Team: Digital Demons
Members:
Team leader: John Hines
Client liaison: César Barradas
Documentarian: Kevin Krawzik
Observer / Reflector: Syed Quadri
DePaul University PM 440 ~ Winter 2008
Professor: Daniel Mittleman PhD
ADA Volunteer Management System
Background
 Enter Team Digital Demons
 What you know
 Ideal solution
 Feasible Solutions
 Recommendation
 Questions

Background
(ADA Info )
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The American Dental Association holds an annual
meeting, called the Annual Session:
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provide continued education to its members
showcase the latest procedures and tools in dentistry
and to provide a venue for its members to network.
ADA Headquarters are located in Chicago, IL.
Annual Session location changes every year.
Average meeting size is 35k attendees.
Meeting duration is 4 days
Average number of volunteers used for the meeting 500
Average number of assignments available for volunteers
1200
Background
(Project Focus )
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Volunteer Management Related Activities
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Collaborating parties of these activities:
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Recruitment
Tracking
Assignment
Training
Deployment
2 ADA staff (paid by the association) Chicago, IL.
Volunteer leadership (12 to 15 volunteers themselves) –San
Antonio, TX (2008)
500 plus volunteers, mostly local to the state
The goal of the ADA is to have a GSS that will allow the
parties to manage the Volunteer related activities.
Background
(Volunteer Management at the ADA facts )
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low tech paper heavy approaches
sophisticated spread sheets (too technical)
2007 - utilized a proprietary system of partner
organization, translated in 90% improvement over
previous systems.
Contacted Registration Vendor to explore the
possibility of developing a module that would
perform the volunteer management functions for
2008
Vendor declined due to development cost, viability of
support, and lack of marketability of the module to
other clients.
Decision then became: “do we do it in house or do
we try and find another outside vendor solution?”
Background
(Solution for 2008? )
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In house possibilities:
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Tripartite system. A physically centralized Database system
environment (complete with management system and
application programs built on top of it)
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ACCESS based application with a web interface
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Viable solution, but the organizational red tape would prevent
development on this platform for at least a year or so.
Viable but again would require a lengthy project request
process
Substantial development time for either
Outside vendor possibilities
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Research begun
Enter the Digital Demons
Background
(Status of the Solution )
This project illustrates a typical pattern of solution finding:
2004
2004 and prior years,
combination of approaches
2005
Excel, single user,
email exchanges,
Paper based
2006
Excel, single user,
email exchanges,
Paper based
2005
2004
Define
the
Business
Problem
2007
Client heavy
Web Based System
2006
-System Centric
-Successful
-Sophisticated
Administrator
Define
the
Collaboration
Affordance
Define
Technology
2007
-System Centric
-BIG FAILURE!
-Too complicated
for Administrator
Select
Product
2008
????
-Low learning
curve
-User Centric
-BIG SUCCESS
-Proprietary
2008
L
Execute
Solution
2008
How did the Digital Demons advance
the discussion
 helped
the client define the business needs
 helped the client understand the system needs
 provided feedback on the proposed process flow
of the assignment process
 helped define the expectations of the
participants (what they need, what choices they
have, and what technology is available)
 reinforced the strategy of the individual in charge
A thought about the entry point of of our
team into the Solution
For all intends and purposes our team was a consultant to the client, it
makes things even more interesting when a member of the team is also one
of the key decision makers and individuals in charge of the deployment of the
solution.
When our team came into the picture the organization was already thinking
about going the thin client path. The project would have benefited from the
team being there from the inception (in this case the moment the individual
was put in charge of developing consistent processes that could be
replicated from year to year) however that happened over 18 months ago,
way before any of us had started this course.
So in this iteration of the involvement of a pm440 team with a client there
was a bit of mutual edification, the client shared tried solutions and
background information, we shared our objective criteria to evaluate the
needs and the possible solutions and together we developed a reasonable
approach to finding an executable solution.
Team: Digital Demons
Members:
Team leader: John Hines
Client liaison: César Barradas
Documentarian: Kevin Krawzik
Observer / Reflector: Syed Quadri
DePaul University PM 440 ~ Winter 2008
Professor: Daniel Mittleman PhD
What you know

