The Client

We’ve worked with the National Precast Concrete Association (NPCA) on a number of projects over a span of nearly 10 years. In our most recent collaboration, the organization learned that support for their off-the-shelf, legacy database platform would soon cease, requiring them to purchase a new version. When the time came to choose an upgrade or a new platform, NPCA knew that a simple copy of their old database wouldn’t suffice. The platform had undergone extensive—and expensive—customization to meet the organization’s needs over the years, but it still didn’t fulfill every step of their workflow.

NPCA needed a comprehensive solution that would not only fit seamlessly into their workflow, but ultimately, allow the organization to more efficiently and better serve its members.

The Challenge

We approached the custom solution by researching each of the organization’s departments. We facilitated multiple working sessions to map out their operations and challenges. By fully understanding each department, the team was able to architect and build a cohesive platform that brought together all of the intricate pieces. NPCA named this new platform “Phoenix”.

Here are some of Phoenix’s modules:

• Financial – This module tracks all receivables and member dues, issues invoices, generates account statements and financial reports, and processes all payments.
• Education – This module in itself is a learning management system (LMS) that powers NPCA’s Precast University. It houses degree tracts and all educational content, tracks student data and class history, hosts webinars, issues certifications, and offers a full class builder that creates exams, presentations and scoring.
• NPCA Shop -This ecommerce module manages products, prices, order fulfillment, inventory and shipping, and feeds all sales data to the Financial module.
• Technical – This module manages plant certification applications, approval, pre-assessments and audits, and integrates with NPCA Auditor, an onsite field auditing platform.
• Meetings – This module manages special events, registration and attendees for main events and sub events, and booth sales for conferences.
• Membership – This portal allows NPCA members to access account invoices, register and complete meetings and classes, make purchases through the shop, and print certificates. Committee members can also view rosters and committee minutes.

The Solution

By choosing custom software, NPCA received a comprehensive solution tailored to their unique challenges and workflows. All of that, for a price comparable to buying an off-the-shelf product that would’ve required expensive customization, and licensing fees down the road. While the platform includes a robust AMS, NPCA’s Phoenix is truly a cohesive full-business system.