Chicago Dental Society

Chicago Dental Society: Finding a Solution to Bridge the Old and New

The Chicago Dental Society engaged with .orgSource in 2010 to help develop a stable and updated platform for its website, www.cds.org, that could still work with the Society's older association management system.

Before enlisting the services of .orgSource, the Chicago-based CDS had issued a simple RFP to several local Web development firms. The response from potential vendors was nearly unanimous: They needed more information in order to make a detailed bid.

Enter Sherry Budziak, founder and president of .orgSource. By bringing her in, the Society had access to a vast network of consultants and resources that could help CDS find a solution, says Keri Kramer, CDS communications director.

"I knew I didn't have the expertise to really suss out who would be the best fit given our unique technology needs," Kramer says. "We have an AMS from the 1980s, and we needed someone who understood how that impacts the website. There's a lot our members expect to do online and we have limits based on our AMS. I didn't have high hopes we could integrate a new website with our AMS seamlessly, but I knew we could improve and had to deliver our members a dependable and stable platform."

After going through .orgSource's extensive discovery process, a vendor was identified and the project began moving forward. However, it became clear to both CDS and .orgSource that the relationship with that vendor was not progressing as it should. Sherry counseled Kramer and the rest of the CDS team to resolve all the final details - even the most minute ones - before signing a contract. If that was not successful, it would be time to find a new vendor.

Eventually, that's what happened and CDS and .orgSource began pursuing new vendors. Through Sherry's extensive network, CDS had access to Foundation 648, a Web-development company, and Davis Design Partners design firm. In addition, Sherry was able to find a consultant who knew CDS's 1980s-era AMS and could help determine how to integrate it with the new site.

It wasn't easy to change vendors, particularly for staff invested in the former vendor, but Kramer knew it was necessary.

"From there, we did conference calls, developed content and got the site finished," Kramer says. "We launched in June 2011, and people have been very happy with the look of the site. I am happy with how the functionality came together."

Kramer says having .orgSource as a partner in the project was critical to getting it done.

"Having Sherry with us was incredibly valuable," Kramer says. "When I think about what might've been if we hadn't had someone like Sherry, I know it would not have launched on time or on budget. Her discovery process was so thorough that it unearthed all these issues nobody had thought of.  We are a small office (17 full-time employees) and our capacity to take on a lot of additional work is limited. To have someone who can parachute people in for a very short time and have them be confident and knowledgeable was incredibly helpful. We needed someone to pull it all together, and that's what Sherry did."