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Information Technology Assessment

Findings and Recommendations Report

American Public Works

Association

1200 Main Street, Suite 1400

Kansas City, MO 64105-2100

June 15, 2017

* * * C O N F I D E N T I A L * * *

June 15, 2017 David Dancy Director of Marketing 1200 Main Street, Suite 1400 Kansas City, MO 64105-2100 Dear David: Thank you for the opportunity to assist the American Public Works Association (APWA) with the organization’s information technology assessment. The following report summarizes DelCor’s findings and offers recommendations to improve upon the effectiveness of the organization’s information technology systems and processes. It was a pleasure working with you on this project, and we look forward to the opportunity to discuss

our findings and recommendations as well as help the Association explore how it might better align

technology resources with the organization’s strategic objectives. Should you require additional

information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Again, thank you for the opportunity to assist APWA with this project.

Best regards,

Michael P. Guerrieri Senior Consultant, Technology Management

APWA: Information Technology Assessment – FINAL (Confidential) 3

Table of Contents

OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................................................. 5

BACKGROUND, PROJECT SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................... 6

PROJECT SCOPE ............................................................................................................................................................. 6 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................................................. 6

BEST PRACTICES IN NOT-FOR-PROFIT TECHNOLOGY .............................................................................................. 8

IT FUNCTION AREAS AND MATURITY LEVELS ....................................................................................................................... 9

APWA: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS .......................................................................................................................... 11

WHAT IS WORKING WELL .............................................................................................................................................. 11 CURRENT LEVEL OF MATURITY ........................................................................................................................................ 12

Infrastructure ...................................................................................................................................................... 12 Data Management .............................................................................................................................................. 12 Digital/Online Presence ...................................................................................................................................... 13 Technology Management ................................................................................................................................... 13

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................................................ 13

INFRASTRUCTURE ................................................................................................................................................ 14

What’s changed in Infrastructure since 2012 ..................................................................................................... 14 SERVERS AND CLOUD COMPUTING .................................................................................................................................. 14 SECURITY .................................................................................................................................................................... 15 NETWORK AND PHYSICAL PLANT ..................................................................................................................................... 16 END USER COMPUTING ................................................................................................................................................. 17

DATA MANAGEMENT .......................................................................................................................................... 18

What’s changed in Data Management since 2012 ............................................................................................. 18 DATABASES ................................................................................................................................................................. 18 DATA ANALYTICS AND REPORTING ................................................................................................................................... 20 DATA QUALITY ............................................................................................................................................................ 22

ONLINE/DIGITAL MANAGEMENT ......................................................................................................................... 23

What’s changed in Online/Digital since 2012 ..................................................................................................... 23 STRATEGY ................................................................................................................................................................... 23 WEBSITE .................................................................................................................................................................... 23 SOCIAL MEDIA ............................................................................................................................................................. 26

TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................................................. 27

What’s changed in technology management since 2012 ................................................................................... 27 IT GOVERNANCE .......................................................................................................................................................... 27 RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................................................................. 28 RISK MANAGEMENT ..................................................................................................................................................... 29 TRAINING ................................................................................................................................................................... 30 POLICIES, PROCEDURES AND GUIDES ................................................................................................................................ 31

CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................................................... 32


APPENDIX A: PROJECT RATING GUIDE EXAMPLE ................................................................................................. 33

APPENDIX B: IT PROJECT PORTFOLIO ................................................................................................................... 34

APPENDIX C: SYSTEM SELECTION PROCESS .......................................................................................................... 35

APPENDIX D: GLOSSARY OF COMMONLY USED TERMS ....................................................................................... 36

Document Version Control

Date Version Changes made

June 9, 2017 Draft v1 Initial draft

June 15, 2017 FINAL Final


Overview

The American Public Works Association (APWA) recently engaged DelCor Technology Solutions (DelCor)

to conduct a high-level assessment of the organization’s current and planned technology

environment/initiatives and overall use of technology to serve members and accomplish business goals.

The objective of the assessment is to provide a report of DelCor’s findings and recommendations and

accompanying project portfolio spreadsheet that will serve as a preliminary blueprint for enhancing the

Association’s technology environment and management processes. The primary purpose of these

recommendations is to enable the organization to better manage and use information for planning,

analysis, and evaluation across the entire spectrum of programs and services and advance APWA’s

mission through the effective use of technology resources.

The goals of this report are to provide insight on the following areas:

Improved efficiency.

Evaluation of systems currently in place.

Best practice use of technology in associations.

Strategic implementation of technology.

Information Technology (IT) resources (internal/external) required for success.

This report is designed to provide the insight needed to adopt and implement a long-term IT strategy

that will more effectively and efficiently support the organization’s operations. With these solutions in

place, the Association will be able to further enhance its ability to serve its constituents and provide an

online presence that helps achieve the organization’s mission and business objectives.

While DelCor found areas that need improvement, many of these items are by no means unique to

APWA and are in fact commonly found among organizations whose systems and processes have evolved

over time. It is also likely that many of the items encountered are issues with which Association staff

members are well acquainted and as such much of our work may serve to validate their existing

assessments from an independent perspective. That having been said, there are a great many

opportunities for improvement that exist in the realm of leveraging key data elements, creating and

coordinating IT strategy, and improving overall efficiency and effectiveness in the use of technology to

advance the organization’s business goals and objectives. Hopefully the findings and recommendations

provided in the following pages will provide a useful point of departure as the organization moves to

align its technology tools with its business goals and objectives.


Background, Project Scope and Methodology

APWA serves professionals in all aspects of public works. With a worldwide membership nearly 30,000

strong, APWA includes not only personnel from local, county, state/province, and federal agencies, but

also private sector personnel who supply products and services to those professionals. APWA engaged

DelCor in 2012 to perform a similar assessment. The organization felt it was the appropriate time to

reassess its technology capabilities.

PROJECT SCOPE

The objective of the IT Assessment project is to assess APWA’s IT environment including key technology

systems, related processes, partner resources, and staffing. The scope of the engagement, is:

Review project-related background materials.

Conduct network infrastructure review.

Conduct discovery meetings to assess current technology and IT-related requirements.

Conduct technology survey.

Conduct related analysis and research.

Develop a Findings and Recommendations Report that will provide a high-level overview of the

state of systems at APWA and serve as a cohesive roadmap for implementing suggested

recommendations and initiatives.

METHODOLOGY

DelCor focused primarily on how technology supports the business processes of APWA and the strategic

goals of the Association. The project included a Discovery phase followed by a Research and Reporting

phase.

The Discovery phase involved a review of background materials as well as the organization’s main

website (https://APWA.net/) to become as familiar as possible with APWA’s operations prior to

conducting the onsite discovery meetings. An initial discussion with the core project team was also

conducted by telephone to define project success factors and review the project timeline and decision-

making criteria. Data collection interviews were then held with staff members at the organization’s

headquarters. Topics of discussion during these meetings included department goals and business

objectives, systems and applications in use, likes and dislikes of the systems and applications, current IT

resources and related roles/responsibilities, as well as challenges related to technology. The interviews

were conducted to obtain staff input on the functionality of existing processes, infrastructure initiatives,

areas where the current system state may or may not be meeting the needs of the organization, as well

as other supporting input that would lead to relevant recommendations. The feedback collected during

the Discovery phase provided valuable information about how staff and key constituents use existing

technology and IT processes. Additionally, staff members identified various areas of opportunity and

growth that they would like to see implemented in the future.

https://apwa.net/


The Research and Reporting phase involves the exploration and analysis of possible solutions and the

provision of this report for the organization’s consideration, which includes the following elements:

A summary of key findings, including an evaluation of APWA’s use of technology in four key areas, as well as a summary of prioritized recommendations for technology enhancements and initiatives to support APWA’s business goals and optimally support the organization’s clients.

APWA’s current level of IT maturity: restrictive, functional, effective, or innovative - in the four major functions of IT – network/infrastructure, data, online, and management/governance.

A summary of DelCor’s key findings including changes that have occurred at Client and IT

initiatives that have been accomplished since the 2012 IT Assessment.

A summary of changes and trends in the IT landscape/ecosystem of the association community

since 2012.

A summary IT project portfolio that will serve as a roadmap for implementing DelCor’s

recommendations over a period of 18 to 24 months.

While this report does not address every item encountered during this engagement, it does focus on

those that have the greatest potential positive impact on the organization’s operations. Observations

and recommendations related to the use of technology are based on DelCor’s knowledge and

experience, combined with generally accepted best practices and trends found in the technology

industry.


Best Practices in Not-for-Profit Technology

When talking about technology, an organization must discuss much more than networks, hardware, and

software. People and processes are just as critical to success. Organizational culture, departmental

collaboration, governance, professional development expectations, business processes and policies,

budgeting, and management – all these non-technical factors impact the effectiveness of an

organization’s technology. To address these issues DelCor developed the DelCor IT Maturity Model for

Associations and Nonprofits—a valuable framework for thinking about technology. “Maturity” is simply

a measure of how well technology supports an organization by making it more efficient, progressive

(forward-moving), and capable of fulfilling its mission, vision, and business objectives.

DelCor uses the IT Maturity Model to help clients understand how their existing technology supports or

limits their potential to strategically use technology to achieve their mission and goals.

The following illustration (Figure 1) provides additional detail regarding the DelCor IT Maturity Model.

Figure 1: DelCor IT Maturity Model


One other item that factors prominently in the IT maturity of organizations is the organization’s IT focus:

when inward-looking and tactical in nature, the focus is on discrete functions and programs, often at the

cost of achieving overarching strategic goals. Such an approach is largely reactive in nature. Conversely,

an organization focused on mission, vision, and business objectives thinks more strategically and

holistically about the role of technology in achieving such aims.

IT FUNCTION AREAS AND MATURITY LEVELS

During the development of the IT Maturity Model, DelCor polled the association and nonprofit

community to develop a widely-accepted benchmark against which organizations could compare their

level of maturity. Four common and main functions of IT within nonprofit organizations were identified:

network/infrastructure, online, data, and technology management.

Infrastructure - Every function of the organization – HR, finance, communications, security, and more – is supported by the infrastructure, or as it’s more commonly called, the network. Data Management - Data leads to business intelligence. It is the key to understanding the needs and preferences of an organization’s members, and the basis for sound decision-making about programs, content, and communication, now and in the future. Mature organizations collect, analyze, and use data to deliver value to their constituents and to have clarity about their own value. Online/Digital Presence - For an association or nonprofit organization, communication and engagement with your members, volunteers, donors, and prospects is vital to your mission and to your relevancy. Often your constituents’ first—and sometimes only—impression of the organization is from their visit to your website. Technology Management - Mature organizations keep their organizational goals and mission in mind while designing and managing their technology. Business processes, IT policies and procedures, and social media policies support the productive and wise use of technology.

By examining how the four functions of IT within an organization support the overall goals of the organization, DelCor determines the organization’s level of IT maturity: restrictive, functional, effective, or innovative.

Restrictive - Members are fully immersed in the 21st century, but, in the restrictive phase, the association’s technology is stuck back in the 20th century. Member expectations are frustrated and staff morale is low. With an insufficient budget, outdated equipment, and undertrained staff, the barebones operation stumbles along.

Functional - A functional organization has better technology but it works only to a point. It is one step shy of true integration and automation. There is a general feeling of making do with systems and processes that work, but are cumbersome.

Effective - In the effective phase of IT maturity, technology is more than an operational tool. Technology supports the organization’s mission by adding value to the member, volunteer, donor, and constituent experience. These organizations are effective in keeping up with their members, but they are not yet anticipating their future needs.


Innovative - In the innovative phase of IT maturity, an association strategically uses technology to meet members’ existing needs and anticipate future needs. With the association’s help, members become more successful and the membership experience becomes more valuable and meaningful. You might call it the ideal association. In an innovative association, even when the future is unknown, the association is prepared to move forward and provide value to its members.


APWA: Summary of Findings

WHAT IS WORKING WELL

While every IT organization can be improved, and we will largely focus on those opportunities in this

assessment, we would like to acknowledge what is working well and highlight some recent successes.

APWA’s commitment to improving their technology maturity since DelCor’s last technology assessment

in 2012 is demonstrated in the following successes.

iMIS is extremely well-managed.

All reports are in Microsoft SQL Reporting Services.

The Web Services team (WS) participates on an advisory team for iMIS developer

Advanced Solutions International (ASI) that reviews sprint plans for iMIS. The

participation provides APWA insight into what new functionality is being built into iMIS.

APWA has a productive partner relationship with their iMIS Solution Provider,

Association Technology Solutions, LLC (ATS). Many DelCor clients have had good

experiences working with them and they are one of the top iMIS Solution Partners.

iMIS is being kept current through regular upgrades.

APWA conducted an iMIS assessment and quickly acted on most of the

recommendations.

There are high quality, robust, custom-built applications.

Chapter Template

Onsite Point of Sales system

Given that APWA has a team of developers, it is notable that they are careful to first determine

if they can meet a business need with an existing solution before attempting to build it.

APWA staff feel that governance is thinking more strategically and organizational plans are not

shifting with each year's new president.

There are technically proficient and customer-oriented staff in WS and Network Services (NS).

Two developers are iMIS certified—a rare thing within associations.

Web content management is distributed and through user roles that control what content a

given person can change.

There is a solid and well-managed infrastructure.

