July 5, 2007
The Human Resources Institute of Alberta (HRIA) has chosen the Cobalt Association Management Suite as the best all-in-one solution to upgrade its membership, communications, web content and certification management systems.
The HRIA (www.hria.ca) is the professional voice of human resources practitioners in Alberta. Headquartered in Calgary, the HRIA needed new technologies to assist it in its mission to advance professional standards in the field of human resources and set the standard for professional practice through certification. Specifically, the HRIA needed a new association management system that can also manage its certification program and web site content. A significant growth trend coupled with ongoing issues with the current system necessitated a change to a flexible, user-friendly and intuitive interface that would allow staff to take advantage of efficiencies offered by the Internet in order to provide efficient communications, superior service and additional member benefits while fueling the growth trend.
The HRIA wisely began the search for the right technology solution by hiring a consultant, Steve Fulkerson of Lumina Management Consultants (www.lumina.ca). With Mr. Fulkerson’s help, the HRIA defined the core requirements for the new system then selected the most suitable vendors to give product presentations. The Cobalt Association Management Suite was evaluated along with other AMS products. In the end, the HRIA selected the Cobalt Association Management Suite based on its ability to provide all of the association and web site content management functionality needed, as well as complete certification management in one package. Cobalt’s solution allows the very comprehensive certification program management functionality from the Cobalt Certification Management Suite to be plugged into the association management system. This, coupled with the many advantages provided by the Microsoft platform on which Cobalt’s products are built, not least of which is support for international currency, taxes, phone numbers and addresses, ultimately left one clear choice- the Cobalt Association Management Suite.
The Cobalt Association Management Suite and the Cobalt Certification Management Suite both share Microsoft CRM 3.0, a full-featured Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, as a base platform. To this Cobalt has added comprehensive functionality for association and certification program management, a web-based Executive Dashboard for business intelligence reporting and a fully integrated content management system with web portal. It is capable of tracking all interactions with a constituent from one user-friendly interface and includes workflow management and automation tools to streamline processes. Its built-in web integration enables a host of online member service tools such as: profile updates, event registrations, invoices and dues payments, targeted content, dynamic directories and single sign-on for a plethora of “Web 2.0” functionality (blogs, forums, wikis, e-libraries, online collaboration, etc.). With these tools, the HRIA’s staff plans to automate many manual tasks, increase efficiency and provide superior service to its constituents.
The HRIA’s selection of the Cobalt Association Management Suite signals that Cobalt is becoming recognized internationally as a top provider for member-based organizations and certification boards in need of more efficient data management solutions. The HRIA’s choice of the Cobalt Association Management Suite over local as well as long-established international AMS software companies signals Cobalt’s emergence as a global provider of membership and certification management solutions.
About Cobalt
Cobalt (www.cobalt.net) is an Alexandria, VA based software development firm focused on working with associations, non-profits and certification boards. Founded in 1996, Cobalt has worked with hundreds of customers to help drive revenue, increase internal efficiency and offer value-added services. Cobalt’s products provide integrated data and communications management solutions using the power of the Microsoft CRM 3.0 and SharePoint 2007 platforms.
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