Case Study: Alzheimers Society

Content Management (CMS) can make a significant impact on revenue generation for an organisation - when that organisation relies on charitable donations for revenue - the case for CMS in making saving and encouraging take up and reinforcing brand values.

According to a recent survey by NFPSynergy into internet usage within the Not for Profit sector, over 70% of charities see the internet as a means of reaching new audiences and increasing charitable donations. However, only 27% believe that they are currently making the most of the internet. There is clearly considerable potential to change historical donation patterns through effective application of internet technologies and this is an area that the Alzheimer's Society is aggressively pursuing.

The Alzheimer's Society is a strong believer in the potential that effective online interactivity offers to support the Society in achieving two critical objectives:

• Greater user reach and engagement - The Alzheimer's Society want to get to know their existing users better and generate interest from new users, in particular women between 35 - 54 who tend to be carers for those with Alzheimer's.
• Improved operational efficiency - with over a million unique visitors last year, online donation is a growing method of giving. Alzheimer's Society wanted to improve its online user interface to meet the needs of this growing audience

The business case for the Alzheimer's Society to introduce a more effective method of online user interaction was strong. The Alzheimer's Society supports over 700,000 people in the UK with dementia, their carers and health professionals, with over 30,000 enquiries received each week for support. In addition there was an extensive network of 242 branches across the UK, 150 of which required an online solution. All of these factors provided major drivers for change.

Said Dajani, Web Manager for Alzheimer's Society, was responsible for establishing the key requirements for the new systems. 'Alzheimer's wanted a system that would significantly increase the level of charitable donations. This required an online user interface that would actively 'engage' users and encourage them to find out more about Alzheimer's.

The scope of requirements was wide ranging and included new content management systems, a new intranet and the 150 branch web sites. A key aspect of the requirement specification was the need to identify a solution that could be easily implemented and managed by non technical users, as Alzheimer's had limited in-house web and IT resource.

A review of over 15 content management solutions and a subsequent tender process leading to the selection of Jadu as the web content management partner. 'We choose Jadu due to their experience in the public sector and their experience in integrating CMS with backend systems. The ability to successfully integrate and manage content was seen as key to delivering customer engagement' said Said.

The Alzheimer's Society has developed a partnership with Jadu to develop a new web platform, specifically customised for the charity sector called - Jadu CMS. This innovative new platform is being implemented through a phased approach. The first phase is underway and sees the introduction of Jadu Intranet 2.0 and Jadu CMS which will provide:

• An online retail shop (Jadu Commerce module)
• A payments system for online donations (Jadu ePay and Jadu XForms Professional)
• Online branch services and contact information delivered through Google Search and integration with back office databases.

The second phase which will be completed by the end of March 2008 and sees integration of front end systems with the Alzheimer's Society Customer Relationship Management System (CRM). This will provide the user with a personalised experience increasing their online satisfaction and engagement. In addition, using Jadu Galaxies, the Society will pilot initial branch web sites with a full rollout planned for early 2008.

Jadu Galaxies technology will enable the Society's head office web team to control content and devolve it to local branch 'editors' to develop their own customised sites and further functionality, including local news and events. Significantly it will be the Society's volunteer staff that will manage the content of these sites. The Society, in conjunction with Jadu, will be developing a 'train the trainer' programme to enable this. The process of development has also identified some key learning points for the web team at the Society including - the need to have clear ownership of the web site, with some overlap occurring between IT and marketing, and the importance of keeping key stakeholders involved throughout the project.

These developments are just the starting point for Alzheimer's Society, says web manager Said Dajani. He sees web technologies having a major impact on charitable organisations in the future giving greater interactivity and providing facilities such as Talking Point, the Charity's online forum, with a higher profile. 'These developments provide a platform for the rush of Web 2.0 and we are already getting the early adopters through facilities such as bulletin boards. It will also enable us to establish more effective knowledge management processes' he says. Using Jadu CMS for Charities as a web platform, charities of all sizes will be able to take advantage of the functionality that has been developed to improve their business development capabilities.

www.alzheimers.org.uk