Hardware is refreshed on a regular schedule.

Effective AV equipment in meeting rooms.

Redundant internet at both offices.

Planning to move to Office 365 and have a vendor selected to assist with planning and

execution.

The proposed rollout of Dynamics 365 is very well-planned. DelCor especially applauds the use

of a phased approach with a careful selection of pilot chapters: a mix of local, regional, and

small but all cooperative.

The Finance team is planning to have their Dynamics GP vendor (ASI) job shadow to make

suggestions for system use/business process improvements.


The hiring of a video production staff person demonstrates forward-thinking approach. Video is

a great way to engage members and the public.

APWA has an intranet and that is uncommon in organizations of APWA’s size.

There is an IT steering committee in place providing IT direction and oversight.

Social media is active – members and chapters are using it.

The WS team seems very cohesive.

CURRENT LEVEL OF MATURITY

What follows is a summary assessment of APWA’s IT Maturity level for each of the IT functional areas.

We will elaborate on each in the rest of this report with our recommendations for improvement. We will

also note the level as of the assessment in 2012.

Infrastructure – EFFECTIVE (was RESTRICTIVE)

APWA’s infrastructure is effective and well-managed as demonstrated by a two-level change in IT

maturity since 2012. Much of the infrastructure, however, is located on premises. APWA should

transition its IT resources to a hosted environment to improve disaster recovery and business continuity,

uptime, and remote work functionality.

Data Management – EFFECTIVE (was RESTRICTIVE)

Data management at APWA is effective. Once again, this represents a two-level change since the last

assessment. The organization has used iMIS as its main association management system (AMS) for a

number years. APWA has managed to build integrations to third-party systems in use and developed

sophisticated applications (e.g., Chapter Template, Point of Sale system). Opportunities exist for

improving the use of data to drive decision making.

Infrastructure Data Online/Digital Management

APWA Technology Assessments2012 vs. 2017

2012 2017

Restrictive

Functional

Effective

Innovative


Digital/Online Presence – FUNCTIONAL (No change)

APWA’s digital presence is functional primarily due to unclear digital governance, parts of the website

that are not mobile responsive, and a search user experience that could be improved. Social media and

email marketing are very well managed.

Technology Management – EFFECTIVE (was RESTRICTIVE)

Technology management is effective. Yet again, this represents a two-level change in maturity. Focusing

on improved risk management, more project management discipline, and improved IT governance will

help APWA advance in this area.

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

DelCor’s findings and recommendations follow for each functional area in the IT Maturity Model. Within

each sub-section, the recommendations are numbered in priority order (high-low).

In each functional area, we have also highlighted major changes that have occurred in each area since

the 2012 assessment DelCor performed for APWA.

The entire list of recommendations can be found in Appendix B: IT Project Portfolio.


Infrastructure

Infrastructure is the base upon which IT services rely. Without a solid, reliable infrastructure, even the

best IT services can be undermined. APWA’s Network Administrator has architected a modernized

internal network built with stability and standards in mind. An in-depth network assessment was not

within the scope of this engagement but DelCor has identified risks that need to be addressed and some

additional improvement opportunities.

WHAT’S CHANGED IN INFRASTRUCTURE SINCE 2012

Increased cybersecurity threats.

Widespread adoption of Office 365.

Widespread adoption of Software as a Service (SaaS) applications.

Ubiquity of mobile computing.

SERVERS AND CLOUD COMPUTING

1. Develop plan to reduce on premises infrastructure and move services to the cloud.

APWA’s network infrastructure is exclusively on premises including APWA websites. It is

uncommon to see websites hosted on premises given the 24x7x365 uptime necessity for most of

them. Most managed hosting vendors have Internet provider diversity, world-class data centers

for reliable service even in the event of power outage or other disaster that would disable on-

premises hardware. The current infrastructure is well-maintained but there is no electrical

generator so an extended power outage (more than one hour) would shut down APWA’s web

presence. Additionally, moving business critical servers to a cloud hosted environment would

reduce the need for hardware in the DC office, further consolidating servers (see

recommendation #3 below). DelCor recommends developing a plan to transition critical

production systems out of the server room and into high-availability environments, either in a

“private cloud”, managed web hosting, or to a SaaS model (as in Office 365, Salesforce, etc.)

While DelCor recommends moving the website and email (see recommendation #2 below) off

premises as soon as possible, the rest does not need to happen all at once. Non-production and

some local file storage (especially for media files) could probably remain on premises. The plan

could allow for – as systems get upgraded and hardware ages out – moving such systems to

hardware to hosted or Software as a Service (SaaS) environments.

A budget consideration is that cloud hosting is an operating expense where purchasing your own

hardware is typically a capital expense. Depending on the hardware refresh cycle and the

depreciation schedule, this could increase the operating budget.

2. Implement Microsoft Office 365.

DelCor has seen many associations of all sizes moving from a traditional Exchange environment to

Office 365. APWA’s Network Administrator has already planned this move and has enlisted a


vendor to assist. DelCor applauds this initiative and recommends proceeding with this plan.

Depending on the Office 365 license, APWA will have licenses to full versions of Office (5 per

person), considerable cloud file storage (through OneDrive), and access to many productivity

applications, like Teams, SharePoint Online, Skype for Business, Delve, and many more. You can

learn more about the features and licensing options on the Microsoft Office 365 website. Based

on APWA’s needs, DelCor recommends Office 365 Enterprise “E3” licensing which allows all the

above applications, as well as additional IT management capabilities. DelCor also recommends

using as many of the applications as possible to fully leverage the subscription fees.

3. Reduce server footprint.

APWA has a large number servers (65) for an organization of its size. DelCor recommends

reducing the “server sprawl” through consolidation or elimination (see recommendation #1). Even

though most of the servers are virtual, the servers still require management. Managing fewer

servers reduces complexity, administration costs, licensing costs, and the attack surface which, in

turn, reduces cybersecurity risk. The server footprint will naturally be reduced as the first two

recommendations are implemented. For example, a transition to Exchange Online and Skype for

Business Online (via Office 365) would eliminate the need for the seven Lync servers and one

Exchange server.

4. Explore setting up iMIS development/demonstration environments in the cloud.

Software development often requires having multiple environments (development,

training/demonstration, staging, and production). The current infrastructure makes this difficult

to do because of capacity issues on the VM hosts. While availability is not a concern for the non-

production servers, moving them to a cloud provider (e.g., AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform)

would allow the development team to spin up servers as needed and disable them when not in

use to save hosting fees. This approach should be considered as part of the move to the cloud

(see recommendation #1) and would help reduce the number of on premises servers (see

recommendation #3).

SECURITY

5. Implement a corporate password management database.

As passwords are hard to remember, and users often must use multiple passwords in their day-to-

day work, offering a secure way to manage passwords can improve user productivity as well as

improve security by removing the “need” to store passwords in plain text files. Solutions such as

Dashlane or LastPass provide secure cloud-based systems that allow for password sharing when

needed (such as corporate Twitter or Facebook accounts) and centralized administration.

6. Formalize cybersecurity training for end users.

User training is one of the most neglected aspect of IT security. Even with a perfectly secured

network, untrained staff members could put company data and systems at risk. A variety of online

self-paced video training courses are available that would empower APWA staff to identify risks

such as malicious software, phishing attempts, and other cybersecurity threats that they may

encounter during daily activities. Other DelCor clients have had success with KnowBe4 and

https://products.office.com/en-us/business/explore-office-365-for-business

https://www.dashlane.com/

https://www.lastpass.com/

https://www.knowbe4.com/


CompTIA’s CyberSecure online training and ongoing phishing testing. This effort would, however,

require executive sponsorship to emphasize that all staff play an important role in cybersecurity.

7. Implement two-factor authentication for all remote access.

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is becoming more prevalent considering recent security breaches

that would have been precluded with 2FA in place. While not yet ubiquitous in the association

space, this technology – which requires users to confirm their identity using a second layer of

authentication in addition to their password (typically in the form of a mobile app or text

message) – would significantly increase security and mitigate unauthorized access to systems.

8. Regularly perform vulnerability scans on all web assets and internal network.

TrustWave is currently used for Payment Card Industry (PCI) vulnerability scans for APWA

websites. It has been failing but the sources are known and are being addressed by Network

Services. While this provides some level of protection, in the interest of defense in depth, we

recommend additional scanning tools for internal and external network infrastructure assets,

such as such as Tenable Nessus. These can help inform the Network Administrator about security

threats. TrustWave also offers additional more advanced Security Incident and Event Monitoring

service (SIEM).

9. Review and regularly test backups.

APWA should make sure to perform regular test restores and simulate disaster recovery on a

yearly basis. Individual file restores are performed regularly but full server recovery has not been

practiced. DelCor recommends that a full website restore be simulated as soon as possible.

Additionally, once the recovery time and recovery point objectives (RTO, RPO) have been defined

as part of the Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan (see Technology Management

recommendation #7), the current backup architecture should be evaluated to determine if it can

meet those objectives.

NETWORK AND PHYSICAL PLANT

All APWA’s critical infrastructure is stored in a dedicated LAN room. The room is locked with a

card key and is accessible by the Network Administrator.

10. Enhance alerting and remote administration capabilities.

The Network Administrator currently monitors servers for up/down status using SolarWinds.

Server health (e.g., disk space utilization, CPU utilization, RAM) and other key metrics are not

actively monitored. APWA should ensure that other infrastructure – such as the hypervisors,

firewall, and switches – are also monitored. APWA could also implement a monitoring system in-

house by expanding what is monitored with SolarWinds or with a tool such as PRTG.

https://www.cybersecure.org/pages/main

https://www.delcor.com/resources/blog/5-reasons-associations-should-embrace-two-factor-authentication

http://www.tenable.com/products/nessus-vulnerability-scanner

https://www.trustwave.com/Services/Managed-Security/Managed-SIEM/

https://www.trustwave.com/Services/Managed-Security/Managed-SIEM/

https://www.paessler.com/prtg


11. Evaluate content delivery network services.

A content delivery network (CDN) caches web content on geographically distributed servers to

deliver frequently used or large media files to the user no matter where they are. It also reduced

load on the web server and reduced bandwidth since that content is delivered outside APWA’s

network. CloudFlare is a service that does that but also serves as a web application firewall.

Amazon Web Services also offers similar capabilities in their Cloudfront service at a very

affordable price point.

END USER COMPUTING

12. Transition to a laptop-based environment.

DelCor has seen many associations move towards an all-laptop environment, eschewing

traditional desktops apart from conference rooms or receptionist positions. This solution, coupled

with a SSL-VPN solution, would remove the need both for traditional desktop workstations and

the Microsoft Remote Desktop Gateway remote access solution.

While this approach requires a significantly higher investment into hardware, a laptop-based

environment offers several benefits, such as:

Improved remote access. APWA-managed laptops can securely connect via SSL-VPN, and

truly work as if they are in the office even when physically elsewhere. The user experience

is consistent regardless of location with all personal settings on the laptop.

Improved security. APWA-managed laptops can be monitored for antivirus and security

patch status by Network Services, ensuring that staff members are using compliant tools

to handle corporate data.

Improved end-user support. With standard hardware and software configurations, the IT

team can more easily manage workstations, start remote sessions, and provide support

when users are working remotely.

When evaluating a move to provide more mobile tools to its staff, APWA should keep its

telecommuting policies in mind and ensure they are up to date and understood by staff. APWA

may also need to provide additional training to staff not familiar with laptop computing in a

corporate environment.

13. Reconsider implementing Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).

The APWA technology strategic plan includes considering deploying VDI. It is DelCor’s experience

that from a financial return on investment perspective, it only makes sense when organizations

have more than 100 staff. Even in larger organizations, DelCor has observed that neither the IT

department nor the end users were particularly happy with the experience and have either

switched to another solution or are actively looking at moving away from VDI. While it centralizes

desktop administration, it also creates a single point of failure so that one outage would make it

impossible for all managed users not being able to work.

https://www.cloudflare.com/

https://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/


Data Management

Data is the lifeblood of most organizations. It is important that it be managed as the critical asset that it

is through data integrity controls and process, secure storage, and controlled access. While data

management and the systems that support data are generally effective, there are still opportunities for

improvements.

WHAT’S CHANGED IN DATA MANAGEMENT SINCE 2012

Wider variety of data analytics tools and reduction in costs of those tools.

A number of iMIS upgrades, including the release of iMIS 20 with the RiSE web development

platform.

Improved third-party application integration options.

AMS’s with browser interfaces are the norm.

DATABASES

1. Eliminate Microsoft Access databases.

There are quite a few Microsoft Access databases in use at APWA. It was used as a solution to a

variety of database needs before there was a skilled iMIS team at APWA. These Access databases

should be eliminated as soon as possible. The most serious concern is that some databases are

directly connected to iMIS with write access - meaning they can add, change, and delete data

from within Access. APWA should do the following:

Eliminate write access to iMIS.

Inventory all existing Access databases.

Determine what is needed to eliminate them.

Develop alternatives and physically remove the databases.

Consider removing Access from the standard desktop/laptop build for most staff. They

should have to make a business case for why they should have Access.

2. Improve business process for certification.

The current process is very labor intensive. iMIS’s certification module could likely improve this

process considerably. A requirements analysis and review of the current business process should

be completed before evaluating if the iMIS module will indeed meet the needs.

