Newsletter - January 2006

This year is CitySoft’s 10 Year Anniversary and we have a lot to celebrate and be thankful for.  We are starting the celebration with a re-launch of our web site to help explain what our Community Enterprise software does and what CitySoft is all about.  And, we are celebrating by committing more time to our new software donation program for smaller non-profits.

This newsletter also provides a great profile of how one client at the Texas Society of CPAs has made the most out of CE by centralizing many of their data and activity in one place.  And, of course we have provided our usual digest of cool articles from around the web.

As always, we'd love to talk to you about our software. In fact, most of our business comes from referrals from people like you. If you know of an organization that could benefit from our software, please encourage them to contact us through our website or at 1-877-CITYSOFT.

Best regards and we look forward to hearing from you soon,

Nick Gleason, CEO

 
CitySoft Donation Program 

One of the highlights of the six months has been the launch of CitySoft's CE donation program.  Through this program, smaller organizations are granted a copy of CitySoft's CE software for free.  "With our 10 year anniversary this year, we have been reflecting on why we got into this work in the first place," says CitySoft CEO Nick Gleason.  "Since many of us have worked in non-profits and activism ourselves, we have always been motivated by helping people who are doing this work.  And, one thing that has become clear is that many of the organizations doing the best work are small and don't have funds for high quality software.  That's why we came up with the donation program."

To qualify for the donation program, an organization has to fulfill only two criteria - be a 501(c)3 organization with and annual budget of less than $500,000.  For qualifying organizationa, CitySoft will provide a license to our Community Enterprise software with no strings attached.

Community Enterprise finally allows small organizations to consolidate their various systems and data into a single robust platform that handles all of their technology - from their database to their website to outbound electronic and hard copy mailings. For more information about this program, please visit our website or send us an email at donationprogram@citysoft.com.

 
CE Profile - Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, Fort Worth Chapter

The Fort Worth Chapter of the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants recently implemented CitySoft's Community Enterprise (CE) software to unify many aspects of their organization’s data and activities - from a member database to email newsletters to a web site - into one integrated system.

Web Site
FWC needed web design that is driven by content, and they wanted to replace the rigid navigation system on their existing site with something more flexible and intuitive. The Community Enterprise solution allowed the FWC team to design, modify and maintain the site themselves, without the expense and time associated with design consultants.

Event Registration
Managing events and generating revenue through event registration are activities that FWC wanted Community Enterprise to tackle.  Using the Community Enterprise events module, the FWC set up multiple events online and manages the registrations, transcripts, and billing through the system.  “We run dozens of events for our members every year,” explains Kelly.  “Continuing professional education is key to our mission and  a major source of revenue. We need to make online sales and reporting work well.  We knew that we would need a system that is easy and flexible. Continuing professional education is a highly regulated operation, so we had to have features like custom registration forms, custom response emails, registration by fax and mail, multiple rates, multiple seat options, and the like.  Fortunately, the CE system was able to provide these features.”

Sending Email Newsletters and Notifications
FWC also takes advantage of CE’s email module to send email newsletters, meeting notices, and other communications to members.  Using CE, the FWC can easily create HTML emails, create lists of email addresses from their member database, send the emails to the member lists, and track the results.  “We send general email newsletters, of course,” explains Director Kelly.  “But, since we market events constantly, we send lots of emails related to events like announcements and reminders.  It’s nice to have a tool for these communications that is easy to use and is built right into our member database.”

Member and Contact Database
CE Member Module provides FWC with a database to keep track of their members as well as other contacts.  Using CE, the FWC is able for the first time ever to consolidate in one place member and contact data from a wide range of sources - spreadsheets, databases, email systems, Outlook, and more.  And, this data can be updated online by the members themselves which further cuts down on staff administrative work.  “Consolidating our data into one place is the single biggest time saver for us,” says Kelly. “We were spending too much time chasing data – members, contacts, updates, and so forth.  Having all the information in one place where all the staff can view it is invaluable for us.”

Searching for Members
One of the key services that the FWC offers to its members is to help them connect, interact and network with each other.  Using the Contact Search module of Community Enterprise, the FWC created a custom member search form online.  The form allows members to search the member database online using various criteria such as Name, Company, Zip Code, or Keywords.  “What we like about the member search form, “says Kelly, ”is that we can modify it very easily without technical skills.  Also, as a voluntary membership association, security of member data is essential. Community Enterprise gave us a way to offer an effective member directory without sacrificing confidentiality of data."

Searching for CPA Firms
Another member service that the FWC offers is online marketing through a “Find a CPA Firm” service.  Similar to the member search form, this form was created easily through the Community Enterprise Contact Search module and allows public visitors to the web site to search online for a CPA Firm drawn from the membership.

Members-Only Community
Using CE’s Online Communities module, FTWCPA allows its members to log into a password protected area online to see content and data that is only available to them.  This capability allows the FWC to provide a new benefit to members while cutting down on administrative work in communicating to the membership.  In addition, it can help to recruit new members by showing them the benefits of membership quickly and easily online.

Challenges
One challenge faced by the FWC in their implementation was allocating enough time and resources to fulfill their ambitious vision for association management online.  “From the beginning, we all underestimated how much consulting services would be needed for our organization to make the most out of the Community Enterprise platform,” says Kelly.  “In order to get the most out of a software platform like CE, you really have to invest time into setting up your processes in the software and getting trained on using the features.  I would recommend that anyone considering this or any similar software make sure that they put aside enough time and resources.  But, the investment has been worth it.  With CE, we are able to reduce the silos and manage our data through one system.  It’s making us more productive and more effective.”

For more information about what Community Enterprise can do for you, please visit www.citysoft.com, review our CE Overview, and contact us through our website.

Articles From Around The Web

As always, CitySoft has gathered many interesting articles and information from around the web that we think may be useful to our readers.

Craigslist: 'Seeking human connection'
Craigslist is going strong and provides many lessons in effective online communities.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4609024.stm

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