Strategy

Case Study: The Benefits of Sound Internet Technology Planning

Background

The National Society for Histotechnology (NSH) is the leading professional society for histotechnologists. With approximately 4,000 members, the Society provides a wide breadth of professional development opportunities and services to support these healthcare practitioners.

The Importance of Prudent Planning

In 2006, NSH acquired a set of off-the-shelf products to power key areas of its operations, such as: member management, event registration, and e-learning. Unfortunately, after three years of striving to implement its selected components, NSH found that the systems lacked many of the capabilities that the organization needed. NSH also noticed that they had been paying for features that they did not need. In addition, these disparate systems were not well-integrated and their management was cumbersome. NSH realized that they were in an untenable situation and needed to reexamine their web technology strategy.

Identifying an Appropriate Solution

NSH engaged Isovera to define a plan to integrate a suite of web-based tools that would better target the organization’s particular requirements. Isovera systematically studied the organization, defined its requirements, and reviewed available technologies. As a part of this research, Isovera consultants attended NSH events where they facilitated focus groups and solicited structured feedback from members. These efforts provided a clear understanding for how members viewed various outward facing technologies and how those technologies could be better employed to enhance the value of their membership. Isovera also delved deeply into the “ecosystem” in which NSH operates by performing a SWOT and competitive positioning analysis that proved instructive in determining how NSH could leverage its assets and market position to better deliver on its mission.

The resulting strategic plan recommended replacing the primary existing system with a more flexible solution whose infrastructure could be extended and tailored to meet the Society’s full spectrum of web technology needs. This included integrating NSH’s subsystems and centralizing online activities around a new, scalable, and user-friendly Content Management System (CMS) and Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) system.

Incremental Approach for Short- and Long-Term ROI

In order to deliver rapid results, Isovera applied immediate implementation of the CMS during an annual conference that enabled members to stay up-to-date with the event's happenings. The response was overwhelmingly positive. The NSH staff praised the system’s ease-of-use and a few members appreciated the "sense of community" that the platform had created.

With a comprehensive strategic plan in place, the organization is moving forward in a structured manner guided by clearly defined and well-coordinated incremental initiatives. Each initiative  has been vetted from a programmatic, budgetary, resource, and change management perspective. NSH can now more confidently use web technology to better pursue its mission, reduce its costs, increase revenue, enhance communications, and better serve its members. Because the solution is mainly founded on open source systems, NSH does not need to be concerned with license fees or a particular vendor going out of business. The open source solution also allows NSH to knit together a collection of "best of breed" products. The end result is a clear win for both NSH, its staff, and its members.