3. Integrate payroll (CBIZ) with Dynamics GP.

While not a great deal of effort to rekey payroll data from CBIZ into the finance system, taking the

time to do so for every pay period adds up. It is worth exploring automating the integration. It is

highly likely that this has already been done for other CBIZ clients and so should be a low-effort

and low-risk initiative.


4. Consider incorporating a standard meeting registration service (or use iMIS) instead of the

custom-built functionality in the Chapter Template system.

The Chapter Template is an innovative solution to supporting association chapters. The meeting

registration module, though, can probably be replaced by a third-party meeting registration

system that integrates with it since many are commercially available. To reduce the effort in

supporting the Chapter Template system, DelCor recommends replacing the meeting registration

functionality with a third-party meeting registration system or directly in iMIS.

5. Reevaluate exhibit sales integration.

National Trade Productions manages exhibit sales for the PWX conference; however, PWX

exhibitor sales data does not integrate with iMIS. The Snow conference is managed internally but

iMIS’s exhibit module is not being used. iMIS will soon no longer support the Exhibits Module. A

solution will need to be identified to move exhibit sales data to somewhere in iMIS through a data

interface so that all customer sales data can be collocated in iMIS.

6. DelCor concurs with ATS's assessment regarding financial transaction integration with iMIS.

In ATS’s assessment, they recommended just writing activity records to iMIS in real time as

opposed to the full financial transaction. While not having a single source of financial transactions

makes it more difficult for Finance to reconcile all the different sources, it is an unfortunate cost

to the improved customer experience that many third-party applications offer APWA members.

7. Develop standards for iMIS integration for third-party application selections.

To ensure that no third-party systems are selected that cannot integrate with iMIS, APWA should

develop a policy that states that no vendor that processes member or other customer data can be

selected if they cannot comply with the integration standards. Several acceptable methods could

be included, e.g.:

Single sign on (SSO) only

Web service calls to export data from iMIS

Bi-directional web service calls so selected data is synchronized between the two systems.

8. Plan to move from Dynamics GP to Dynamics 365.

The Finance team is already planning to move to Dynamics 365 (cloud-based financial

management system) for chapters. DelCor supports moving applications off-premises whenever

feasible (see infrastructure recommendation #1). Additionally, the Finance team should monitor

the new releases of Dynamics 365 (semi-annually, given the frequency of updates) and plan to

ultimately replace their on-premises solution with it when it can meet all their critical accounting

requirements.


9. Consider a part-time database administrator (DBA).

There is no one on staff with specific training as a SQL database administrator. Web Services staff

are managing but they could benefit from having access to a professionally trained DBA. There are

companies that provide reasonably priced DBA services including 24x7 monitoring of databases.

Below are some possible companies to consider:

Datavail

RDX

Remote DBA

10. Evaluate Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems.

The increasing use of digital images, audio files, and videos make finding the right media files

challenging unless there is a way to organize, index, and manage them. A digital asset system

offer these capabilities. A couple of possible DAM solutions are:

Adobe Experience Manager

Extensis Portfolio

Even though RISE does not have this capability, many other Web content management systems

can serve as a DAM.

DATA ANALYTICS AND REPORTING

11. Develop strategy for improving data analysis and reporting.

With effective and well-managed systems in place, APWA should begin planning how to more

effectively use data to make decisions to improve member experience, improve member

recruitment and retention, and increase revenue. Developing a data strategy would be a good

place to start. APWA should consider engaging a consultant to help with developing the plan. Two

that are active in the association market are:

Association Analytics

icimo

Another consideration as APWA develops the strategy, is to move the AMS from the center of

APWA’s data universe, to a satellite with the center being a “customer data platform”. See Figure

2.

https://www.datavail.com/

http://www.rdx.com/

http://www.remotedba.com/

http://www.adobe.com/marketing-cloud/enterprise-content-management/digital-asset-management.html

http://www.extensis.com/digital-asset-management/portfolio/

http://www.associationanalytics.com/what-we-do/analytics-strategy-roadmap/

http://icimo.com/about/services/

https://martechtoday.com/martech-landscape-customer-data-platform-192126


Figure 2

12. Begin building the foundation for member engagement scoring.

To better understand how APWA’s members are engaging with the association, you need to have

data on all interactions. Some areas that are inconsistently recorded or not at all include:

Course completions.

Advocacy – Capitol Hill visits, write to representatives.

Online community participation.

Paper/abstract submissions.

Award nominees.

Activity record in iMIS but without financial data:

Chapter Event registration.

WorkZone job board participation.

PWX/Snow registration.

PWX Exhibitors.

Self-Assessment software/accreditation items.

These are all very important types of member engagement. Once this data is captured in the AMS,

an engagement scoring scheme can be developed to weight the different types of interactions

and assign a score to each member. This data can then inform retention strategies that focus on

increasing engagement.

AMS

LMS

Online Commu

nity

CMS

Event Reg CDP

LMS

AMS

Online Community

CMS

Event Reg


DATA QUALITY

13. Develop data governance plan and process.

Developing data governance policies and procedures would establish a formal way to make

decisions related to data at the enterprise level – e.g., what is the authoritative source for

member and other constituent data, how to maintain accurate and current information on

members, what information to keep on members, how to deal with prospects, how/if to share

data with chapters. It would be helpful to have a cross-functional data governance team made up

of key data stakeholders (Marketing, Membership, Web Services, Finance, etc.) that is charged

with this since data is a shared resource. A helpful reference to describe the role of data

governance can be found at:

http://www.datagovernance.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/dgi_framework.pdf.

http://www.datagovernance.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/dgi_framework.pdf.


Online/Digital Management

An association’s digital presence (websites, social media, email communication, and mobile) is often a

constituent’s first interaction with the organization and therefore strongly shape their first impression.

In the dynamic digital world, maintaining an effective presence requires a commitment to continuous

improvement. APWA could benefit from the following recommendations.

WHAT’S CHANGED IN ONLINE/DIGITAL SINCE 2012

Expectation that all sites be mobile responsive (Google stopped presenting non-mobile

responsive websites in mobile search results).

Mobile usage of websites exceed desktop usage.

Social media usage increases steadily over the whole period.

Broadband from home continues to increase.

(Note: Data mostly from Pew Research Center on Internet and Technology (Smith, 2017)).

STRATEGY

1. Identify an owner for digital strategy and content management.

It would be good to know who has the final say for strategy and day-to-day decisions related to

how content is managed on the website and social media. The owner would also be responsible

for determining priorities for system enhancements. The responsibilities could be divided or

shared so long as everyone understands the roles and decision making authority and process. The

person(s) would be involved directly in the development of the overall technology strategy. It is

also critical that this person work closely with Web Services on all projects that require integration

with iMIS.

WEBSITE

2. Make all parts of APWA.net mobile responsive.

The home page is mobile responsive (optimally presents site content for a website user’s device.)

However, parts of the site, like the online store, are not. Providing a responsive design has

become the standard for a modern website to ensure the best user experience. APWA should

identify all pages that are not currently responsive and develop a plan to change them.

3. Enhance website search.

The APWA.net site search results oddly appear in a modal window. It is a more effective user

experience for the results to be presented on a full page. Ideally, the results page would also

include the following:

Faceted search (see “Narrow Your Search” section in Figure 3 below from the AICPA’s site).

Better leveraging of APWA's taxonomy through applying it to all web content.


Searchable content from the main site. All APWA content should be searchable from the

main site. For example, the Sustainability Toolkit content should be findable through the

main site search.

Actively managed search results ranking.

Figure 3

Google Site Search is currently in use. It does not handle faceted search very well. It could,

though, at least be configured to group search results with “labels” and to not display results in a

modal window. That would be an improvement.

There are a wide number of search tools that support faceted search (and many additional

advanced search features) including:

SearchBlox

Elastic Search

Algolia

APWA should, however, engage a web design company with experience in search to assist in

selecting a search engine that will meet APWA’s search requirements and who can help with

https://www.searchblox.com/pricing-2/search-as-a-service/

https://www.elastic.co/cloud

https://www.algolia.com/


implementing it. Content tagging may also be required to optimize accuracy of search results. In

addition, APWA should plan to apply some staff resource to managing the search engine since it

generally requires regular adjustments to ensure search terms are matched correctly to content.

4. Evaluate document collaboration tool for technical committees.

APWA staff expressed interest in improving the ability for technical committees to collaborate on

documents. Currently, documents are shared via email. This approach presents challenges with

reconciling edits and comments between varying versions of a document. Some associations have

used Google Docs as a low-end solution but the problem is that users/volunteers are not often

familiar enough with it to use it comfortably. SharePoint is also sometimes used but it has a long

learning curve and does not work well with Mac users. There are many solutions purpose-built for

board and committee collaboration (see this article):

http://www.idealware.org/few-good-tools-board-portals-and-other-ways-collaborate/

Another product to consider is Kavi Workspace. Like for any major system, DelCor recommends

following a formal system selection process (see Appendix C: System Selection Process).

5. Develop online certification application.

An important part of improving the certification business process (see recommendation #2) is

having it start with the application that interfaces directly with iMIS.

6. Consider use of wireframes for prototyping web applications.

Wireframes are a way of visually representing and prototyping applications that make it easier for

people to imagine how they will perform when developed rather than looking at static screens or

text descriptions of how the system will function. A very good and affordable tool for this is

Axure. This site reviews many other tools: http://www.creativebloq.com/wireframes/top-

wireframing-tools-11121302.

7. Explore alternatives for banner advertising.

The Marketing team would like a better tool to manage banner advertising. While there are quite

a few options, DelCor would recommend a cloud-based option like Google’s DoubleClick ,

AdSpeed, or AdButler. Like for any major system, DelCor recommends following a formal system

selection process (see Appendix C: System Selection Process).

8. Plan to move to Google Tag Manager.

Google Tag Manager (GTM) is the preferred way to track content usage and ecommerce

conversions through a website. It allows for more flexibility in what is tracked and eliminates the

need to change code on a page to change a tag. The following are two informative articles about

GTM and why APWA should consider using it:

http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2016/02/15/what-is-google-tag-manager/

http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2017/03/23/10-reasons-start-google-tag-manager/

http://www.idealware.org/few-good-tools-board-portals-and-other-ways-collaborate/

http://www.kavi.com/

https://www.axure.com/

http://www.creativebloq.com/wireframes/top-wireframing-tools-11121302

http://www.creativebloq.com/wireframes/top-wireframing-tools-11121302

https://www.google.com/doubleclick/publishers/small-business/features.html

https://www.adspeed.com/

https://www.adbutler.com/index.spark

https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/2574372?hl=en&topic=2574304&ctx=topic

http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2016/02/15/what-is-google-tag-manager/

http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2017/03/23/10-reasons-start-google-tag-manager/


SOCIAL MEDIA

9. APWA should become the administrator of the LinkedIn APWA group.

An APWA group exists in LinkedIn that uses the APWA logo and describes APWA but is managed

by someone who is not an employee of APWA. APWA staff needs to take over the administrator

role for that group.

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2472266/profile


Technology Management

Hardware and software are just part of information technology. The right people, policies, processes,

and procedures are also critical to effectively managed IT. Ultimately, insufficient technology

management can undermine a solid technology infrastructure. This also entails the empowerment (and

concomitant responsibility) of technology use within the organization. The following section contains

recommendations related to the management and administration of technology initiatives at APWA.

WHAT’S CHANGED IN TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT SINCE 2012

With rising expectations for technology in organizations, effective portfolio management

becomes essential.

PCI version 3.x has more stringent compliance requirements.

Cloud computing lessens burden of disaster recovery and business continuity.

IT GOVERNANCE

1. Develop a project portfolio management process.

Project portfolio management is a process used to evaluate new project requests and review

progress on all active projects. Currently, there is not a clear method by which technology

projects and resources are approved at APWA. Capital expenditures and other large operating

expenditures follow the budget approval process. Priorities are not set collectively through a

review process for all technology projects including those without direct costs (staff time only).

A more rigorous process would insure that a cross-functional team (the IT steering team) would

evaluate all projects with the same criteria. See Appendix A: Project Rating Guide Example for an

example of a rating matrix that could be used to score all major proposed projects. In addition,

the IT steering team – not IT or independent business units – would establish priorities. The

project recommendations will help insure that decisions related to the use of technology are

made by the IT steering team. IT will then have a clear set of priorities and can focus on executing

them. It may take some time for the team to effectively gauge IT capacity to complete the

priorities within a time-period, e.g., a budget year. It is important for the team not to commit to

starting more project work than can realistically be done with given resources.

2. Share project status regularly (monthly) with senior leadership (or all staff).

Since IT is a shared resource, sharing project status would keep staff informed of progress on

projects even when their own projects have not started since the start of their projects depends

on completion of the active projects. This would include all projects.

https://www.pmi.org/learning/featured-topics/portfolio


RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

3. Formalize project management.

Projects run more smoothly when a single person with project management (PM) training and

expertise is tasked with the responsibility to keep track of tasks, schedules, scope, and risks and

keep stakeholders informed of progress. More focus on PM will enable more work to be

completed with the resources available. As a first step, professional project managers could be

hired for high visibility projects. A professional project manager would model best PM practices

and demonstrate the benefits of effective PM. While it is possible to bring in outside project

managers on a contract basis, it will quickly cost more than a full-time position. The other

advantage to having a staff person perform this role is that they will, in time, understand the

culture and the business better. Current staff might have the capacity to perform the role but all

staff involved in projects will need to understand the roles and responsibilities of the project

manager are to manage all resources and bring the project to a successful completion. That does

not mean also being a subject matter expert and/or analyst. Role clarity is important for a PM to

be successful. Staff training in the basics of PM would also be a good step if not for all staff then

for those involved in projects managed with a formal PM process.

