The Canadian Telecommunications Consultant Association (CTCA) is Canada's only professional association of independent telecommunications consultants and leading telecommunications companies in Canada. The CTCA provides a means for its members to network and collaborate about the telecommunications industry while the website acts as a way for the members to promote themselves and keep up on current CTCA events.

In 2000, the CTCA decided to update its web presence. The association wanted to not only overhaul the look and feel of their existing static website, but also to incorporate features that would make the site dynamic and driven from content contributed by its members. At the same time, they wanted to automate as many of their manually administered management tasks as they could. This included:

• Tracking membership statuses.
• Allowing members to maintain their own profiles.
• Event registration and management.
• Online credit card processing for all dues and events.
• Management and revenue reporting.

KMP has developed an association management application called AMToolbox (Association Management Toolbox), which has been specifically designed for handling the needs of member-based associations. AMToolbox fit the bill for every major requirement that the CTCA brought to the table, with the added advantage of providing real time updateability to all membership and content changes. Changes to membership and profile content effected though AMToolbox are reflected instantly on the website.

The CTCA’s website is the public face of this dynamic content. It provides a central point of information exchange for current members. To new and prospective members, it serves as part of the value in being a member of the organization. A members-only section available via secure login permits members to maintain their profiles, register and pay for upcoming events, and post their own events for the CTCA community in the online calendar.

An associated website also developed by KMP, SignUpHub.Com (SignUpHub), provides event registration for the CTCA. SignUpHub incorporates secure online credit card processing and is also used by the membership to pay their annual dues. SignUpHub also includes an on-line survey component: custom surveys can be quickly created and published for access by web users.

The AMToolbox application is accessed via an ASP (Application Service Provider) model. CTCA administrators run a local Citrix thin client to connect to KMP’s Citrix server. This makes the application appear to run on the user’s desktop while it actually runs on KMP’s servers. Apart from a small client application running on the user’s PC, regardless of operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc), all administration, configuration, and updates occur on KMP’s servers. Users enjoy the full experience of a responsive desktop application without the accompanying software installation and configuration headaches.

Time spent on tedious yet important administration has been drastically reduced. Paper flow and errors have been reduced as well. Empowering members to maintain their own profiles and provide company narratives in their own words has increased participation and served to build the sense of a true online community. Information is made available to the membership quicker and more accurately. Important management and revenue reporting is available almost instantly, allowing the association’s governors quicker and better access to decision making information. Centralizing all pertinent association information also aids in accountability to the membership.

• Visual Basic 6, Enterprise Edition
• ASP, HTML
• KMP Business Object Framework (3-tier)
• Microsoft SQL Server 7
• Citrix Metaframe Presentation Server 3.0
• Crystal Reports 8.5
• PSIGate Online Credit Card Processing
• KMP AMToolbox Association Management Software
• Online Event Registration via www.Signuphub.com