AFP builds e-commerce capability. (Technology Solutions).

A recent challenge faced by the Association for Financial Professionals, Bethesda, Maryland, resulted in a dramatically simple and comparatively inexpensive improvement to our online capabilities.

The software AFP used for its membership database, Association Management System (AMS), was robust. Across the years we had built much of our business logic around the software's functionality and its interface with our accounting system. Bringing that business logic to the Web proved a more formidable challenge than any of us imagined. AFP's needs included the typical marketing and membership items:

* giving prospective members access to the Web site's "members-only" area;

* offering online incentives such as membership discounts;

* leveraging online marketing for conference revenue and product sales;

* allowing members to access each other's information;

* providing intelligence gathered from online marketing to determine successful strategies; and

* allowing updates to membership information to occur online.

AFP seriously considered overhauling the entire Web interface; three vendors even recommended replacing the AMS membership database with an entirely new system that could easily cost more than $1 million. AFP finally decided that approaching the challenge in bite-sized pieces was the answer. We partnered with Comprehensive Consulting Solutions, Brookfield, Wisconsin, to build an e-commerce capability that would be directly integrated with the AMS database.

After determining the short- and long-term objectives of AFP's information technology, membership, and marketing departments, CCS built a common underlying architecture and libraries to handle all routine tasks that involved directly integrating the AMS database with the Web. This architecture facilitated the direct, real-time transfer of data to and from the Web to the AMS database. Using this architecture as the foundation, the comprehensive e-commerce modules tailored to AFP's specific needs were constructed.

New business options. E-commerce capabilities included a comprehensive shopping-cart option used for all online purchases. The updated AFP site (www.afponline.org) now has a seamlessly automated membership join/renew function, a real-time event registration link, targeted marketing capabilities through intelligent messaging, and a membership directory that allows members to update their own profiles immediately and e-mail other members. Building this comprehensive e-commerce capability cost AFP less than a quarter of what it would have cost for a new system and also provides tangible, measurable benefits.

Online conference registrations have more than doubled, largely contributing to an overall registration increase of 39 percent compared to the same point in time for last year's conference. Online marketing activities have generated more than a quarter million dollars in revenue for AFP in its 2002 fiscal year. In addition to monetary gains, users have an enhanced experience, since members receive instant verification and confirmation for online purchases and transactions.

Submitted by Michael Haberman, director of information systems, Association for Financial Professionals, Bethesda, Maryland. E-mail: [e-mail].