4. Implement a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) service desk ticketing system.

APWA has a custom-developed service desk ticketing system (Tracker). While it is generally

meeting the needs of Marketing and Web Services, given how widely available this type of system

is, it is hard to justify internally maintaining such a system. The department replies as needed.

Managing helpdesk and IT requests using a distribution list provides has many limitations. Using

helpdesk and inventory management software would allow the IT staff to easily track ticket

status, assign staff to specific tasks, and run reports to gain insight on service level, recurring

issues, and to identify end users that may benefit from targeted training.

When considering a helpdesk and inventory management solution, APWA should keep the

following possible requirements in mind:

1. Discover and track all types of systems, via an installed agent and via Simple Network

Management Protocol (SNMP).

2. Receive and send tickets by email hooking into APWA’s existing Office 365 environment.

3. Categorize, assign and escalate tickets based on issue and severity.

4. Automatically notify both IT staff and end users when tickets are opened or closed.

5. Provide a web-based interface for IT staff to manage the system both on the desktop and

via mobile device.

6. Generate reports for IT staff and executives.

7. Provide the ability to scale beyond the IT department. A ticketing system could be

leveraged to manage service requests to other departments like Marketing.


There are several highly popular and solid solutions that provide both ticketing and inventory

management. APWA should consider the following platforms as possible solutions:

Manageengine (ServiceDesk Plus + AssetExplorer).

ZenDesk (including an inventory extension such as EZOfficeInventory).

Solarwinds (Web Help Desk).

5. Develop a method for cataloging test cases for each business unit.

Unit and regression testing is performed by staff outside of Web Services as part of user

acceptance testing. That is good but it could be more directed using documented test cases rather

than through ad hoc testing. Each business unit and application available on the website should

have a set of test cases that are executed after any upgrade or enhancements to a system for

internal or external use. Ideally, there should be a way to track results, flag failed test cases, and

re-test them after new releases. A SharePoint lists can be effectively used for this purpose. APWA

may want to explore test case management solutions.

6. Consider using SharePoint Online to facilitate internal document collaboration.

The Office 365 license includes SharePoint Online. It can be an effective platform for document

collaboration that could be used for each business unit and for cross-functional projects. It

supports versioning, checking in and checking out documents, and with Word 2016, multiple

users being able to edit the same document simultaneously. Like most new technologies, it is best

to pilot its use before organization-wide deployment. Many lessons can be learned about how

best to use the tool for APWA’s purposes.

RISK MANAGEMENT

7. Develop Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan.

APWA’s current plan is insufficient especially given that all critical systems are on premises. APWA

should expand the policy to ensure understanding of which systems are critical, staff roles, and

process and achieve consensus on them from executive management. DelCor recommends that

APWA develop a comprehensive plan that minimally includes:

Risk assessment.

Business impact analysis (including recovery point and recovery time objectives for each

business function and/or system).

Prioritized list of IT services and applications.

Identification of a disaster response team including staff and key vendors.

Emergency response procedures for during and after an emergency.

Mitigation strategies.

Business continuity process and procedures.

Recovery process and procedures.

Testing plan.

http://www.manageengine.com/products/service-desk/help-desk-features.html

https://www.zendesk.com/help-desk-software/

https://www.zendesk.com/apps/ezofficeinventory/?source=top_rated

http://www.solarwinds.com/help-desk-software.aspx


Executive management should sign off on the complete plan. APWA could follow guidelines for

developing a plan available online, e.g., from Ready.gov. If no one on staff has experience

developing one, it would be worth considering a consultant to assist. Doing table top simulations

and recovery tests periodically help the organization be prepared in the event of partial or

complete service disruption.

8. Address PCI compliance.

APWA has engaged TrustWave as a Qualified Security Assessor for their PCI assessment. These

issues will most likely be addressed but DelCor observed enough issues with how payment card

data is handled that it is apparent that controls need to be tightened to become PCI compliant.

Here are some of the observed issues:

No restriction on staff who can enter payment card data.

Devices that process payments are not on an isolated network segment (VLAN).

Unencrypted VOIP (phone) traffic.

Lack of security policies and procedures.

No staff information security training.

No regular penetration testing.

Chapter Template and Point of Sale applications are not Validated Payment Applications.

TRAINING

The scope of this assessment did not include a formal technology skills assessment for staff. We did,

however, learn in our discovery process that skills vary widely from very sophisticated power users to

reluctant users of basic technology. Several staff expressed a desire to have more technology training.

9. Develop standards for technology skills competencies.

Technology skills will vary for each position but it would be helpful to outline what skills all staff

are expected to possess. For example, staff should know how to:

Create basic Word documents.

Save documents.

Print on the network.

Schedule meetings with multiple participants with Outlook.

Enter data into Excel and perform basic formatting.

Look up a member in iMIS by name.

Recognize phishing emails.

Remotely access the network.

Use multiple web browsers.

How to create a PDF file from a Word document.

How to perform web searches.

Current staff skills could be assessed to determine gaps that training could address. For new staff,

it could be used during the recruitment process. While you may not use the assessment to rule

https://www.ready.gov/business/implementation/IT

https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/assessors_and_solutions/qualified_security_assessors

https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/assessors_and_solutions/payment_applications?agree=true


out otherwise qualified candidates but it would at least inform your decision that additional

training may be required for the candidate to be successful at APWA.

10. Reduce the risk of technical knowledge silos through cross-training.

It is not uncommon for software developers to become expert in a software application and then

be the only resource able to effectively support it because it is more expedient. Web Services staff

expressed an interest in doing more cross-training so they can become familiar with supporting a

wider number of applications and broaden their skills. For example, the Chapter Template

application is only supported by the Sr. Web Development & System Architecture Manager. For

such an important application, another developer should be familiar enough with it to support it

even if it takes longer to resolve bugs or add features.

11. Provide iMIS training to DC office staff.

While iMIS training is probably beneficial for most APWA staff, the DC office is not aware of a lot

of the capabilities of the system and would benefit the most from some training.

POLICIES, PROCEDURES AND GUIDES

Finally, APWA needs to develop comprehensive technology-related policies and procedures that are

clear, reasonable, and that will help articulate to staff their roles and responsibilities with regard

technology and information resources across the organization. There are several standard elements that

are found within most successful IT policies. These elements help to make the policies flexible and

scalable while still enabling enforcement. DelCor suggests that APWA begin to incorporate the following

elements into all IT policies:

Version number and dates.

Purpose of the policy and any business objectives it meets.

Contact information for questions.

Methods or processes for dealing with exceptions/appeals.

Scenarios that consider the nature of individual job duties.

Policy update schedule (recommended annually).

Acceptance language.

12. Improve documentation of policies and standard operating procedures for IT.

The following policies have been identified by DelCor as being relevant to APWA as an

organization.

Security policy. Consider using http://pcipolicyportal.com for PCI-related policies that

cover all necessary aspects of security to comply with PCI and make for good overall

cybersecurity policies. The template policies would have to be evaluated for feasibility

and relevance in APWA’s environment but would be a comprehensive start.

Electronic Information/Records Retention – This policy identifies the retention criteria

and timeframe for all electronic information collected by APWA including email,

network documents, data, and queries and reports.

http://pcipolicyportal.com/


Social Media Policy – This policy identifies the organizational expectations associated

with an employee’s interaction with social media platforms.

Mobile Policy – This policy identifies organizational expectations regarding mobile

device usage. This could include areas such as bring your own device approval, password

requirements, termination procedures and APWA access to data.

Termination Policy and Guide – This policy identifies the steps needed and IT factors to

consider when an employee has been terminated.

Conclusion

APWA has a solid foundation and has made remarkable progress since DelCor’s last technology

assessment in 2012 and has clearly demonstrated a commitment to IT as an important asset. DelCor

hopes the recommendations in this report will help APWA continue its technology transformation

journey and advance its IT Maturity levels in all categories to improve service for members and all other

constituents.


Appendix A: Project Rating Guide Example

100 possible points

Category Criteria Description 10-7 points 4-6 points 0-3 points

IMPACT Strategic Alignment

Support of organizational strategic initiatives

In alignment Somewhat aligned or indirectly aligned

Not aligned

Member Value Member value and/or benefit and member experience

Vast improvement

Some improvement

Little to none

Operational Value Impact on internal operations

Major improvement

Some improvement

Little to none

Business Value Impact on competitive advantage

Major Some Little to none

Financial Return on investment Over $50K/year $5K to less than $50K/year

$0 - less than $5K

EFFORT People Number of people involved in project (the fewer involved, the more points)

Just IT team IT Team and 1-2 business units

Organization wide

Costs Combined direct costs (capital and operating expenses)

Less than $10K $10K to less than $50K

$50K or more

Duration How long the project is estimated to take

Less than 3 months

3 months - 1 year

Over 1 year

RISK Technology Complexity of the technology solution

Easily implemented or upgraded (COTS)

Some configuration

Highly customized

Management Skills needed Staff has skills Some training required

New position required


Appendix B: IT Project Portfolio

Provided separately as IT Project Portfolio FINAL APWA 2017-06-15.xlsx.


Appendix C: System Selection Process

It is very important to follow a systematic system selection process whenever considering a new

software solution. While an IT maturity assessment project may surface a need, additional

discovery meetings (most likely to be conducted with outside assistance) will be necessary to

adequately explore and document system requirements.

The suggested process is outlined in the illustration below, which depicts the main project

phases along with key deliverables. Following such a process will provide the organization with

the opportunity to assess more effectively its ability to collect, store, analyze and use

constituent data throughout the organization, both in the short- and long-term. This in turn will

help move the organization toward becoming an increasingly data-driven organization, as well

as identify areas in which additional resources are required to ensure system success.

Figure A1: Requirements analysis/vendor selection/implementation process.


Appendix D: Glossary of Commonly Used Terms

The following list includes terms that are commonly used within the association community to describe various technology tools and processes. We’ve provided these working definitions to ensure that all parties are using the same terminology and align expectations accordingly. Association Management System (AMS): For those unfamiliar with the term, an AMS can be defined as: a centralized database containing both member and non-member records for constituents interacting with your organization. An AMS essentially functions as a customer relationship management (CRM) system but with additional features that have been developed specifically for associations. An AMS is used to manage the association’s business and most AMS programs provide capabilities to manage membership, meetings/events (registrations, logistics management, continuing education units), publications/ subscriptions orders, certifications/accreditations, committees, etc. In addition, an AMS can integrate with the organization’s websites with specific web components/modules to offer online meeting registration, product orders, profile updates, and more. An AMS typically functions as the cash receipts/accounts receivable system for the organization and will be integrated with the financial management system (FMS). An AMS can benefit an organization in multiple ways – including functioning as an enterprise-wide, centralized data repository that can provide a 360-degree view of CLIENT’s constituents and their interactions with the organization. Financial Management System (FMS): Centralized financial system to manage the organization’s accounting needs, including General Ledger, Accounts Payable, and Budgeting. Additional modules may be purchase to manage Fixed Assets, Purchasing, and other accounting software needs. Query: A request for information from the database; results are typically displayed on screen. An example would be the selection of all non-member attendees of last year’s conference who also purchased a specific publication. A list of corresponding records would appear, and most systems would provide several options for actions with the list – including creating a mailing list, printing labels, globally changing fields within the records, generating a printed report, sending an email, or simply browsing through the records of those on the list. In iMIS, the Intelligent Query Architect (IQA) is used to create queries. Reports: A formatted presentation of data requested from the database. The AMS and FMS typically provide standard reports that are part of the system, but they also integrate with third-party report writing applications that enable staff to design and generate new reports. Reports often contain formulas, sub-totals, totals and the records used to provide the information in the report are often generated through a query (defined above). Upgrade path: Vendors will provide new releases or versions of their software that will replace an earlier release/version. Releases are typically smaller “updates” that fix bugs and may include additional functions or capabilities. Versions are typically larger “upgrades” that may involve an entirely new interface or database platform (e.g., the vendor may migrate from Access to SQL Server). By limiting the amount of alterations to an AMS original source program that are specific to your organization only, an organization will be able to maintain an upgrade path and avoid having to continually pay for retrofitting the alterations/customizations every time the vendor provides a new release/version.


Design Study: After a vendor/product has been selected, the Design Study is the process to determine how the gaps that exist between the vendor’s product and your association’s process will be handled. The process results in the generation of a very specific road map guiding both the vendor and the association in the implementation of the new AMS. Implementation: After a vendor/product has been selected and the Design Study is completed, the implementation phase will begin. This is the process during which the vendor begins to work on your specific project (including converting data, developing specific reports, etc.)

