Redefining online services for an international professional body
How can an international memberships organisation seamlessly manage membership administration, payments and content at scale?
The Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA) is an international membership organisation committed to global sustainability. With 15,500 individual members and 200 corporate members across multiple countries, it is the largest professional body for environmental practitioners in the United Kingdom and worldwide.
Following poor service and response times provided by their existing web development team, IEMA approached Cursor in August 2019 looking for a new technical partner to facilitate growth and transform services online.
We were asked to build a new IEMA website including approximately one thousand pages, as well as payment systems, application systems, a members area, and a private staff membership management hub, and integrate this with Microsoft Dynamics and Sage.
We would have to do this in a year without the assistance of the current web developers, and then launch all the systems on the same day. This would be a business-critical launch, and it was imperative that everything should be working correctly so that IEMA could continue to service the needs of over 15,000 members worldwide.
The team at Cursor, led by Daniel, are more than an agency resource. They are partners in our business.
They work across multiple divisions and disciplines, knitting the projects together to give IEMA one response to often complex issues. They don't resort to techno-babble but work hard to take the team on the journey with them, ensuring buy-in throughout.
Toby Shaw
Director of Commercial Marketing, IEMABuilding business critical memberships infrastructure
Responsive, content-driven website
We built a new responsive IEMA website using Craft 3. The website includes a wide range of content for sustainability professionals, from high-level topics such as pollution and climate change to detailed information for members on subjects including career development, professional conduct, training and partnerships.
There is a section devoted to training courses, a comprehensive events system, online webinars, corporate programmes and a wealth of other content.
Integrated application forms
IEMA operates a tiered membership system with levels that track stages in professional career development. We built application forms for eight primary levels from Student up to Fellow. These main application forms then branch into twenty-six variations, allowing for submission of coursework, exam results and other career information.
Flexible payment systems
At the end of the application system, we built payments systems for debit/credit card and bank debits, including an advanced discount and promotional code system. In addition to new membership applications, there are twelve different upgrade paths for existing members, each with their own application forms.
We then built a Node.js API which processes all membership applications, upgrades, payments and renewals and then syncs application data into IEMA's Microsoft Dynamics ERP System.
Self-serve members platform
IEMA members can access unique content, change account details, download invoices, and manage and make payments through a member-only self-service system called MyIEMA. We built the MyIEMA login using an OAuth2 Single Sign-on, so that members can use their IEMA login credentials to sign in to external websites of partner organisations that provide CPD and training resources to IEMA members.
An added extra Cursor has brought is the encouragement to engage staff at all levels on significant change projects, something which has been successfully received internally at IEMA.
Megan Lui
Membership and Standards Manager, IEMAPrivate back-office system
In addition to the public website, application system and member-only areas, we built a private management system for IEMA staff: the IEMA Hub. The Hub provides the IEMA team with an easy-to-use interface to manage all aspects of membership.
We created a single-member view including application information, membership details, invoices, payments, direct debit and email communications. Built using React, the IEMA hub gives the membership team an efficient way to deal with day-to-day enquiries from members worldwide.
Our impact
Our web development partnership with IEMA started in September 2019. After over 2,500 hours of work and completing 3,580 tests, we launched the new IEMA website, Hub and associated digital systems in August 2020, successfully delivering a complex business-critical project on time and in the middle of a global pandemic.
Systems launched
- New responsive IEMA website
- New application forms, directly integrated with Microsoft Dynamics
- New member-only self-service system, MyIEMA
- New administrative platform, the IEMA Hub
Technologies used
- Craft 3 CMS
- Node.js
- Bespoke API integration
Cursor is a partner in the true sense of the word and our relationship continues to grow as more people are introduced into the project and bespoke teams are set up to drive business imperatives forward. I was particularly impressed by the way that Daniel embraced our environmental requirements and set about researching the environmental footprint of all the suppliers that he was proposing to use on our account – discounting those that did not meet a strict criteria.
Sue Buxey
Head of Operations, IEMA