In 2007 you used two systems
 Registration
system
 Volunteer management system
 Not all people who register are volunteers,
but all volunteers need to be registered.
 You ended up capturing duplicate
information from individuals who wanted to
register for the meeting and be volunteers
What you know
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Two systems approach known issues:
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Local Administrator driven process
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Repetitive, time consuming, and error prone approach
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Volunteer must register for the meeting
Then volunteer must register to volunteer
Basic information is entered twice
Confusion as to what system they signed up on because of the
notifications
Administrator has to constantly follow up on them to make sure
they know where and what to do to make sure there are in the
system.
Constant crosschecking tasks (comparing volunteers registered
for the meeting, vs. volunteers singed up to volunteer),
another process that is both time consuming and redundant
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Onsite there were volunteers who were not registered for the
meeting and had to have that take place before they could work.
Ideal solution
(One system approach)
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Utilize the existing registration system
enhanced with a volunteer module
 That
would meet all of the business requirements
 Record management
 Eligibility verification
 Electronic communication
 Integration of coordinator level access to
Volunteer denominated records within that
system.
Ideal solution
(One system approach)
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Currently unattainable
 Current
vendor will not develop (not part of their
current or future value added offerings).
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The module will have to be developed in an
environment designed to deal with about 45k
individuals, but it would only be applicable to
approximately 500 of them.
Possible consideration add this as part of
the next RFP once contract with existing
vendor expires.
Feasible solutions
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In House development utilizing
content management systems and
web application frameworks.
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Web based system from outside
vendor.
In house development solution
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Develop a system that integrates /offers :
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Database for volunteer records
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Database for volunteer assignment information
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Matching of volunteers with assignments
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By the volunteers themselves
And by the volunteer coordinators
Web based access to the records
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By the volunteers
By the volunteer coordinators
In house development solution
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Develop a system that integrates /offers :
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System driven communications
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Document repository for
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Assignment notices
Assignment reminders
Volunteer cancellations
Notifications of record changes and or assignment changes to
pertinent parties
Volunteer Operation Manuals and floor plans
Dedicated phone bridge for coordinator conferences
In house development solution
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Develop a system that integrates /offers :
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Reports that inform the coordinators of the status of
their volunteers and their assignments to know exactly
where they are in fulfilling their volunteer assignments
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That allows coordinators to export the information into
Excel in order to have it available for printing, mail
merges, etc.
Outside vendor Web Based solution
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The outside vendor solution should meet most of the
needs outlined on the business requirements
 Volunteer Records
 Assignment records
 Matching of volunteers with assignments
 Web based access
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System driven communications
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Volunteer level
Coordinator level
Single system (tied to Registration)
Document repository
Reporting
Ability to export data
Solutions Pros and Cons
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In house
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Pros:
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Outside Vendor Web Based
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Highly customizable
Ability to match most if not all
the business requirements
 Data stored in house
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Cons:
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Time consuming development
Expensive in house
development
Learning curve for the tools we
would recommend can be high