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800.345.4228 • www.delcor.com APWA Technology Assessment: DRAFT ‐ 7 August 2012 (Confidential)

TableofContents

Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 4

Background, Project Scope and Methodology ............................................................................................. 5

Best Practices in Not‐for‐Profit Technology ............................................................................................... 10

IT Function Areas and Maturity Levels.................................................................................................... 10

APWA’s IT Maturity Model Assessment ................................................................................................. 11

Findings and Recommendations ................................................................................................................. 13

Customization ......................................................................................................................................... 13

iMIS ..................................................................................................................................................... 13

CMS/LMS ............................................................................................................................................. 14

Recommendations .............................................................................................................................. 15

SDS Staffing and Workload Balancing ..................................................................................................... 21

Lack of trust in the SDS department ................................................................................................... 21

SDS Staff Turnover .............................................................................................................................. 22


Knowledge Management ........................................................................................................................ 25


Website ................................................................................................................................................... 29


Education and Collaboration .................................................................................................................. 34


Strategic Planning and Enhanced Effectiveness ..................................................................................... 37


Appendix A: Information Technology Infrastructure Report

Appendix B: NSS Recommendations Matrix

Appendix C: Recommendation Summary

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DelCor has followed a functional approach to the project, which focused primarily on the business

processes and human factors underlying the systems currently in place at APWA. The approach takes

into account APWA’s overall use of technology and is centered around DelCor’s IT Maturity Model, a

tool for measuring the effectiveness of four major functions of IT throughout an organization ‐ network

infrastructure, data, online and management. IT Maturity focuses on technology in its entirety

throughout your organization, employs a strategic perspective towards using technology to achieve its

mission and business goals, and is measured using four phases – restrictive, functional, effective and

innovative – that identify how well IT is being leveraged within the organization. Overall, the project

included a Discovery Phase followed by a Research and Reporting Phase.

The Discovery phase involved a review of pertinent background materials as well as the Association’s

main website (http://www.apwa.net/) in an effort to become as familiar as possible with APWA prior to

conducting the interviews. An initial meeting with the core project team was also conducted in an effort

to define project success factors and review the project timeline and decision‐making criteria.

As part of the data collection process, DelCor was given the opportunity to interact extensively with

APWA staff members. The feedback that was collected provided valuable information about how staff

and membership utilize existing APWA technology and IT processes. Additionally, staff and members

were able to communicate various areas of opportunity and growth that they would like to see

implemented. The content and purpose of these interactions are as follows:

1. Interviews and interaction with APWA staff. DelCor conducted several staff interviews

surrounding department goals and business objectives; systems and applications in use; likes

and dislikes of the systems and applications, and a high‐level overview of current functional and

technical requirements. These interviews were conducted to provide APWA staff with input on

the functionality of existing systems, identifying strategic infrastructure initiatives, identifying

where the current system state may or may not be meeting the needs of the organization, and

developing information that could support a business case for recommendations. Both

interviews and informal conversations with APWA’s staff were conducted.

2. Staff surveys and interviews. DelCor conducted a user survey to gather as much information as

possible about the APWA network in terms of requirements and constraints (if any). It is

important that DelCor identified the staff’s requirements and constraints as this allowed DelCor

to identify the variances among these requirements, technical realities, and cost considerations.

3. Review of existing documentation. When available, existing documentation such as APWA’s

SDS Mission‐Vision‐Guiding Principles and Motto, job descriptions and agile development

documents were reviewed for informational purposes. In addition, network and support

reviews were provided by DelCor’s, Dan Lautman.

The Research and Reporting phase involved the research and analysis of possible solutions and the

provision of this report for the Association’s consideration, which includes the following elements:

7


1. An introductory section summarizing the study objectives, methodologies, and pertinent background information.

2. A summary of DelCor’s key findings including any issues with existing systems and their potential underlying causes.

3. Client’s current level of IT maturity: restrictive, functional, effective, or innovative ‐ in the four major functions of IT ‐ network infrastructure, data, online and management.

4. Prioritized recommendations for technology enhancements and initiatives. Recommendations will include:

a. Both short and long term recommendations.

b. Alignment of recommended initiatives with the organization’s strategic and business goals.

c. Potential solutions/vendors for implementing recommendations.

d. Estimated costs, required resources, impact on existing resources, and next steps to implement proposed recommendations.

Observations and recommendations related to the use of technology are based on DelCor’s knowledge

and experience, combined with generally accepted best practices and trends found in the technology

industry.

Expertise

This report was created by DelCor Senior Consultant Sarah Manwell. Prior to sending the draft for

external review by APWA, the report was vetted by two additional senior consultants (noted below) for

content, accuracy, and style.

Sarah Manwell, PMP

Senior Consultant, Technology Management

With more than 13 years experience in the association community, Sarah Manwell is a goal‐oriented

individual who uses collaboration, team building, leadership, and mediation skills to motivate

members of a team to work toward project objectives. Ms. Manwell assists her clients with the:

Assessment and selection of association management systems and other related software

applications.

Project management of major system implementations.

Business process analysis and improvement.

Development of standard operating procedures.

Prior to joining DelCor, Ms. Manwell spent 10 years at the National Association of County and City Health

Officials (NACCHO), where she served as Senior Database Specialist II. Her responsibilities involved a

variety of technology projects including managing the implementation of a new AMS, integration with

8


NACCHO’s CMS and third party solutions, and AMS customization and development efforts. Additionally,

Ms. Manwell was responsible for NACCHO’s database department including defining and implementing

the database strategic plan; managing financial, staff and vendor resources; and managing overall

database design, creation and administration. She also held positions at the Chlorine Institute and Society

for Neuroscience.

Ms. Manwell is a member of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and the Project

Management Institute (PMI). She a PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and holds a

B.A. degree in Archeology from Bryn Mawr College and an M.S. in Computer Systems Management

with a concentration in Database and Security from the University of Maryland.

Tobin Conley,


With more than 25 years of experience in the non‐profit, higher education and association

communities, Mr. Conley has gained considerable knowledge of the administrative practices as well

as information technology processes of the nonprofit sector. At DelCor, Mr. Conley’s focus is on:

Technology strategic planning to align the use of technology with the organization’s mission and

business needs.

System assessments and selection (AMS, CRM, CMS, LMS, etc.).

Web strategies and site usability testing.

Implementation project management.

E‐Learning strategies.

Disaster recovery planning.

Mr. Conley is a member of the American Society of Association Executives and The Center for

Association Leadership (ASAE). For several years he has served as a course facilitator for ASAE’s

CenterU online classes (Principles of Association Management, Professional Development

Management Series and The Compelling Leader) and currently serves as Chair of the ASAE

Professional Development Section Council. An accomplished writer and public speaker, Mr.

Conley is a frequent presenter at ASAE and other industry events. Among his more recent

contributions in this arena are presentations entitled Lessons Learned: Building Bridges for

Effective eLearning and Project Management Poker and articles including The Human Side of

Disaster Recovery Planning.

Prior to joining DelCor, Mr. Conley served as Vice President of Membership for the International

Sign Association. He has also held previous positions at the Association of American Colleges &

Universities, United Educators Risk Retention Group and the National Association of College &

University Business Officers. Mr. Conley’s extensive background in the membership arena includes

work in the fields of marketing, communications, database design and management, professional

development, and the provision of a wide range of other member services. He has also held

responsibility for IT functions and served as Webmaster at his association posts.

9


Mr. Conley holds a B.A. degree in Political Philosophy from Michigan State University, Cum Laude (Phi

Beta Kappa member), an M.A. degree in History and an M.L.S. from the University of Maryland, College

Park. He has studied in Australia and the UK as a youth exchange student and Rotary International

scholar.

Kathleen McQuilkin, PMP


Kathleen McQuilkin joined DelCor in 1999 with five years experience in association management. Her 17

years of combined association and technology management experience have provided her with the keen

insight needed to make effective technology related decisions. Ms. McQuilkin assists her clients with the:

Evaluation and selection of association management systems and other related software

applications.

Implementation project management.

Contract negotiations.

Ms. McQuilkin is a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and a PMI certified Project

Management Professional (PMP). She is also a member of the American Society of Association Executives

(ASAE) and has conducted educational sessions at ASAE and other organizations. Ms. McQuilkin was

honored with the ASAE All Star Award in the Technology category. This award recognizes excellence in

customer relationship management among ASAE Industry Partners. She holds a B.A. degree in

Government from the College of William and Mary and a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management

from George Mason University. In addition she is pursuing a M.S. in Management of Projects and

Programs from Brandeis University.

Her experience prior to joining DelCor includes positions as Project Manager for the Electronic

Publishing Division, Optical Society of America and Information Resources Manager for the National

Recreation and Park Association. Major projects undertaken at OSA included the development of an

online journals subscription base, management of the online journals’ Web site, and CD‐ROM

development. At NRPA, Ms. McQuilkin conducted educational and training seminars at national and state

conferences, focusing on the Internet and online content management and was instrumental in the

development of NRPA’s public and private Web sites and coordinated the association’s computer network

upgrade, including hardware and both association and financial management software.

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Restrictive ‐ Members are fully immersed in the 21st century, but, in the restrictive phase, the association’s technology is stuck back in the 20th century. Member expectations are frustrated and staff morale is low. With an insufficient budget, outdated equipment, and undertrained staff, the barebones operation stumbles along.

Functional ‐ A functional organization has better technology but it works only to a point. It’s one step shy of integration and automation. There’s a general feeling of making do with systems and processes that work, but are cumbersome.

Effective ‐ In the effective phase of IT maturity, technology is more than an operational tool. Technology supports the organization’s mission by adding value to the member, volunteer, donor, and constituent experience. These organizations are effective in keeping up with their members, but they’re not yet anticipating their future needs.

Innovative ‐ In the innovative phase of IT maturity, an association strategically uses technology to meet members’ existing needs and anticipate future needs. With the association’s help, members become more successful and the membership experience becomes more valuable and meaningful. You might call it the ideal association. In an innovative association, even when the future is unknown, the association is prepared to move forward and provide value to its members.

APWA’s IT Maturity Model Assessment

Based on DelCor’s observations, we offer up the following assessment of APWA’s standing within the IT

Maturity Model. For each section, DelCor has provided representative observations that support the

assessments. More examples are addressed in the Findings and Recommendations section of this

report.

Infrastructure – Restrictive DelCor’s finding on APWA’s current status is that the organization has implemented a virtual system that requires a certain amount of oversight, maintenance and feeding. For example:

Updates need to be applied manually for each server as there is no automated patch management.

No antivirus protection on servers means that servers are at greater risk.

The off‐site backups have been non‐functional for nearly three months now which makes the system non‐compliant with APWA uptime requirements.

Even if the off‐site backups are working, the process required to manage the backups is cumbersome. Off‐site backups require a systems administrator to manually plug in the external hard drive, wait for the backup to run, and finally give it to a staff member, who then takes it home for storage.

While the system is functional, it does not provide an environment that meets the organization’s uptime requirements. The Internet connectivity is restrictive due to the single 7mb line from Kansas City which is also used for site to site VPN with the DC office. The DC office only has a 2mb line which is inadequate

12


for its level of usage. Furthermore, while there is redundancy on the virtual hosts and storage area network (SAN), there is no redundancy on the Internet connection level. Online – Functional APWA seems to have a responsive social media presence. Its online services are supporting the organizational goals and objectives, if not necessarily in a sustainable way. However, there is no true content review process to allow for quick turn around and consistent messaging for website postings. There is no overall strategy to manage website content and the website does not have a true champion to ensure that it is functioning optimally. The custom‐developed content management system (CMS) requires the SDS staff to create the initial page and then staff members are responsible for the content contained therein. Additional content management training may be necessary. Mass communications with members can be difficult for staff to initiate and manage in a coordinated fashion. Data – Restrictive There are several sources of data that are not incorporated into the organization’s association management system (AMS). This indicates that the AMS does not currently serve as the association’s centralized data repository. Any information collected in the AMS does not provide a complete picture of constituent interaction with the organization. APWA does not have a resource with the appropriate database background to manage the system. Extraction of data from the AMS and import of information into the system is haphazard and time consuming ‐ and staff members feel as though they lack guidance for development and AMS usage. Management – Restrictive

Oversight and management of incoming projects that utilize technology is lacking. Projects often appear without advanced warning and on an unrealistic timeframe given the total workload of the department. There is no method to manage requests for project resources outside of the task based help desk. A process is needed to enable the SDS department to plan for long term projects and staff resource allocation. Additionally, while there is a budget assigned for professional development, staff training plans to develop staff member (IT and non‐IT) technology management and usage skills are not in place. Developing staff training plans would involve documenting the skill sets needed for each position and developing a yearly roadmap to identify areas of progress.

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14


By not upgrading iMIS, APWA has not been able to take advantage of the development and

improvements that have been made to the iMIS over the past several years. For example, some key

areas that are not supported by APWA’s version 10.6 but would be supported by iMIS 15.2 include:

1. PCI compliance

2. Proxy member registration/organizational level member management

3. International Membership upgrades including Value Added Tax enhancements

4. Ability to use iMIS’s intelligent query architect (IQA) for dynamic queries and reports

5. Unlimited chapter websites with iMIS’s web content management (WCM)

6. Communities module

7. Digital delivery of publications

8. Customizable demographic collection forms that feed directly into iMIS

9. Flexible access options to allow users to access iMIS via the web

APWA is currently using iMIS to manage its events registrations. During the discovery interviews, staff

stated that iMIS does not allow APWA to effectively manage on‐site registration. APWA has several

requirements that indicate that it would benefit from a third‐party event management system. For

example, APWA would like to create exhibit floor plans that can be interactively managed by their

exhibitors. While this typically falls outside of the core functionality of an AMS many third‐party

vendors offer these features as part of their product. An integration between the two systems would

allow for this additional functionality while ensuring that the AMS remains as the organization’s central

data repository.

