Cal Chamber Technical Integration

Easing Growing Pains With a Unified Platform

Background

California Chamber of Commerce oversees three distinct Web sites: HRCalifornia.com, chamberstore.com and calchamber.com. Each site serves a different purpose within the organization -- membership support, e-commerce and corporate/advocacy information.

Until the technical integration project, California Chamber’s sites were developed and maintained with little relation to each other. So as technology changed and content expanded, the Chamber found itself in a situation familiar to large organizations – uncontrolled and unplanned web growth, the consequences of which amounted to costly and awkward band-aid solutions to maintain the growing web presence.

In 2005, Blue River partnered with Florida-based Method Factory to move the Chamber’s online store onto Microsoft content management and commerce servers. (See the CalChamberStore.com case study.) Almost immediately, the new system helped the Chamber largely eliminate costly overtime hours spent maintaining the site. The project’s success then paved the way for the Chamber to bring HRCalifornia.com and calchamber.com into the same system.

Growing Pains

HRCalifornia.com quickly outgrew its original platform, an inflexible system that hindered the Chamber’s ability to match its expanding product base and customer expectations. Since each of the Chamber’s sites operated on separate content management systems, employees often had to manually update information to keep content consistent, leading to a number of inefficiencies, including multiple file formats, manual file transfer protocols and redundant editing procedures.

A Solution That Fits

After identifying HRCalifornia.com’s new structure and functionality (see this case study), Blue River and Method Factory brought all three Chamber sites onto the same Microsoft content management system. The new system would allow Chamber employees to manage each of the websites from multiple locations, improve workflow and save money.

Results:

•    Integrated membership management process
•    Streamlined workflow
•    Unified logins and access privileges
•    Effective cross-referencing of content
•    Reduced IT overhead
•    Improved product development cycles by way of faster, automated content updates