Application will have to be
hosted within ADA so it will have
to compete with other systems
currently housed here
Will have to be a partial 2008
deployment with customization
going beyond current year
target implementation date
Leaves you with a 2 system
process
Pros:
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Meets most current
requirements
Nothing to install on ADA
machines
Access via any machine with
an internet connection
Low learning curve
Scalable based on need
Fits implementation date
since system just needs to be
populated
Significantly less expensive
than in house development
Cons:
Limited customization
Data housed in outside party
servers
 Leaves you with a 2 system
process
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RECOMMENDATION
For Volunteer
Management System
for ADA08 San Antonio
Initial Goals
Maintain or improve current process
 Be web-based
 Maintain communication with volunteers
 Offer real-time information
 Allow volunteer self-assignment
 Allow for and track hand picked
assignments
 Allow you to archive volunteer
information for future years
 Single system (tied to Registration)
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Feature/ Category
COST
Set up Fee
Free Trial
Free Trial Length
Pay as you go
License fee
Pay per user
Basic package includes how many
records
Price for 500 or more monthly
Yearly price offering
Volgistics
No
Yes
30 days
Yes
No
Yes
Volunteer Hub
Volunteer ^2
No
Yes - $995.00
Yes
No
30 days (have to petition for it)
N/A
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Products evaluated
Virtual Access
Unlimited simultaneous users
Thin client
Volunteer data Import Utility
Assignment Import Utility
Grouping
Telephone Support
Web based support
Individual assignments set up
Ability to limit # of vol per assignment
Assignment minimum feature
50
No
50- 19.95 volunteer
49.95 a month
Yes- $499.00
N/A
N/A
Yes- $525.00
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes (extra cost)
No (extra cost)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes (extra cost)
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
?
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
Yes
?
?
?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Evaluated based on areas such as:
 Cost
 Set Up
 Record Management
 Communication features
 Reporting
 Physical Location
Export to Outlook at the volunteer level
No
Record Management
Categorization of volunteers
Yes
Targeted emails based on categories
or groups
Yes
On-site system checkin
Yes
Lock system (avoid last minute
changes)
Yes
Ability to set up coordinators
Yes
Access to "real time" data
Yes
Restrict access based on group
membership
Yes
Provide web based access to the
system to the volunteers
Yes
Customizable web interfaces
Yes
Assignment conflict avoidance
Yes* only in certain mode
Self sign up
Yes
"Join" code functionality
No
On demand email confirmation
Yes
Personalized confirmations
?
Reporting
Reports : Volunteer Rosters
Reports : Sign up
Reports: Ability to export to other
formats
Location
US Company?
Yes
Other features not required by client
Ability to track hours
Record who showed up and who did
not
Who is here feature
System
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Volunteer+Logistics = volgistics
System Features
Thin client
 Online access
 Unlimited users simultaneous access
 Record import utility **
 Conflict schedule avoidance **
 Assignment Minimums **
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** Unique features afforded by only Volgistics at this time
Management features
Groups set up
 Targeted emails
 Reports
 Controlled access to assignments by
group
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Requirements
Computer
 Internet Connection
 Internet Browser
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Cost
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The monthly cost is $70.00 and
includes:
 Management
of up to 1000 volunteers
 Storage of up to 1000 volunteer records
 2 System Administrators (can add more for extra $$)
 Unlimited coordinators
 Web Based access for volunteers and
coordinators
Setting up the system
Setting up coordinator
structure
 Upload assignment
information
 Upload Volunteers
information
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Registration and Volunteer System
(communication)
Volunteers
Register
for
the
meeting
Records
are
pulled
and
imported
into
Volunteer
system
Volunteer
system
sends
access
info to
Volunteers
Volunteer perspective
Sign up screen
Assignment
Selection
 Content
 Self Assignments
 Cancellation

Coordinator perspective
Sign up screen
 Roster reviews
 Communication
to volunteers
 Notifications

(assignments and
cancellations)
Reports

Management reports
 Stock
reports
 Labels for mailing
 etc
Reports…
Opportunity areas
Two systems
 Reporting is not optimal for your needs
 Time conflicts are not 100 percent
avoidable
 Hand picked assignments – ahead of the
opening of registration
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Benefits Recap
Online
access
Inexpensive
Ready to go
Questions?
Thank you!
We appreciate your business!
Team: Digital Demons
Members:
Team leader: John Hines
Client liaison: César Barradas
Documentarian: Kevin Krawzik
Observer / Reflector: Syed Quadri
DePaul University PM 440 ~ Winter 2008
Professor: Daniel Mittleman PhD