The Beginning
When Praxiis was first introduced to the OAA, they were already deep into a Power Platform implementation. But as the project was progressing the stakeholders were becoming concerned that the solution being implemented wasn't quite what they had hoped for.
Out first task was to audit their implementation to see if it was being developed to best practices and would align with their project objectives. After spending time with the OAA to understand what the objectives were we set about combing through the project documentation, video recordings and the system to get a full picture of how the solution was coming together.
After our investigation we produced a comprehensive warts and all report of the solution, along with our recommendations for improvement where we had identified areas of concern. After giving the OAA some time to digest the report, we walked them through the details so they could ask any questions and we could explain any technical points.
A Second Beginning
Following the implementation audit, the OAA made the difficult decision to stop the project with their existing partner and looked to Praxiis to help. Having previous experience in the membership space we were confident we would be able to deliver a solution that would not only meet, but exceed their expectations.
We started, as we do every project, setting up an Azure DevOps project in order to track work items, build a product wiki and store source code. Using what we knew about the OAA's requirements as well as our experience in the membership space, working alongside the OAA we built out the product backlog and began to work on their new membership and events solution.
Powering Up
Perhaps the most important requirement was the online membership and event booking journeys. The OAA wanted a seamless experience for members when moving between the publicly accessible website and the member areas as well as for the ability for members and non-members alike to peruse and book upcoming events.
We discussed the various options open to them and ultimately agreed that the best approach would be to work with their existing website provider, Adept Design to integrate with their existing website CMS.
To provide the experience the OAA wanted, we used Microsoft Dataverse to store the membership and event data and the Microsoft Power Platform to facilitate the functions required for managing the memberships and events.
Functions such as order processing, registration, renewals and cancellations were developed so that they could be used by the website as well as part of a custom model-driven Power App that allowed OAA staff to manage the memberships and events.
By building integrations with the OAA's chosen payment providers, we were able to automate most of the previously manual processes. Processes like renewal reminders and annual renewals no longer require manual intervention and with the ability for members to self-serve via the website the need for the OAA to manage changes to memberships and event bookings has been reduced to only a few special cases.
Automated email notifications were implemented at each step of the process. Alongside the out of the box email functionality and an custom built integration with Mailchimp, the OAA gained a 360 degree view of their members within the Power App.
Our Survey Says
A particularly challenging requirement of the OAA's was the ability to offer their members away to create surveys to be sent out to the wider membership community. The OAA wanted this to be as seamless as the membership and events experience online, as previously the process was clunky and error-prone. They also wanted to use Survey Monkey to facilitate the building and sending of the surveys, as having used the tool elsewhere they had the confidence it would meet their needs.
Working with the Survey Monkey API, we built a fully featured integration between Power Apps and Survey Monkey, allowing the survey to be created, edited, reviewed and submitted from within the Power App and by extension by the member on the OAA website. The survey results were also collated inside the Power App and made available to the member via their members area on the website.
In Conclusion
The journey with the OAA has been a remarkable transformation from a project in distress to are sounding success. The successful outcome of this project demonstrates our commitment to delivering solutions that not only meet but exceed our clients' expectations, fostering a lasting partnership built on tryst, innovation and superior execution. Praxiis is proud to have played a pivotal role in the OAA's digital transformation journey.
