About us
Since 2001, our company (BonaSource Inc.) has been building custom web applications. We have worked with non-profits and associations, with start-ups and large corporations. Our specialization is in web systems that are easy to use.
Drawing from our experience, we know that small and midsize non-profit organizations are the ones who can gain the most from an elegant and powerful web system (due to chronic work overload and eternal lack of resources). And they cannot afford a custom web application, which can cost $25,000 or more - many have to deal with amateurishly designed, cumbersome to use, poorly integrated and technically overcomplicated systems. We have designed and built Wild Apricot to remedy this situation.
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We are a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Software Solutions and Business Process Integration. The Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Program provides a way for customers to identify companies that have proven their commitment and expertise in one or more specialized areas when delivering Microsoft technologies. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners need to meet a higher set of criteria for each category, including enhanced certification and a portfolio of real-world customer references, and are thus identified as the most skilled partners in specific solution areas.
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Here is what Microsoft has to say: "...Microsoft Gold Certified Partners are the elite Microsoft Partners who earn the highest customer endorsement . They have the knowledge, skills, and commitment to help implement technology solutions that match your exact business needs. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners have passed the highest level of requirements from Microsoft and have demonstrated the most robust, efficient and scalable implementations of Microsoft technologies in demonstrated customer deployments. ...".
Our team
There are a lot of people behind Wild Apricot, we would like to introduce you to a few key team members:
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Dmitry is the founder of BonaSource, the company behind the Wild Apricot software product. Following completion of a Master of Science degree in Computer Sciences, and then an MBA, Dmitry held a number of senior consulting positions with Arthur Andersen (now Accenture). His passion for using technology to make organizations more efficient led him to co-found BonaSource in 2001. BonaSource takes great pride in having completed eBusiness projects for some of the world's largest companies. He likes to answer support emails and sometimes support calls as it gives him first-hand understanding of people's needs which he feeds back to the design and development team.
Dmitry's vision for Wild Apricot is to see non-profits use modern web technology to achieve more with less - thrive and grow, engage with members and volunteers, and have more fun - while Wild Apricot takes away mundane manual administration work by automating it. He sees Wild Apricot as the world's easiest to use web-based tool for non-profits, and one that is affordable for even the smallest association, club or charity. A member of the Society of Association Executives (both Canadian and US), he is justifiably proud of his new "baby", Wild Apricot.
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Jay is in charge of marketing for Wild Apricot. Prior to joining the team, he worked at the digital marketing agency 58Ninety as well as at Sun Media, CBC, the University of Toronto and Ryerson University.
Jay is excited by the emerging universe of digital social media, but is also very conscious that providing value is what is important regardless of the tool or platform. He believes strongly in the need to create real connections with customers, as well as the need to respect their time and attention.
Outside of work, Jay is an active podcaster and musician.
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Dmitry is a co-founder of BonaSource Inc. From the very start in 2001 he has been responsible for our software development activities - starting from hands-on development and progressing to project management and system architecture. His current role in Bonasource is Chief Technology Officer with broad responsibility for all technology solutions and software development processes in the company. Dmitry has a Computer Science degree and has extensive experience in designing and developing large-scale web-based systems - including web portals for Fortune 500 companies. Before joining Bonasource, Dmitry worked as IT manager in AeroMar- one of the largest catering companies.
Dmitry's management experience is further enhanced by running a household with three daughters and a dog :-)
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As the User Experience Lead for Wild Apricot, Evgeny is a key part of our product management team. His talent is in analyzing complex needs of widely varied Wild Apricot clients - and coming up with functionality concepts and interface decisions to address them. Evgeny is passionate about software usability and has over 10 years hands-on development experience and is uniquely qualified for his other key responsibility - to liaison with the product development team to ensure consistent and user-friendly design of specific functions.
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Rebecca has recently joined the Wild Apricot blog team in exploring how to use the internet and web 2.0 tools more effectively.
Although she trained as a teacher, she began her career as a technical writer on environmental issues, refined her editing skills with a literary publisher, then spent a year "in the trenches" of a small nonprofit group as a fundraiser. Over the past two decades as a freelance writer and editor, she has enjoyed working with and for a variety of nonprofits and community groups, as well as small businesses in the public sector, with a special emphasis on public education.
She is endlessly fascinated by how real people are using web-based technology to meet real-world needs - even with the most limited of resources at their disposal. For her, the greatest strength of the internet lies in the opportunity to exchange ideas, to collaborate, to teach and to learn from each other.
When she's not at the keyboard, you'll most often find her in the kitchen, in the garden tending to honey bees, or visiting a nursing home with her therapy dog.
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Denys Zlobin is our Support Consultant and brings with him not only technical skills, but also practical, hands on customer service skills. In addition to his knowledge of information technology, Denys is very versatile and can adapt easily to different projects, from coordinating the NORAD project to providing day to day support for various companies. So whatever you may need help with this "helpful" apricot is at your service. His hobbies include kiteboarding, digital photography and reading.
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Jim joined the technical support side of Wild Apricot in 2008 and acts as one of the first points of contact in fielding support questions.
He graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1999 with a Bsc. in Computer Engineering. He has worked as a software developer, market researcher, sales consultant and is especially proud of the charity fund-raising work he did for World Vision, Sick Kids Hospital and Red Cross among others. Jim possesses an analytical mind that thrives on understanding and solving complex problems. He is passionate about helping others and with Wild Apricot has found a way to turn his work into a hobby and vice-versa.
Away from work you can find Jim playing volleyball and soccer, watching movies, listening to music and reading.
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Denis Fokin is our Creative Director and brings a wealth of creative experience, graphic design knowledge and passion to the company.
Among his many accomplishments, Denis has designed websites, magazine covers, ads, corporate style guides, 3D objects, animations, paintings, and many more. His Maya 3D designs were showcased by Alias (now Autodesk) for Maya Learning Edition. Denis enjoys working at BonaSource because of the spirit of teamwork - he appreciates that every successful online project requires very close cooperation between a team of experts from many different disciplines.
His hobbies and passions include digital painting, being outdoors and travelling.
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Giuliano is part of the analysis team at Wild Apricot. He is responsible for designing the new features and improvements that go out with each Wild Apricot release.
Before joining the Wild Apricot team, he worked on everything from Internet start-ups and newspaper websites, and in corporate law firms. His experience allows him to look at a problem from various perspectives and find a solution that aims to be intuitive and useful. He is a great believer in always having the right tool for the job, not the right job for the tool. In university he studied English Literature and History, which impressed on him the importance of clear, concise communication
In his spare time Giuliano enjoys reading, writing, traveling, music, and obsessing over baseball scores.
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There are many other talented, dedicated and hard-working people on our team:
Our manifesto: What we believe in...
Computer software should not encourage premature balding - overstressing you with its unfriendly interface. Here's the dirty secret of the IT industry: too many engineers assume that everyone should be a computer expert. Well, there are fields you specialize in where an IT specialist would be out of his depth - a car mechanic, for example, would not recommend a web developer to fix his own brakes. We allocate 30% of the project budget to make Wild Apricot easy for everyday people to use - so you need never become the Albert Einstein of HTML. Plus, we'll carefully process all of your feedback on an ongoing basis to find ways to make Wild Apricot even better.
Any smaller (from 2 to 2,000 members) non-profit organization can see tremendous benefits from properly applying the latest web technology - especially if you are chronically understaffed and overworked. Volunteers can only spare so much time without ignoring their families or paid jobs. So, you realize how essential it is to recruit new members, as well as solicit donations. Wild Apricot offers you a system to take your organization to higher levels of efficiency. It automates administrative tasks like membership renewals and email reminders. It saves you from the monkey work of copying and pasting between different systems. Wild Apricot also allows your members to update their own profiles (empowering them equalsrelieving you of extra work).
Does a long list of challenging issues confront you each day? All of which you must accomplish despite severe funding constraints. You constantly lack time, resources, and manpower. So you never want to deal with technological glitches yourself -nor do you want to pay out large amounts of money to technicians. Wild Apricot's web-based setup means you will never install any software or bother with servers and megabytes. That means you can get your system running without *hiring an expensive consultant.* We take care of all the technical stuff like data backups, server updates, etc. In addition, all the functionalities of the system can be accessed from anywhere and any time and we never charge you for adding more users to the system.
You shouldn't be wasting your time copying and pasting information from Excel to your website or registration database. Nor should your workload include sending email reminders manually. Wild Apricot brings all these components in one place. It can do all of this for you - and more - like a trusted butler. Your website, registration system and your membership database become one and the same. Finally, you can eliminate data entry madness and be home at a decent hour.
From Wild Apricot's conception, we made a firm decision to avoid complexity at all costs. Our system has no desire to compete with the large systems available to enterprise-class associations. That would cost you tens of thousands of dollars. Plus, you'd need IT people to keep it going. As strange as it may sound, programmers find it easy to put together software that hosts a hundred buttons, drop-downs menus and other nifty add-ons. Wild Apricot's philosophy is "Less Software but Right Software" - just the right number of features to help you get the job done. We won't bother you with options you'll never need. See for yourself... Sign up for a free account.
Why do some online applications INSIST that you pay a setup fee (plus training)? Isn't it hypocritical to advertise the system as "easy to use"? While we're ranting, no one likes long-term contracts either - especially when they end with termination fees. Doesn't that suggest, upfront, that you'll probably want to cancel? We have more faith in Wild Apricot - there's no contract to sign, no upfront payment and you can cancel at anytime without penalty. Our only protection from losing you is to provide the highest quality of service on the market.
Don't worry, we won't drive you crazy with a telephone IVR (Interactive Voice Response) maze. Instead, you can submit your problem online. One of the product developers will personally respond to any issues as soon as possible. You won't find yourself on the phone with a third-party "support" line. Further, the system keeps an online record of your situation and the steps we've taken to resolve it - so you know what's happening at anytime. If you agree with all that we've just shared. -take the first step - sign up to test drive Wild Apricot!