Similar to events management, APWA’s advocacy needs could be facilitated by integrating with their

third‐party advocacy solution, CapWiz. While APWA currently uses CapWiz to manage their grassroots

efforts, there is no connection between CapWiz and the AMS in regard to advocacy and constituent

contact information. The lack of integration prevents APWA from having a 360‐degree view of a

constituent’s interaction with the organization as a whole. Maintaining contact information for

constituents between the two systems is particularly important to ensure that constituents are assigned

to their appropriate congressional districts. An integration would allow contact information from the

AMS to be used by CapWiz as well as information on advocacy efforts to move back in to the AMS.

CMS/LMS

DelCor recognizes that APWA custom developed the current content management system (CMS) and

learning management system (LMS) using in–house development resources. While these systems are

meeting the organization’s minimal needs, the custom systems do not inherently possess features and

capabilities that are offered by best‐of‐breed CMS and LMS solutions on the market today. In addition,

the custom systems are unreliable and resource intensive. During the discovery interviews, staff

members noted that the systems will cease to function on occasion and require modification by in‐

house developers in order to get the systems working again. In addition, the LMS is a relatively new

system for APWA and still requires a significant amount of custom development in order to meet the

program’s needs.

15


Recommendations

1. Evaluate off‐the‐shelf solutions before considering developing a custom system. While APWA

has benefitted from implementing custom software development solutions, as time has passed

the organization is now discovering some of the pitfalls associated with this approach. While it

appears that the initial costs of in‐house development are low, there is a real issue with long

term sustainability. A custom system is able to be molded to fit APWA’s business processes

perfectly; however these adaptations come at a price. Each time APWA identifies a system

need, IT staff resources are required to implement the solution at a cost of time, money, and

staff resources. System changes are subject to the workload and availability of APWA’s

developers and the organization faces the very real risk that these resources could leave at any

time. SDS staff reported that the learning curve for mastering these undocumented custom

systems is very high. Not only are they navigating an undocumented system, they are often

working with antiquated code that is not in their specialty area. In addition, looking at the

current solutions, it is obvious that some parts of the solution were pieced together without

regard for the overall architecture of the system. Ultimately APWA must decide if they are

going to operate as a software development company, in which case it must devote the

appropriate resources to this task.

While the implementation of an off‐the‐shelf solution might require APWA to modify business

processes somewhat to fit within the solution, DelCor does not believe the impact to services

will be significant. In fact, it appears that the some of the features available to APWA

stakeholders will be enhanced as a result of implementing off‐the‐shelf solutions, assuming

APWA fully evaluates solutions available on the market. When evaluating such solutions, the

organization should aim to have 80% of its business needs addressed by the baseline product,

while 20% can be made to conform via customization or configuration using available system

tools or features. Benefits of using a tested out of the box solution include:

Leveraging other organizations’ experiences to improve the base product: One of the AMS

solutions investigated by DelCor boasted 1,000 customers on 7 continents. They release

new updates to the product weekly based on feedback gathered from their help system.

Development budget: An AMS vendor often devotes millions of dollars toward product

development and improvement. Instead of being reliant on APWA funds and resources to

support new features and enhancements, APWA can take advantage of the pool of

resources that the AMS vendor has already set aside

Less risk due to staff attrition: If the individual who implemented a customization did not

document their work appropriately, the institutional knowledge related to their work will be

lost upon their departure. There is essentially no documentation for any of the custom

solutions created by APWA. In addition APWA’s customizations were written in various

programming languages, some of which are obsolete. Each of these programming

languages is akin to a specialty in medicine, so typically a programmer will specialize in only

a small subset of languages. A particularly skilled individual, such as the one APWA

16


currently has, may attempt to work with unfamiliar code, but this comes at the cost of time

to educate the individual as they go. The benefit of established solutions is that the vendors

are focused on only one product, which is well documented thereby mitigating this risk.

Additionally since these products are user interfaces rather than programming languages

they do not require an advanced skill‐set to operate and therefore are easier to recruit for.

Improved support: Software vendors have dedicated support professionals available to

troubleshoot issues and implement fixes. Vendors have a stable of skilled individuals with

the specialty knowledge necessary to make modifications to the product. When software

vendors provide support for their existing product, it is an easier proposition than a single

organization going through a customized development process.

Electronic collaboration platform: The most recent version of iMIS provides an electronic

collaboration platform as part of their offering that serves to facilitate member interaction

and community. For example, by upgrading iMIS and/or implementing and integrating a

collaboration platform such as Higher Logic or Socious, APWA committee members would

gain access to an online portal, available through the APWA website, which would allow

committee members to utilize services such as document collaboration, directories, group

scheduling, meeting information, training opportunities, surveys, quizzes and resource

libraries.

2. Evaluate AMS offerings to compare against the current iMIS version 10.6. The AMS serves as

the hub of the organization’s data and should function as the central location for recording all

interactions between the constituents and the organization. Since version 10.6 is so outdated,

DelCor recommends that APWA evaluate current AMS offerings on the market today to

ascertain which AMS solution is most appropriate for APWA. As part of the evaluation, the

organization must conduct a detailed requirements gathering to identify and document all

critical business processes that should be supported by the system. Following this identification,

APWA will have two options to evaluate.

Option #1: APWA conducts a requirements gathering process and uses the information

collected in a gap analysis of iMIS’s features versus APWA’s business processes. If it is

discovered that there are too many deficiencies in what features iMIS provides, APWA would

then use the requirements gathered during the gap analysis to create a request for proposal

(RFP) to send to additional vendors.

In order to help make APWA a more educated consumer, DelCor recommends that

APWA conduct a series of AMS product demonstrations in order to better

familiarize themselves with the product feature sets available in comparable AMS

solutions.

Next Steps could include:

o Develop a detailed requirements document that outlines APWA’s business

processes and needs that must be addressed by the system (e.g. unified

shopping cart functionality, publications management and distribution).

17


o Work with CSI to identify which customizations would be affected by

upgrade and which iMIS modules/plug‐ins would be needed to support the

requirements.

o Conduct detailed demonstrations to verify that the solutions will meet

APWA’s requirements.

o If iMIS is determined to be an acceptable solution, work with CSI to

determine the budget and timeline for upgrade.

o Implement the solution.

o If iMIS is not an acceptable solution, APWA should begin an AMS selection

process. This process would include:

Determine the budget and timeline for implementation.

Develop a selection document that outlines APWA’s requirements

and invites vendors to submit proposals. Since one of the main

costs in this type of implementation is data conversion, APWA

should consider how much historical data that they would like to

migrate to the new system.

Conduct vendor demonstrations.

Evaluate proposals submitted by vendors and select a vendor.

Implement the solution.

Critical issues:

o APWA will need to identify resources to support the process both in terms

of money as well as staffing. The project lead could be internal or

contracted, but it will be imperative that this person be focused on this

effort (e.g., able to spend 50‐80% of their time during the project). The

identified resource will be responsible for areas such as:

Vendor management

Subject matter expert coordination

Developing test plans

Conducting testing

Documenting business processes and SOPs

Monitoring adherence to requirements

o The iMIS business model is relatively unique in the AMS community. The

pricing structure tends to be like an a la carte menu of modules and plug‐ins

that are available for an additional fee. Other AMS systems tend to have

bundle feature sets as part of the baseline product.

o iMIS can be hosted externally or in‐house. If hosted in‐house, the system

requires a database administrator (DBA) level individual to maintain the

physical server and health of the database. APWA should strongly consider

hosting iMIS externally so as to alleviate the technical resources needed.

o Additionally the following functionality risks should be taken into account

when evaluating iMIS:

iMIS has no full multi‐tenant system to support chapters

18


There will likely be increased costs incurred by moving from

concurrent licensing to named users

iMIS’s sales structure is centered around features provided by third‐

party modules/plug‐ins that are associated with an additional cost

o Speaker library

o Mobile capability

o Workflow management tool

o Job board

o Online marketplace

International dues are a customization, not provided by the baseline

product

o Selection and implementation of a new AMS is typically a 12‐18 month

process. Working with a new vendor will start this process off from scratch.

o Since APWA staff members are unfamiliar with a new AMS, it will be

necessary for them to acclimate. Identification of training resources will be

an important component of the process.

o All third‐party vendors that have been integrated into the current AMS must

be re‐integrated to the new system.

Option #2: APWA conducts a requirements gathering process and uses the information collected to

support the creation of a request for proposal (RFP) for an AMS selection. APWA would continue to

consider iMIS during the RFP process so as to become educated as to how the latest version of iMIS

compares to other AMS solutions.

By combining the evaluation of iMIS with the evaluation of other solutions in one step

(version Option #1, which is a two‐step process including an initial evaluation before

considering other AMS solutions), the timeline is likely to be reduced should APWA consider

other systems.

Next Steps could include:

o Develop a detailed requirements document that outlines APWA’s business

processes and needs that must be addressed by the system (e.g. unified shopping

cart functionality, publications management and distribution).

o Determine the budget and timeline for implementation.

o Develop a selection document that outlines APWA’s requirements and invites

vendors to submit proposals. Since one of the main costs in this type of

implementation is data conversion, APWA should consider how much historical data

that they would like to migrate to the new system.

o Evaluate proposals submitted by vendors and select a vendor.

o Implement the solution.

Critical issues:

o APWA will need to identify resources to support the process both in terms of money

as well as staffing. The staffing could be internal or contracted, but it will be

19


imperative that this person be dedicated to this task and not be responsible for

other day‐to‐day tasks. The identified resource will be responsible for areas such as:

Vendor management

Subject matter expert coordination

Developing test plans

Conducting testing

Documenting business processes and SOPs

Monitoring adherence to requirements

o The iMIS business model is relatively unique in the AMS community. The pricing

structure tends to be like an a la carte menu of modules and plug‐ins that are

available for an additional fee. Other AMS systems tend to have bundle feature sets

as part of the baseline product.

o Additionally the following functionality risks should be taken into account when

evaluating iMIS:

iMIS has no full multi‐tenant system to support chapters

There will likely be increased costs incurred by moving from concurrent

licensing to named users

iMIS’s sales structure is centered around features provided by third‐party

modules/plug‐ins that are associated with an additional cost

Speaker library

Mobile capability

Workflow management tool

Job board

Online marketplace

International dues are a customization, not provided by the baseline

product

o Selection and implementation of a new AMS is typically a 12‐18 month process.

Working with a new vendor will start this process off from scratch.

o Since APWA staff members are unfamiliar with a new AMS, it will be necessary for

them to acclimate. Identification of training resources will be an important

component of the process.

o All third‐party vendors that have been integrated into the current AMS must be re‐

integrated to the new system.

DelCor recommends that APWA identify the AMS solution to be used prior to implementing any

additional solutions (e.g., CMS, LMS, blast communication platform) since the AMS is the

primary system for recording member and constituent data . Once the AMS has been

established, supporting systems can be selected that integrate in the most efficient fashion with

the selected AMS.

3. DelCor recommends that APWA abandon its custom CMS solution in favor of an off the shelf

product. An off the shelf system will be easier to maintain and a much more sustainable option

based on the reasons given in recommendation #1. It is important that the selected CMS be

20


strongly compatible with the AMS that has been selected, therefore that decision must have

precedence before a CMS can be selected.

4. Based on the high level of resources being directed toward education with areas such as the

Donald C. Stone Educational Center and Click Listen and Learn webinar series, DelCor

recommends that APWA evaluate a learning management system (LMS). APWA’s delivery and

management of online educational programs would be greatly enhanced with the

implementation of a system, linked to the AMS, in which members could accomplish such tasks

as: access courses, view credits, evaluate courses, take exams, and access supporting

documentation. Since this system is ancillary to the AMS, the selection of the AMS would need

to be finalized before proceeding with the LMS selection process.

5. DelCor recommends that as part of the iMIS gap analysis process that APWA assess the

software’s ability to support events (including on‐site management) at the level required by the

organization. Due to the complexity of the business rules surrounding events, DelCor finds it

unlikely that an AMS will have the necessary functionalities to support large events at APWA.

Various solutions are available in this area (e.g. CVENT, Oasis, Confex, Experient). However, for

smaller events and workshops, an AMS should have the functionality to support them.

6. DelCor recommends that APWA investigate integrating third‐party solutions to ensure the AMS

is maintained as a central data repository and provides the necessary view of constituent

activity with the organization. Consideration should be given to integrating CapWiz with the

AMS as well as any additional third‐party solutions.

21


SDS Staffing and Workload Balancing

Given the nature of the tasks and current level of effort assigned to them, the SDS department is not

adequately staffed. Not only are SDS staff members responsible for day to day support and database

and web maintenance, but they also manage all custom development efforts. Since the CMS and LMS

are custom products that are still evolving at a rapid pace, this consumes a significant portion of their

time. As IT solutions are core resources to improve and enhance member benefits, the team’s workload

will continue to grow to meet the demand for development and support.

SDS currently has two full time developers, two temporary developers, one business analyst/application

support position, and one IT manager. Given the number of custom applications, there is currently too

much development and maintenance work for the current number of developers. The responsibility of

maintaining the database, website, and all custom applications is too great. In addition, the APWA staff

report that since they lost their database expert they feel that their ability to effectively use the AMS

has suffered greatly.

