Contact Management Database System
The new contact management database system includes the following benefits:

• 100% Web-based system with no desktop software installation required
• Unified login and account creation functions
• Dual user authentication and security mechanism through forms-based authentication and .NET web services
• Management of groups through native MOSS functions
• Administrative control over accounts through MOSS
• Enterprise search capabilities through MOSS
• Microsoft Outlook integration for individuals and groups through MOSS and Outlook add-in
• Ability to create custom reports
• Compatibility with mobile devices
• Collaboration friendly
• Data importing / exporting of contact information to Excel through custom Web part development
• Database recovery / full and differential backup capabilities
• Template-driven regional/state sites through the use of MOSS site collections and site definitions
• Secure member resources functions
• Secure administrative site
• Optional notifications for document updates/additions

Safety MOSS Site

• Secure administrative interface for content management
• Document library and list usage for structuring of content by topic
• Site-wide and scope search functions
• Safety tip section
• User-friendly glossary
• Collaboration friendly
• Database recovery / full and differential backup capabilities

Technically Speaking

Contact Management Database System
The system incorporates the following technologies: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, SQL Server 2005, Microsoft Office 2007 and custom Web parts developed in C#.

Safety MOSS Site
The system incorporates the following technologies: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, SQL Server 2005 and custom Web parts developed in C#.