webMiT

thankQ web portal and bespoke web solutions

For many charities, giving their supporters, donors or customers access to their services through the internet is an essential part of how they need to conduct their business. However, for many organisations, when the website needs to start ‘talking’ to the database in the office, the nightmares begin.

A web solution provides the necessary modern ‘look and feel’ that is expected by most users, but does not usually provide the full range of functionality that ‘thick’ client software offers, for example integration with other software, a range of security levels for different users, segmentation or complex searching and analysis.

Unlike many web design companies, ESiT is able to develop and support your back office database, your web based solutions and essentially, the link between them. With thankQ, we are able to provide the complete office and internet solution to meet the needs of any not for profit organisation.

Our data model, linking the ‘back office’ with the internet uses three components:

• thankQ – providing ‘back office’ data management, with full access to the information and functionality to manipulate and manage it
• Integration Manager – a tool to manage the data that flows from the thankQ database into the public domain and to maintain a high standard of the information captured before it comes back into thankQ
• thankQ web portal – a data driven website is the natural complement to your office database. By using webMiT, a rapid development environment we are able to provide data-driven web solutions, integrated with your existing branding and corporate identity and fully accessible, meeting W3C standards.

Standard solution – the thankQ web portal

The thankQ web portal provides a set of modules designed to give your members and supporters access to the information and processes you manage using thankQ in your office. Within a secure environment, they are able to maintain their contact details, select which mailings they receive, make or review donations and register for events.

It is not essential to have all the modules – we only set up the ones relevant to your organisation. Select from the following modules, or add in a bespoke module to capture your unique requirements:

• webContact
• webMailing
• webDonation
• webGift Aid
• webEvent

In addition you will need to have:

• a thankQ solution in the back office which manages the same data you wish to publish online
• Integration Manager – to maintain data quality as it flows between thankQ and the thankQ web portal

webContact provides your member or supporter with the ability to view or update their contact information – name, address, telephone numbers or email.

webMailing displays a list of mailing lists, allowing the user to select which mailings they would like and the quantity to receive. The list is based on the thankQ ‘groups’ which gives an even broader range of possibilities for how this information could be used by your organisation.

webDonation allows your supporters to view their donation history, make a payment against an existing pledge or make a brand new donation. Credit card payment and verification is fully supported using either your own secure server or (your preferred) third-party secure payment provider.

webGift Aid is a simple but useful module that helps remind your donors of the value of completing a Gift Aid Declaration. They can use this facility to check that they currently hold a valid GAD or set up a new one.

webEvent allows your supporters to view all the events you offer, and make a booking and payment for themselves and others. Like the webDonation module, credit card payment and verification ensures that taking payment quick and easy.

There is also the facility for visitors to the website who are not members to register their details, make a donation or book onto an event – there is no danger of turning people away!

Integration Manager is an extension of thankQ which allows a system administrator to review all the changes that have been made using the website. Depending on the volume of data you expect and the quality control on information that you wish to apply, changes made by the public can be checked before being brought into the ‘master’ database.

Integration Manager is normally used to manage the link between the ‘office’ database and the ‘public’ database, but if your network security permits, we can work from a single database, which removes the need for new data to be ‘published’ to the website, meaning that the information is always up to date.

Implementing the thankQ web portal:

The web modules are ready to be used, but as a minimum will need configuring to make sure they are ‘talking’ to the right database. Usually the modules will need some degree of branding to match your corporate style or embedding within your existing website. We aim to provide a solution that is right for your organisation, and reflects the IT and web design capabilities you may already have in-house.

There are three levels of ‘package’ that we offer:

1. Personalised Package – we will build the standard modules that you select into any existing website and set up the integration between the website and thankQ.

2. Configured Package – in addition to the Personalised Package, we can configure extra fields, reports, designs or entire modules to accommodate slightly more unusual requirements. For example we may configure your web solution to capture more information about your supporter, to integrate with existing security features that your website already uses or allow for the registration of volunteers for an event.

3. Developer Package - we sell you a licence allowing you to configure your own solution. We will provide the standard modules and necessary training so you are able to undertake options 1 and 2 yourself. To take advantage of this option, you would typically require staff that are familiar with the Visual Studio development environment. The advantage this provides over conventional web programming is that it enables you to use the rapid development tools provided by the webMiT toolkit.

Bespoke Solutions – webMiT

If you require something a little beyond the standard modules, but still want the simple integration with the thankQ database we can use our webMiT tools to develop a data-driven solution in a fraction of the time it would take in a conventional web development environment.

Like ADMiT, the ‘engine’ behind our more traditional ‘thick client’ solutions, webMiT is the engine behind our web solutions and eliminates much of the laborious effort involved in creating data-driven web pages by using a series of libraries and routines.

As part of any solution, we would expect to help identify your integration requirements, developing data validation and security routines that reflect your way of working. The following brief studies describe some of our current projects that are being built on the webMiT technology. In all cases, the web solution integrates with the thankQ solution working in head office.

Client: UnLtd

Location: London
Goals: support of social entrepreneurs through grants given with Millennium Fund money
Solution: Web access for staff who interview candidates around the country. After an interview in one of the regional centres the assessor is able to complete their feedback and assessment criteria online, allowing administrators in head office to get on with processing the applications.

Client: nacvs (National Association of Councils for Voluntary Service)

Location: Sheffield
Goals: national voice for the local voluntary and community sectors
Solution: We have provided a number of components for the organisation. The public can access and click on their area of a map of the UK, and view the directory listing of CVS locations within that area. In addition, each member of NACVS is able to login to the secure area and maintain their own details, perform data analysis, complete on-line surveys and register for events.

Client: 11:11:11

Location: Brussels, Belgium
Goals: NGO campaigning for an end to poverty and social injustice
Solution: 11:11:11 rely on a network of committees across the country to organise events and engage with the public. Through a secure login, the committees are able to maintain their own data and view a selection of the other committee information.

Client: Citizens Advice

Location: London
Goals: help for people to resolve legal, money and other problems by providing free information and influencing policymakers.
Solution: In 2004 the Resource Directory solution was configured for Citizens Advice, providing a means for Head Office to manage it’s relationships with member bureaux across the country. One part of that solution was to provide those members with access to their own information – bureau opening times, contact details and resources so they could make sure that their information was correct. In addition, they are able to see a reduced section of this information about the other bureaux so they can keep in touch without needing to contact head office.