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Optimizing Outcomes and Experiences for AVID’s Partners

Digital Strategy Consulting

Project Goals

During this digital strategy project, fusionSpan executed a full evaluation of the current technology suite and led extensive member research in an effort to optimize AVID’s technology and improve member experience.

Our ultimate goal with this project was to pair AVID with the technology that best fit its organizational goals, business processes, and end user needs. To do this properly, we first had to fully understand and document AVID’s current digital ecosystem. From there, the fusionSpan team made recommendations for how the current tech stack could be improved. We focused on:

  • How their Salesforce instance is built and where it can be optimized for each department
  • What custom-built solutions are better suited for a best-in-breed system
  • Where the user experience is impacting satisfaction and organizational goals within the custom-built technologies.

Services We Provided

  • Discovery
  • Process flows
  • Wireframes
  • User research
  • Technology strategy 
  • Technology roadmapping and recommendations

With these focuses outlined, we first completed a comprehensive assessment of how AVID has implemented Salesforce Sales Cloud and Service Cloud throughout its digital ecosystem. To do this, we evaluated:

  • The way the data was being used by and integrated with other systems
  • Data governance structures
  • Pain points
  • Short and long term goals for the system.

The team was then able to provide recommendations for enhancements, improvements, and optimization of their Salesforce setup. fusionSpan continues to actively help with those suggestions through the Managed Services team.

We began to roadmap the MyAVID Portal’s move away from custom-built functionality to either a more modern technical infrastructure or best-in-breed tools that would both serve them better and evolve with new technology in the future.

To round out the project, fusionSpan also completed user research with five target audiences to better understand members' relationship with AVID, perspectives on their technology solutions, pain points, and areas for improvement.

Project Challenges

AVID’s digital strategy needed to be multifaceted to balance organizational needs. Our approach included analyzing pain points, reviewing goals, and fully understanding business processes, including how they used Salesforce and managed their data.

The scope of the project

At the start of the project, AVID’s needs seemed quite straightforward: improve the technical infrastructure to better serve the organization and its users. However, as we moved into discovery it became clear that there were many layers to that simple goal that added to the complexity and scope of the overall project. To successfully navigate this, we broke the project down into several smaller areas of focus and moved forward with thorough discovery to guide the process.

Data Governance

AVID offers extensive tools and resources to its members. Unfortunately, many of those technologies have been added over time and without an eye to data governance, resulting in unorganized and inaccessible data. This inhibits both AVID’s staff from easily accomplishing their jobs and makes the system less user-friendly to members.

Integrations

The current technology systems weren’t effectively communicating with each other due to the current integration approach. The many systems AVID uses, combined with the complexity of the data they are collecting, meant that data was being lost or not optimally used across different systems.

User experience for both staff and members

AVID’s systems have grown organically over time as technology developed and the needs of the organization evolved. As a result, many of the tools the staff and members use on a daily basis were cumbersome or outdated. This resulted in lost time and effort for staff and frustration for members.

Solutions and Outcomes

AVID’s new digital strategy includes a tech suite that will serve AVID and its members better, making it possible for them to more easily and effectively pursue organizational goals of opening education doors for deserving students.

Major features that were implemented included:

  • Full evaluation of tech suites.

    AVID’s tech suite relied heavily on custom technology builds. Our evaluation not only included assessing what might be missing from their current tech suite, but also which pieces might be replaced by best of breed technology that could offer better performance and integration for an improved overall experience.

  • Deep dive into Salesforce instance.

    To fully understand where improvements can be made in the current Salesforce instance, the team needed to deep dive into how AVID uses Salesforce, which components aren’t working for them or have been underutilized, and what’s missing from their implementation. Our thorough analysis allowed the fusionSpan team to offer a list of potential changes that could improve functionality and experience within AVID’s Salesforce implementation.

  • Long term plans for data governance and integration.

    Before consolidating systems and implementing new technology, it was important that the existing data be cleaned up, organized, and shared across systems. For long term, healthy data governance, fusionSpan recommended outlining exactly where each piece of data is used, what each field represents, and who is able to access and update information to help data remain organized in the future. We also provided a list of recommended integration engines that would serve their organization well, improve current user experience, and make it easier to bring in new technologies in the future.

  • Analysis and recommendations related to the user-experience.

    A thorough evaluation of the current MyAVID portal and feedback sourced during the user research phase of the project enabled fusionSpan to provide suggestions and recommendations for making the MyAVID portal a modern, user-friendly, experience tailored to different audiences’ individual needs.

  • Recommendations, planning, and roadmapping for Salesforce improvements.

    While the original system was able to create reports, they were difficult to manipulate and did not optimize the available data. Focusing on the page layout and limiting the number of fields, the team created easy-to-use reports that APA could generate and use more productively, making the data accessible for the business to see, interpret, and then use to make positive changes for the business.

  • Enhanced User Experience.

    With the new system, each APA member now has access to their personal information, so they can see exactly what’s already in the system. If changes are needed — for instance, to a mailing address — the customer now receives prompts to change any other impacted fields. To continue the streamlining process, the team improved the information architecture, and consolidated input fields into a single page for demographics with orderly and easy-to-use type and search fields instead.

  • Lightning Community Portal Implementation.

    Large scale projects can be daunting, and implementing quick wins can provide immediate progress for projects that take time to complete. We identified areas where manageable, self contained efforts could be implemented within Salesforce and Hubspot, discussed dependencies, and recommended time frames to ensure consistent progress towards organizational goals.

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