Challenge: Improve operational efficiency by connecting front-end online registration to a robust back-end operations management system for day-camp operations.

 

Solution(s): Online Registration, CampSoft (InnovaIT's Customized Camp Management system,) PayPal Payment Gateway, Back-end CRM and reporting tools.

 

Details: The new online registration site from InnovaIT allows client families to complete the full registration of their children's summer camp via web browser including online payment. According to Camp Directors Mary-Kay Smola and Jason Amos, the system has not only provided a new level of service to their clients; it has also streamlined camp operations providing both increased efficiency and improved records management.

 

Stephen Parsons, Senior eBusiness Consultant and lead developer at InnovaIT Web Services says that the application rivals anything that InnovaIT or their client saw while evaluating off-the-shelf options a year previously. "InnovaIT has been working with Kids Inc for several years now, "says Parsons, "starting out in 2006 with a basic application to improve communications between the camp and its client families, and then going the extra mile in 2007 to manage the entire application process and e-commerce transactions through the web. For 2008 and beyond we will continue to add operational values through extended and improved CampSoft features."

 

Smola, who manages camp programming and camp operations for Kids Inc, agrees wholeheartedly. "We looked at one application that would have cost us a lot more money, and in the end would still not have fit our business model. We'd have either had to hire someone to develop that application to work as we do (costing us thousands of dollars more) or else try to fit our business to the application - which is really not appropriate at all."

 

Amos, who manages the financial side of the camp and business development, adds "This time  of year in 2005, the office would have been full of paper, with paper-based reports, lists, follow up notes, etc. everywhere! This year, we feel so much more organized, with screen-based reports allowing us to track daily activity. The online payment system has significantly reduced the amount of effort I have in chasing down and tracking registration fees."

 

"What we want to be doing is spending as much time with the kids and the counselors as we can, enjoying this business and the rewards that seeing their joy brings us, " says Amos. "If we spend all our time handling operational logistics, we just aren't getting to see how and where we can further improve our service."

 

"It hasn't been without its bumps," admits Smola. "We had a great deal to learn about working with an application developer while the developer had to learn lots about the day camp business. But the InnovaIT development team has been tremendously patient and professional in helping us overcome that learning curve and has configured their software to produce an application that exceeds our expectations."

 

The registration system is part of a significant technology investment by Kids Inc, that began in the Fall of 2006 (v. 1.0) with transfer of their original website to InnovaIT's Content Management System, InnovaCMS. InnovaIT and Kids Inc launched version 2.0 of the application (using InnovaIT's CampSoft software) for the summer of 2007 and, leveraging the learning from that period, have now developed version 3.0 - launched on March 1, 2008 - the beginning of this year's registration cycle.