Case Study for MBHA

Margaret Blackwood Housing Association (MBHA) provides housing in Scotland that is suitable for disabled people and their families. They own 1450 properties and employ approximately 350 people.

The Problem

MBHA recognised that their website was one of the most effective methods of communicating with the public, stakeholders and employees, and realised that the original website had outgrown the technology on which it was based. They required a robust content management system that would allow non-technical staff to take control of all aspects of the site, as and when required. Another important factor was the ability to adhere to accessibility guidelines and government directives and initiatives.

The Solution

Paul Leighton, Marketing & Communications Officer at MBHA and the project leader for the new CMS, explained their decision to move to Activedition: "Our old CMS was becoming unmanageable due to the volume of data held within the site and current system constraints. We decided to move to Activedition because of the standard ‘out of the box’ functionality and the ease with which non-technical users could update content."

MBHA decided that transferring the website into the Activedition content management system would provide them with the tools to develop and expand the site into a highly functional communication area. MBHA worked with iDynamics to ensure that timescale deadlines were met for the site to be transferred into Activedition.

Activedition gave MBHA a secure framework for managing all its external online content and it appearance as well as additional functionality such as mailing groups, newsgroups, FAQs, powerful content search functions and integrated usage statistics and reporting.

iDynamics also provides a web hosting service to MBHA and continues to work closely with them to ensure that they fully realise all the potential benefits of Activedition’s functionality.

From the date of order, iDynamics responded promptly to MBHA’s requirements to provide the initial site template designs for approval. After a one-day training course, MBHA staff had sufficient knowledge to start transferring the website into Activedition. At a later date, a review of the administrative functionality took place and iDynamics explored the opportunity for MBHA to use some of the other administrative tools available to further enhance and develop the site.

The Benefits

Using the Activedition content management system ensures that on-going costs are minimised whilst, at the same time, enables authorised staff to keep the site fresh, current and relevant.

Paul Leighton continued: "With iDynamics providing our hosting service from its dedicated facilities at Harbour Exchange in London’s Docklands, we’ve made very significant time savings on site management compared to our old host, which was desperately slow. We feel secure in the knowledge that our site security and access are carefully controlled. We have a service level agreement detailing exactly what we can expect and have experienced no host downtime whatsoever since moving over."

"Since the website implementation we have had easy access to comprehensive statistical information confirming how much more successful the new site is. This, in turn, enables us to manage the site far more proactively and helps us to understand who is using our site and what they wish to get from it."

He concluded: "Working with iDynamics has proved a pretty painless and pleasant experience. They always respond promptly to our requests, and I look forward to working with them more as we evolve and develop the site in the future."

MBHA’s implementation demonstrates how easy it is to recreate an existing website within Activedition and then utilise standard features to evolve and enhance the offering. The statistical reporting features help users to develop an excellent understanding of how the site is being accessed and used, enabling them to target the time and development effort into specific areas of the site for maximum impact.

MBHA’s website can be viewed at www.mbha.org.uk

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