Professional Associations

Case Studies

Institute of Chartered Accountants of Alberta

Redengine was retained by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Alberta in December 2007 to play the lead role in modernizing their website. The engagement was multi-phase -- with three different production launch points.

which probably met the needs at the time; however, since then the website has

had three major issues: 1) inability to navigate and search for things in a userfriendly

manner; 2) lack of integration between the website and the membership

database; 3) lack of integration with an external Third Party Clearing House or

Bank for e-payment processing. Currently, the website is not linked with the

MDB or an external party for e-payment processing, so even though the website

allows the ability for members to register for courses and seminars, and make

changes to their profile, any transaction submitted over the website is sent to an

administrative staff via email and has to be entered manually in the MDB. The

current website is not leveraging the operational efficiencies that can be gained

by linking the website with the MDB to create a true e-commerce website. Not

only would it reduce administrative overhead, but it would also reduce processing

time and human errors. In addition, by linking the website to the MDB, latest

information about the membership status, fees, personal profiles, etc, could be

made available.

The prior website was built by a prior service provider in 2002. While the site met the needs at the time; however, since then the website has had three major issues:

1) inability to navigate and search for things in a user friendly manner;

2) lack of integration between the website and the membership database;

3) lack of integration with an external Third Party Clearing House or Bank for e-payment processing.

The website was not linked to the Institute's core customer system, their membership database, nor was it linked to an external party for e-payment processing. Even though the website allowed the ability for members to register for courses and seminars, and make changes to their profile, any transaction submitted over the website was sent to an administrative staff via email and had to be entered manually.

The prior website was not leveraging the operational efficiencies that can be gained by linking the website with the membership database to create a true e-commerce website. Not only would it reduce administrative overhead, but it would also reduce processing time and human errors. In addition, by linking the website to the membership database, latest information about the membership status, fees, personal profiles, etc, could be made available.

A leadership role - As the lead vendor, Redengine was responsible for organizing the requirements gathering, technical design, integration design, construction, UAT, and migration to production. We coordinated technical hosting details and e-commerce setup.

n-Tier technology architecture - The system features were developed using Microsoft asp.net for the web interface, with data layer implemented as .net data access objects interfacing to MS SQL Server stored procedures. The data interface is two-way allowing for adds/edits and lookups. It is also transactional - where issues like holds and inventory needed to be managed for the continuing education portion of the system. Security was of utmost importance as payment information, personally identifiers, and highly sensitive information was being transacted.

A complex project, solved collaboratively - To best serve the needs of the Institute and its members Redengine and the membership database vendor APRO, worked together to integrate the web front-end with the complex database in the background. In addition, working with the Institute's chosen payment processing gateway, Chase Paymentech, was required to ensure success.

March 2008 -- Launched Membership Registration with full online fee payment processing.

August 2008 -- Launched Continuing Professional Education registration with full online fee payment processing and account transaction lookups.

November 2008 -- Completed company member registration system.