SDS staff members do not currently have a skills development plan in place in order to train them to

operate more effectively. For example, while the SDS team has an individual who is functioning as a

business analyst, this individual has not received any formal training in requirements gathering

methodologies. SDS staff members need the appropriate tools to be able to function at their highest

capacity.

One of the final ways to help relieve pressure on the SDS team would be by having the tools and

structure in place to effectively balance their workload. While there is an IT tracking system, it doesn’t

allow for long range planning and prioritization of projects. The ability to know what projects are

coming up and the ability to assign and track resource levels available, would allow for better resource

allocation.

Lack of trust in the SDS department

During DelCor’s interviews with APWA staff members it was readily apparent that the vast majority have

lost faith in the SDS department. Reactions ranged from defeat and resignation to outright hostility

toward the SDS department. Staff members do not trust SDS to deliver a quality product within what

they might consider a reasonable timeframe. They feel that the custom solutions created for them are

consistently in need of repair and that upgrades or additional functionality typically break other parts of

the system resulting in added delay. Additionally, staff members feel that their requests for

development or support are often forgotten or ignored. SDS staff expressed feeling overwhelmed with

the amount of work assigned to them on a daily basis in combination with implementation and

maintenance of long term projects. They can tell that the APWA staff is frustrated with them but feel

that even when they succeed, their success is not celebrated or appreciated by the staff members who

request the work.

22


SDS Staff Turnover

Understaffing in addition to unrealistic staff expectations have led to a high level of attrition within the

SDS department. APWA staff will give SDS requests for new functionality that require modifications to

custom code and expect it to be an easy fix. Unfortunately due to the lack of code documentation,

modifying the systems is difficult and time consuming as the developer determines the appropriate

solution. For example, a developer has to consider many factors that go into these types of changes

including:

How the request fits into the overall architecture of the system.

What other pieces of custom code are affected by the modification

Conducting regression testing to ensure the code functions appropriately

Documentation of the code change for the future.

Given pressure to fit within the timeframes identified by the requesting departments, the developers

are not always able to conduct all of these steps, which exacerbates the problem.

All of the current SDS staff members have been in their positions for a year or less. The significant

amount of turnover that the department experiences is likely impacted by the general knowledge of the

dissatisfaction and discontent that exists towards the department. SDS staff members note that the

department’s history with the organization makes it difficult to be sure they are being judged on their

own merit.

This type of turnover is particularly difficult when dealing with complex customizations and systems as

SDS staff members must come up to speed on organizational business process and needs in order to

effectively use technology to assist their co‐workers and benefit membership as a whole. In addition,

the

Recommendations

1. DelCor recommends that APWA evaluate its current SDS resources and conduct workload

balancing to address strategic areas identified by leadership. As part of this effort the roles and

responsibilities of existing staff members should be clarified and additional resources procured

as need be to support desired functionality levels. In addition, APWA should identify additional

resources to assist with website and database‐related issues. While an internal re‐distribution

of responsibilities could address some of the need, DelCor recommends that additional

resources be engaged to balance the SDS workload. The most obvious areas to shore up are

related to the APWA database and website. These positions are self‐contained and relatively

easy to recruit for. Movement of these tasks off of the developers would free up their time for

critical programming and maintenance efforts.

2. In the past, APWA employed a talented database administrator (DBA) who was not only skilled

in database programming languages, but also had a 10‐year tenure that enabled him to

23


comprehensively understand APWA’s data and business processes. His iMIS knowledge and

organizational expertise guided APWA developers to design solutions that made the AMS a

more effective solution for the organization. When that individual departed, his position was

not re‐staffed and it has left a significant gap. It is imperative that APWA hire either a DBA or a

Membership Manager with extensive AMS experience to replace this lost skill‐set. Database

responsibilities would include:

a. Reporting and Query development –Reporting and queries are the most important ways

of making information collected in the database accessible to non‐technical staff. These

reports and queries must be created as a team effort between programmatic staff (who

know the content needed) and SDS (who know where the data is stored and how to

extract it).

b. Database consultation ‐ Development of additional functionalities or enhancements

within iMIS. Provide guidance regarding data collection, storage, and analysis.

c. Database integrity and maintenance ‐ In order for the database to contain the most

effective data, it must be reviewed consistently. For example if a database contains a

high percentage of outdated email addresses, APWA will be unable to communicate

effectively with its constituency. Additionally items such as outdated reports and

queries must be removed or archived to reduce confusion.

d. Integrations with third‐party software or disparate databases ‐ Where possible, all

applicable software should be integrated with the AMS through web services and single

sign‐on (SSO). Additionally, historical data can be migrated into the system to enhance

the understanding of member interaction.

3. As with most organizations, APWA provides a significant level of member services through the

website and other online areas such as its click listen and learn webinars. The care and

maintenance of this critical business asset can be a time consuming task that requires

specialized knowledge to implement effectively. DelCor recommends that APWA identify a

resource to support the organization’s web initiatives. One of the first tasks assigned to this

individual would be to spearhead a full website redesign that would coincide with the move to a

new content management system. Additional responsibilities that would be assigned to this

resource could include:

a. Manage website refresh or redesign.

b. Follow web traffic statistics.

c. Optimize keywords and revise content based on web statistics.

d. Refine metatags.

e. Remove out‐of‐date content and other content‐related tasks that fall under the

specialty of a webmaster.

f. Manage web‐based marketing and search engine optimization.

g. Develop and enforce branding and website look and feel.

h. Develop Web and social media policy and strategies.

i. Enforce the consistency of content.

24


4. APWA needs to improve the help‐desk system whereby staff and APWA membership submits

issues to IT staff. IT staff requires the ability to assign themselves to outstanding issues. APWA

staff should be able to go on to the help desk system at any time and verify the status of their

submission. Without an effective system, SDS staff members are missing the opportunity to

collect metrics on who is accomplishing what work and how long that work is taking. Should

APWA collect this additional information, staff workloads can be balanced to ensure that

resources are being distributed effectively across the organization. A help‐desk system would

provide a way to track how much time SDS members spent on each issue with each department.

The ultimate goal is to implement a centrally located, organization wide area where IT needs are

stored in a searchable and reportable format.

5. In order to ensure that technology resources are strategically selected and have the ability to be

supported by the SDS department, APWA would benefit from an IT resource request process.

This form would allow SDS to manage requests for software, hardware and technical services.

Since one of the problems encountered by SDS is that they are not aware of projects that are

outstanding, this process ensures that all technology resource requests are seen and evaluated

by the SDS department. The forms would require the applicant to provide information such as:

a. Requestor

b. Business case/impact

c. Budget

d. Timeframe

e. Approval

This information allows the SDS department to develop a long term calendar of outstanding

projects, train staff to effectively support new software and hardware, and to develop realistic

delivery schedules. The process also serves as an exception or appeals process for staff to

request non‐standard resources.

25


Knowledge Management

Information created, collected, and maintained by APWA is one of the most critical assets of the

organization, and will undoubtedly factor into the organization’s future success. This knowledge can

take the form of tangible data (such as paper documents, electronic files, data, or emails) or more tacit

knowledge (such as institutional knowledge, member engagement, professional experience, and subject

matter expertise). Enhancing APWA’s methods of collecting and organizing this information will protect

this resource and provide a lasting benefit to the organization, its members and constituents.

Accessibility of the data is an important step toward managing this information. For example it

currently takes a significant amount of time to import the information collected from events into the

AMS system. With a documented standard operating procedure combined with repeatable import

templates and forms, the time to import could be significantly reduced. A key recommendation for

managing this process is for APWA to engage in a knowledge management initiative.

There is a great wealth of institutional knowledge that needs to be recorded at APWA that is not

currently being collected. This is particularly important for the SDS team in light of the high staff

attrition that they have been experiencing. Documenting standard operating procedures and business

rules are critical factors for training replacement employees. It certainly helps decrease the time it will

take to bring the individual up to speed.

The data, information and knowledge that reside at APWA, both in terms of institutional knowledge as

well as tacit knowledge, are valuable assets that must be protected while at the same time made

accessible. Staff members should be encouraged to create and maintain documentation of key business

processes so that APWA has a current version to which it may refer at any given time. In order to

reinforce such measures, appropriate skill sets and competency levels should be incorporated into

position descriptions (as appropriate) and included among items routinely discussed as part of regular

management efforts and the employee evaluation process. As part of the content management section

of the knowledge management initiative, content contained within the network, website, archives and

database must be assessed on a regular basis to ensure the content continues to be accurate, current

and relevant to member needs. Content assessment is critical to the success of any knowledge

management initiative.

Recommendations

1. Management of the information in these areas should comprise an electronic information

management plan. Develop (and enforce) retention policies surrounding email, network

documents, database information, queries, reports and the website.

a. Email – Such a policy should include information about email, such as: what is the

storage limit for each account, how long is the information stored, is there/what is the

archive process, how are bulk messages sent, how are email addresses maintained and

updated, what happens with bounce‐back messages, can people send on behalf of

another person, are signatures standardized.

26


b. Network documents – Documents should be stored and categorized in a manner where

they are easily accessible and searchable by APWA staff. Documents should be

reviewed on a frequent basis to determine which documents are still relevant to the

organization and assessed against the organization’s value to member determination.

The policy should also identify what is to happen to those that are found to no longer

meet the organization’s needs.

c. Database information – Database information should be reviewed on a systematic basis

twice per year. A database style guide should be developed that will help to identify

data entry standards for different pieces of database information. This effort will

reduce data entry errors and give the data a unified structure. While the styles being

enforced by database style guides are subjective, all of them exist to ensure consistency

in organizational data.

d. Queries/Reports – Staff are allowed to create new reports and queries on a regular

basis, however there appears to be confusion among APWA users as to what should be

kept and where. The confusion could be due to either the lack of naming conventions

or lack of query/report management strategies. DelCor recommends creating a

systematic naming convention for reports as well as engaging in query/report review as

part of data clean‐up efforts.

e. Website content – A review should be conducted on an annual basis to determine which

content continues to be relevant. More information on this topic is covered in the

Website section of this report.

2. As with most associations, APWA has a large contingent of employees with tenure of five years

or more. Currently, the institutional knowledge held by these individuals is not captured and

there is a risk of the information being lost to the organization with each staff departure. In

order to leverage this institutional knowledge, APWA must encourage staff to create and

maintain training documentation for how staff and members interact with each system so that

APWA has a current version to which it may refer at any given time. The creation of standard

operating procedures (SOPs) to capture tacit knowledge regarding institutional memory and

subject‐matter expertise will provide APWA with the process knowledge necessary to effectively

train both staff and members.

3. Constituent demographic data is the lifeblood of any association. DelCor recommends that

APWA focus on expanding and categorizing the member demographic data it collects in order to

provide tailored services to their constituents. This data includes not only transactional data,

such as publications purchased and conferences attended, but also participation and member

engagement data such as committee participation, publications authored, and speaking

engagements. Although APWA currently collects a reasonable amount of demographic

information, it is not being used effectively for marketing and communication purposes. The

organization needs to develop a structure and weighting system for this information that will

enable them to effectively identify and quantify levels of member engagement. Assessing the

27


value of the data collected will help determine how best to categorize it for increased

accessibility.

4. Currently, APWA’s member engagement data is located in several disparate locations. For

example the Donald C. Stone Educational Center and the online awards submittals are not

connected to the AMS. DelCor recommends that, to the extent practical, APWA should

consolidate all member engagement data within APWA’s central database, the AMS. Examples

of information to be connected to the AMS include both historical data as well as alternate

records of member engagement currently stored in spreadsheets or alternate databases. Once

these activities are connected, the data will be united in a single searchable location that will

provide a 360‐degree view of a member’s activities with APWA. Benefits of this effort include:

a. Cross‐marketing – The effort of cross marketing products not only provides constituents

with the ability to see related publications, events, memberships, or webinars in order

to increase revenue, but also improve the user experience by reducing the amount of

information they must view that is outside their expressed areas of interest. The online

consumer should have the ability to add related purchases to their cart, especially in

regard to membership and education. This feature can add to the value received by the

user by highlighting opportunities for increasing their knowledge. Additionally, if

savings related to active membership are highlighted, there is a greater opportunity to

demonstrate the value of membership to potential members and hopefully increase

recruitment.

b. Targeted/customized content – In order to make content on the website relevant and

interesting to users, APWA should expand their collection of user interests and areas of

expertise to gather additional user information that will enable the organization to

provide targeted information on the website. DelCor recommends evaluating APWA’s

existing website using a combination of a usability study and card sort in order to

improve the user experience. This effort will hopefully lead to identifying areas of

opportunity for more focused content delivery.

c. Establishing a pool of resources – One of the other key areas that APWA can focus on is

the linking of individuals with appropriate tasks and resources. If the expertise of

certain members can be matched with the interests of others, connections that would

benefit both parties could be established. Additionally, if content experts are needed

for speaking events, articles, or mentorships, these individuals could be easily matched

with the appropriate need. This linking would also enable the organization to reduce

the tendency to continually rely on the same group of individuals for assistance and

increase participation of new individuals in the expert pool.

