Implementing a Custom Wild Apricot Solution

Wild Apricot is available in two 'flavors':

1. As software-as-a-service – hosted on our servers, for a monthly subscription fee.
2. As licensed software that can be installed on your own servers and fully customized for your organization.

This page describes key aspects and steps involved in the second option above – a custom installation of a licensed version of Wild Apricot.

Why Choose a Custom Wild Apricot Implementation?

• Usability Focus. A system that does not make it easy for people to find and use your information will result in added costs for you - unnecessary IT expenses and training costs, to name but two – and will cause your members to stay away from the site. We don’t just build good “technology” solutions; we build highly usable technology solutions.
• Custom-Tailored Fit. We take the powerful existing application framework of Wild Apricot and then apply methodology and unique process to cost-efficiently build your customized solution.
• Measurable Success Indicators. You are spending money in order to achieve certain objectives, so we help you define specific measurable targets for your online tools and implement monitoring facilities – web analytics - so that you can make informed decisions and direct your investments where they can make the biggest difference.
• Expertise in the Latest Technologies. There are continuous technological advances in web-based services – RSS feeds, blogs, social networking, AJAX, just to name a few. How do you know which ones are right for your organization? With our total focus on the not-for-profit sector, our consultants and partners can guide you towards selecting and implementing the technologies that will meet the current and future needs of your membership as well as your administration.
• Exceptional Support. Others will talk about their post-implementation support services – telephone technical support, maintenance software releases, bug reporting, etc. While we do have all of those things (and in fact go even further by letting you record your issue and follow the resolution of the issue online), we also are very proud of our pre-implementation support. So, for example, if you are unsure as to whether to host the application on your own server, or have it hosted and maintained for you, we will provide you with all of the data you need to make an informed decision.

What does the implementation process involve?

We will take care of getting you from the concept stage to implementation through a seven-step process that is time-tested, thorough, and results-oriented.

Step 1: Project Initiation and Management

• Creating a project extranet (Wiki-based)
• Setting up development and test environments
• Setting up task and change management (Issue Tracker)
• Defining and initiating project planning and reporting procedures (e.g. status meetings and status reports, etc.)

Step 2: Analyzing your Situation and Needs

• Staff interviews
• Defining success metrics
• Analysis of existing systems
• Confirming vision and strategy
• Member and other external stakeholder interviews
• Workshops to present findings and brainstorm the strategy and targets

Step 3: Defining the Blueprint for your Solution

• Prioritized user stories
• Developing content plans
• Master requirements list
• Defining key workflows (processes)
• Information architecture (wireframes)
• Generating visual design options (mockups)
• Non-functional requirements and constraints (multi-language requirements, security, privacy, performance and scalability requirements (how much load should the system bear), help and documentation needs, accessibility issues (taking care of people with disabilities), support requirements and process, technical environment / integration needs)

Step 4: Building up the Foundation

• Customizing existing modules
• Deploying Wild Apricot framework
• Converting approved designs into web page templates

Step 5: Iterating through your Prioritized Requirements to Refine the System

• Developing custom modules in order of priorities
• Implementing success metrics monitoring
• Hands-on testing by your staff
• Beta-testing with select members
• Each cycle is time-boxed, typically to 2-4 weeks

Step 6: Final Testing and Polishing

• Security testing
• Full functional testing
• Automated regression testing
• Scalability/performance testing

Step 7: Deploying the System

• Training of your IT and user teams (if applicable)
• Documentation
• Developing approaches to convert existing data
• Setting up new production environment
• Deploying the system
• Running conversion procedures
• Redirecting integration interfaces with other systems
• Running the full set of tests
• Going live!

Contact us today at sales@wildapricot.com