Case Study
American Advertising Federation successfully completed their iMIS systems upgrade from the 2015 version to the latest iMIS Cloud version on January 20th, 2021. As part of this effort, they also implemented a newly designed website: https://www.aaf.org and successfully launched over a dozen new features available in the cloud.
Business Process Review (BPR)
Prior to the systems migration, we conducted a thorough Business Process Review engagement led by our Senior iMIS Consultant Jenna Campbell. This review began interviews of key department heads and expanded to larger core teams as it progressed. Organization leaders in Membership, Events, Marketing and Accounting were heavily engaged to understand how their processes currently worked as well as identify areas where they would like to see improvement. Jenna taking in this information would also make suggestions based on her experience working with dozens of other similar customers to ensure best available options were presented. After getting sign off on the initial requirements analysis document, Jenna delivered a final solution document that outlined best practices and strategies to address all existing and new requirements using product-based solutions when possible. After some minor revisions the AAF decision makers signed off on our solutions which became our roadmap for the implementation phase of the project.
Information Architecture (IA)
Whenever we roll out a new website for an iMIS customer, it is standard practice to define the website information architecture prior to implementation. This process clearly defines the new website structure while ensuring staff are included in the decision making process. Another important outcome is also making sure staff understand available features in their RiSE platform and understand the steps necessary to maximize search engine optimization (SEO). The areas we covered in detail included the navigation/sitemap structure, content tagging, content user defined fields, website security & pricing groups, content folders that tie it all together and finally how to add important META data to their content for best SEO practices. Using our standard worksheets as a starting point, this phase of the project moved quickly yet gleaned important information. Properly defining a new website IA both documents critical information and ensures key decision makers are involved in the process.
Branding & Design
When creating a new website staying true to and elevating your company brand is key. Our Design Director Phil Gosier engaged the AAF to create materials which delivered on their brand promise. The resulting site resonates a youthful spirit, energy and approachability this venerated organization has achieved within the professional advertising community.
In working with the AAF team, as with any client, our process is designed to be a collaborative exercise. Through a series of careful conversations, interviews and research we were able to discover the distinct qualities of the AAF. Through a process of creation, review and revision we were able to refine that perspective until our screen designs correctly presented the values and initiatives of the AAF in a compelling, visually impactful way. Our design engagement included three review cycles and resulted in eight responsive screen views which surpassed the client’s expectations.
Implementation
The implementation of the new AAF iMIS Cloud Engagement Management system and new RiSE website implementation had 4 main parts: 1) Systems migration & upgrade, 2) New feature implementation & legacy customization replacement, 3) New website creation and 4) Go Live planning and execution.
The system migration in the case of AAF required us to upgrade them in a 2 stage process since their version of iMIS was 5 years old. The first step required our team at John Consulting to get their iMIS system to the latest 2017 version before handing it off to the ASI cloud migration team who completes the upgrade to the cloud version. The first step in a cloud migration is to prototype a test copy while fully documenting the process so on the day of go live there is a clearly documented process minimizing risks. ASI hosting to provided AAF with a virtual data server for the interim 2017 version step at a discounted rate. Using ASI’s hosting expertise ended up saving consulting time as their VM was pre-loaded with everything we needed.
New feature implementation effort was led by our product expert Jenna Campbell. Jenna ensured the latest version features such as iMIS Pay Central, Process Automation Plus and Open Water platform were properly setup and the client staff were trained on their use. We also used the more advanced business objects platform to successfully replace about a dozen custom business objects made from custom views in the old system. New membership join, billing, roster management, pricing groups and enhanced panel definition features were also leveraged to ensure AAF got the most out of the cloud version.
Creating a new website as part of a system migration has distinct advantages and disadvantages. Pro Tip: When launching a new branded website in RiSE, it is recommended to create a new website instead of attempting to change your existing previous website.
A key advantage working from a test system is no production data will be affected while you work and test. A key disadvantage is you have to move all of your work to production once done. iMIS Cloud offers an export/import process to relatively easily copy your work but it is important to conduct these in the correct order. The import should happen in this order: Lookup IQAs, Business Objects, remaining IQAs, Website template, website themes, Tags (entire hierarchy), Tagged List, Sitemap, and finally content folders. Pro Tip: It is important to note that you should ask ASI hosting to set the maximum file upload to a very large number or your import of large amounts of content will fail.
Cloud Migration Go Live
When planning out your system go live, it is important to have failsafe/fall back positions in case there is a failure in the process. With both John Consulting and ASI cloud migration teams available and willing to work after hours for AAF, we were able to keep the downtime to a minimum. Our go live plan started at 3pm on a Thursday with a user friendly page. Pro Tip 1: Create a website maintenance page by saving it as “app_offline.htm” at the root of your legacy production website. Pro Tip 2: Set your production database to read-only before taking the backup to ensure no loss of data in the process. Starting later in the day on Thursday set us up so if we did run into any significant issues we would have the weekend as a fall back option. We were able to complete both stages of the system production upgrade by the evening hours of Thursday. If we were not introducing an entirely new website as part of this process, the system would have been back online Thursday evening. However, with an entirely new website being launched along with several new features, we completed this process in the morning of Friday. Internal testing commenced in the afternoon until the final DNS change on Friday afternoon. The entire 2 stage upgrade, website import from and testing resulted in a total down time of less than 1 business day. Pro Tip 3: Allow key team members access for final testing of a new website before the public by making HOSTS file entries on their PCs.
Conclusion/Takeaways
As with any significant effort, the proper planning and analysis provided by the BPR, IA and branding engagements acts as the foundation for a successful project. These processes also ensure full customer engagement and buy-in to the new system launch. Understanding the technical challenges involved in a project by working closely with your iMIS Solution Provider and the ASI iMIS Cloud migration team is critical in having a successful project. Finally scheduling a go live timeline with a contingency plan is important to properly set expectations and mitigate project risks.