5. Data Optimization – In order to be used effectively data must be maintained, not only by SDS

but by the organization as a whole. The SDS is charged with ensuring that information is stored

in an accessible, logical, and secure architecture as well as designing and implementing methods

of extracting the data based on staff requirements. It is the responsibility of the content owners

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to determine whether the content continues to be relevant and useful to APWA and its

constituency.

a. In order to strategically plan for organizational reporting needs, DelCor recommends

that APWA gather a list of queries or reports that are created for/run by programmatic

staff on a regular basis. This should be a combined effort between the content experts

and SDS staff. This could be accomplished with an initial survey followed up by

department interviews. Once completed, there should be a better understanding of

organizational reporting needs and enable the SDS to plan for such requests.

b. Enabling staff to mine their own data through the use of carefully structured

parameterized reports could also alleviate some of the reporting strain experienced by

SDS staff. By giving the staff structured yet configurable access to explore system data,

new avenues of creativity might organically develop for programmatic staff.

c. APWA currently has several data sources that that are not integrated into iMIS. When

data is not collected in a central location, a significant amount of time and resources

must be utilized in bringing those data together for analysis. DelCor recommends APWA

integrate disparate data sources with iMIS, where appropriate, to allow for efficient and

effective data mining and reporting. Specific areas mentioned by staff include: Donald

C. Stone Educational Center and online awards submission process. One caution is to

recognize that just because historical data exist; it may not be strategically sound to

spend the effort to import the information into the AMS. For example, APWA should

consider how many years of speaker data to import and what scope of information

needs to be transferred. Staff members should ascertain whether it is important to

know whether someone was a speaker or additional information is needed.

800.345

5.4228 • www

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32


The lack of assigned ownership of the website leads to nobody taking responsibility for it. Another issue

is that there is no cohesive writing voice that is carried throughout the content of the website. Content

style can be very different from page to page. There is no process to manage content approval and

content consistency and no staff to manage said process.

Another issue uncovered during the staff interviews was the lack of a unified shopping cart for all

member transactions. Membership is not processed on a real time basis and events are not collected

within the AMS system. This is a missed opportunity for informing members of related products of

interest as well as offering the appropriate membership pricing for products and events.

Recommendations

1. The move to a new CMS is an excellent opportunity to review website structure and content. To

capitalize on this opportunity DelCor recommends that APWA conduct a website usability study

to be used as the basis of a website redesign process. DelCor recommends an electronic card

sort method be used to assist staff and members in more effectively categorizing the content

presented on the website.

As part of this process, evaluate the online shopping experience and shopping cart in order to

inform a redesign process to improve the user experience. Shoppers should be able to conduct

transactions using a unified shopping cart with all transactions available in a single location. The

ultimate goal should be to unify as many aspects of the shopping cart as is practical. Ideally, this

enhanced process would also include efforts to cross‐sell products and encourage membership

renewal and join.

2. Enhance capacity for members to contribute information in an online format. Online forms

should be developed to allow information to flow directly into the iMIS database, which will

allow for better mining and access to information contained therein. In addition, staff members

would then have the ability to quickly report out aggregate data based on the information

obtained in real time from the online forms. Having information such as awards applications

and interest and expertise data be directly input into the system, would be highly beneficial.

3. In order to help define APWA’s visual and writing style on the web, APWA should create a

website style guide and clean‐up plan. Content and data should be reviewed at least twice

annually to verify content is current and relevant. Additionally it should be the responsibility of

a single staff member to conduct the content review.

4. To mitigate the need to do site‐wide reviews, DelCor recommends that APWA implement a

content review and approval process. All content should be reviewed in regard to writing style,

accuracy, and alignment with the style guide before it is made active on the website. This will

give this website a single voice and lead to a more cohesive site.

33


5. It is estimated that by the year 2014 mobile use will see a 4,000% increase. Given this trend

toward mobile capability, DelCor recommends that APWA investigate and implement a mobile‐

friendly website.

34


Education and Collaboration

One area for development that emerged during staff interviews was the need for a collaborative space

that would enable staff members to communicate and share information more effectively – between

the DC and Kansas City offices as well as external communication between staff and members. In

addition, APWA committees engage in many activities that could be facilitated by such a solution.

Group document editing, scheduling, and access to committee documentation such as agendas, meeting

notes and directories are some of the examples. The DC office works with members to craft testimony

but currently email is the primary medium used for supporting these activities. Unfortunately, emails

get lost, some attachments are turned away due to mailbox size limits, and information is hard for

members to find since it is not in a central, secure and easily accessible location. From a staff

perspective, they are often faced with the time consuming effort of compiling varying versions of the

document into a single draft

Another process that would benefit from a collaboration environment is the committee nominations

process. APWA currently compiles its committee nominations packets manually and distributes them

as a binder. This is a time consuming process that could be automated through the AMS and its outward

facing portal.

Finally, collaboration between the Kansas City and DC APWA offices is another area for collaboration

that came out during the staff interview process. The geographic distance between the two offices can

lead to a feeling of isolation and disconnection particularly for the DC office. The Kansas City office also

feels disconnected from the DC office but due to their size and function as home base, it is perceived as

less of an issue.

Recommendations

1. Establish an online portal that will serve as a one‐stop shop for visitors to access the unified

suite of APWA services. This portal will not only focus on transactional interactions

(publications, events, and membership) but also provide an area for constituents to receive

education, collaborate, and engage as a community. For example, as noted above, APWA

committee members interact with one another primarily through email. Staff members must

coordinate meeting times and distribute documents via email as well. Alternatively, should

APWA establish an online portal, a robust Committee area could be developed that would

facilitate discussion, scheduling, materials distribution, and document collaboration. In

addition, the portal would allow for users to have a central area where they could access items

such as:

a. Publications purchased

b. Event registration and participation

c. Membership renewal

d. Document collaboration and communal scheduling

e. Committee specific information

35


f. Submissions to any the peer evaluation processes

g. Peer review management

h. Learning opportunities

i. Contact information management

j. Management of preferences, interests and expertise

2. As discussed in the Knowledge Management section above, by collecting interests and expertise

for site visitors as well as allowing them to manage their preferences, APWA will gain a more

effective means to market to its stakeholders. These preferences and demographic information

will allow APWA to manage the delivery of content via web and email, as well as effectively

market events and educational opportunities. One complaint frequently encountered by

associations is an overload in communications. The sheer volume of information that members

may receive from an association on a daily basis can be overwhelming. By utilizing preferences

and demographic information, APWA has the ability to reduce the overall volume of content

received and more effectively provide information that mirrors stakeholder interests.

3. DelCor recommends that APWA work on improving the communication between the DC and

Kansas City office. There are several ways that technology could facilitate this process. Some

organizations find that having a staff section of the intranet devoted to staff biographic

information, sales and personal events, and organization wide events can help to foster a feeling

of what is going on with fellow staff members. Additionally, having a reliable screen sharing

program to be used during Kansas City and DC joint meetings would help the DC office to feel as

though they are more of a participant. Finally, ensuring that the network drives are available to

DC staff in addition to training for both Kansas City staff and DC staff on how best to utilize

those drives, can help with the sharing of information.

4. If APWA would like to investigate vendors for a collaboration platform there are several vendors

that could assist with this effort. The collaboration platforms such as Peach New Media and

Higher Logic could potentially facilitate the High School Outreach program.

36


Product Example Functionality Description Cost

Lyris Discussion lists Basic discussion list functionality APWA owns a license

Socious Community collaboration site

Provides stakeholders with an online community, document repository, and networking/committee area. In addition to discussion list functionality this would allow users to create a document library of archive documents

Implementation: $11,000 Licensing Fee: $1,850 ‐ $2,200/month

Higher Logic Community collaboration site

Provides stakeholders with an online community, document repository, and networking/committee area. In addition to discussion list functionality this would allow users to create a document library of archive documents

Implementation: $5,000 Licensing Fee: $1,500 ‐ $2,250/month

SharePoint Community collaboration site

Provides stakeholders with an online community, document repository, and networking/committee area.

Professional services fees for build out ‐ approximately 150‐180/hour. Flexible but could be a significant cost.

Peach New Media Learning Management System

Allows stakeholders to access courses, view credits, evaluate courses, view certificates, take exams, and access supporting documentation $120,000‐$150,000

37


Strategic Planning and Enhanced Effectiveness

In order for APWA to optimize its use of IT throughout the organization, detailed consideration needs to

be given to the way in which technology is managed and supported at the organization. These

internally‐focused strategic recommendations address policies, procedures, staffing considerations, SDS

workload balancing, and processes that need to be instituted or refined in order to ensure that APWA

has a strong technology management plan in place to support their efforts.

In interviews that were conducted by DelCor, APWA staff expressed a strong desire to have a greater

level of participation and control of the content uploaded to the website and the data extracted from

the database. They often feel a bottleneck in SDS slows down their ability to work effectively. With

appropriate training they believe they will be able to not only be more self sufficient but also relieve

some of the workload from the SDS team.

Human resources identified the desire for a web based system to manage human resources functions

effectively. The functionalities identified included areas such as timekeeping, benefits management,

recruitment management, and staff education tracking.

Recommendations

1. Although the topic of Knowledge Management is addressed in a specific section, it bears

repeating as knowledge management should be a strategic initiative for the Association. The

information and knowledge that resides at APWA is a valuable asset that must be protected and

made accessible. Specifically, there is a significant amount of institutional knowledge at APWA

that has not been documented or protected. Documentation and planning in this area is a key

recommendation.

2. In order to ensure that staff training is conducted in an organized and repeatable manner,

APWA must have strong standard operating procedures accompanied by a comprehensive staff

training plan.

a. Staff members should be encouraged to create and maintain standard operating

procedures (SOPs) and training documentation of how staff and members interact with

the systems that they use on a daily basis. Developing such documentation ensures that

the most current institutional knowledge of APWA staff is available for reference and

cross‐training purposes.

b. Once processes are documented, APWA must also create a comprehensive training plan

for staff members in order to ensure that staff at all levels have adequate knowledge of

how to use the IT tools at hand. In order to reinforce such measures, appropriate

technology skill sets and competency levels should be incorporated into staff position

descriptions as appropriate and included among items routinely discussed as part the

employee evaluation process. Additionally an annual professional development

38


roadmap should be created for SDS staff and a staff training calendar with available

technology trainings should be developed for non‐SDS staff.

3. One frequent complaint voiced by staff was the perception that whenever technology issues are

resolved or software packages upgraded, other issues tend to arise. An example of this type of

issue is when an upgrade occurs and a form that used to function ceases to. DelCor

recommends that APWA identify and implement a testing strategy to address these issues. A

general industry guideline is that for every hour of development, the organization should budget

a matching internal hour to be used for test plan development, testing and documentation. The

testing strategy should not only cover regression testing but also include the following areas:

a. How and by whom is testing approved

b. Regression testing

c. Testing timelines

d. Test case development

e. Proof of concept

f. Data migration testing

g. Identification of testing environments

h. Identification of testing resources

4. Given APWA’s desire to be a fast follower in technology it is critically important that someone

be placed in charge of monitoring and strategically assessing technology trends. Given that IT is

evolving so quickly, with the technology horizon changing approximately every 8‐16 months, the

environment must be frequently scanned in order to allow APWA to capitalize on new

technologies or adjust their use of existing technologies to best meet each department’s

business needs and the needs of the organization as a whole. For example, few people could

have predicted two years ago that iPads were going to have the impact that they have had on

the world. This sort of situation makes it extremely difficult to create a long range planning

document. Agility in the planning process is a necessity. One way to allow for this level of

uncertainty is to build in management and contingency reserves to handle both unexpected

items as well as account for unforeseen requirements on known projects. The position’s

responsibilities should be focused on departmental strategy, staff management and forecasting.

a. The position is responsible for developing the strategy for the database, website and

technology development initiatives. Additionally, the position should be responsible for

IT policy and procedure development, managing IT budget and staff, and

vendor/contract management.

b. This individual should be directing IT staff on what strategic goals they are working

toward, removing obstacles to staff success, and internally and externally advocating for

IT staff.

c. As mentioned above one of the most important jobs of this position is to evaluate the

technology environment in order to allow APWA to capitalize on new technologies or

adjust their use of existing technologies to best meet each department’s business needs

and the needs of APWA as a whole.

39


5. As part of the annual budgeting process APWA examines opportunities and enhancements

raised by staff and stakeholders to support their business goals. However, over the course of

the year additional opportunities arise, necessitating a systemic ongoing effort that will allow

APWA to more effectively plan for these prospects. By enhancing its help desk solution, IT staff

will be able to better prioritize items and thus more effectively address them by providing a 'full

picture' of wants and needs. While the implementation and usage of the existing IT tracking

system has greatly improved the ability to track outstanding issues and requests, its function is

focused around issues and requests and less on the capacity for tracking opportunities and

system enhancements. In order to address this gap, any new system should have the ability to

categorize requests [e.g., separate more immediate issues from potential system

enhancements]. This will allow IT staff to better prioritize items and thus more effectively

address them by providing a 'full picture' of wants and needs.

6. DelCor recommends that APWA investigate and implement a human resource information

system (HRIS) in order to help make their human resource management more efficient and

effective. These systems support functionality such as:

a. Timekeeping

b. Benefit management and accrual tracking

c. Withholding management

d. Direct deposit

e. Performance appraisal process

f. Recruitment

800.345

5.4228 • www

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