Company's Operations Management Software Continues to Attract YMCAs and YWCAs for Affordable Membership, Program, Child Care and Finance Functionality
SAN DIEGO, CA - March 20, 2006 - YMCA of Columbia-Willamette in Portland, Ore. and Rappahannock Area YMCA in Fredericksburg, Va. have chosen operations management software from The Active Network to automate and streamline their membership, program registration, facility booking, child care and financial processes. The organizations are among a growing list of YMCA and YWCA organizations turning to the company's software to improve efficiency, customer service, accountability and maximize participation in community programs, activities and fundraising events.
"We evaluated over a dozen different products and were generally frustrated by the lack of both functionally and affordable solutions. We found that Active offered the best cost-benefit solution and that other YMCAs had recently converted to Active and had very positive experiences," explained Jay Rundle, vice president and chief financial officer, YMCA of Columbia-Willamette.
The Windows-based, desktop software automates administration such as program and activity registration, facility reservation, membership management, child care, league/tournament scheduling, fundraising, reporting, and financial management. To facilitate participation, organizations can also offer their communities in-person service as well as access to self-service options available via the Internet, kiosks and automated telephone.
YMCA of Columbia-Willamette will use the software to more efficiently process membership and registration transactions at the point of sale, streamline its back office operations, improve tracking of accounts receivable and provide more accurate and meaningful management reporting. The organization serves more than 75,000 participants in the Portland metropolitan area annually, providing four health and fitness centers, 13 child development centers, 49 school programs and hundreds of youth sports teams and program centers.
Prior to making its software decision, YMCA of Columbia-Willamette spent time with the Finance and Information Technology staff at YMCA of Greater Kansas City, YMCA of Greater Toronto and Greater Green Bay YMCA to evaluate the vendor relationship and the software in day-to-day operation.
Rappahannock Area YMCA is using the software to improve operations at its two main branches in Spotslyvania and Stafford counties. The YMCA serves a community of more than 300,000 in Fredericksburg and six surrounding counties and will open five new branches by the end of 2007. According to Lucy Stockdill, director of finance, the software will provide better information to make management decisions and handle new growth easily and efficiently.
"We were growing too fast for our current technology and needed a system that could store more data and offer us much easier access to it all," explained Stockdill. "We like that the software is Windows-based and moving from one screen to another is very intuitive. There is also much more functionality, better controls and reporting. We can register people for classes quicker without errors or time required for data entry."
The software, known for its superior registration and reporting functionality, also offers the Rappahannock staff specific controls for tasks as well as multiple options for creating reports. "I believe the software will give our department heads more accurate reports than they had in the past. As far as accounting goes, we'll have a better picture of what we're doing, from running daily balance reports to recognizing revenues and expenses on an accrual basis," said Stockdill.
Active's software also integrates with Blackbaud™ The Raiser's Edge® software. YMCA of Columbia-Willamette uses Raiser's Edge software to manage its fundraising, donor information collection and annual giving efforts. The integration will enable the Columbia-Willamette staff to access data from a single database to target market-specific groups for ongoing campaigns.
"We are running multiple business software systems that do not integrate with each other, many are cumbersome and lack the data security and the functionality we desperately need. Much of our business and accounting processes are manually intensive and prone to inaccuracies and delay," said Rundle. "Active's software handles all of this automatically, booking transactions, deferral of revenue and prepaid revenue. Under our current membership and child care systems we have to calculate these outside the system and process the postings to the general ledger manually. Active's software will allow us to focus on more productive efforts."
Since 2001, the company has had a strategic partnership with YMCA of Canada and has brought enhanced functionality and integrated solutions to both Canadian YMCAs and YMCAs across North America. "Active's demonstrated commitment to constantly improving the software to serve the needs of YMCAs, as well as their customer service resources, made the decision to go with Active an easy one," added Rundle.
To request a software demo, e-mail communities@active.com, visit www.activecommunities.com, call 1-800-661-1196, or meet The Active Network team at the North American YMCA Development Organization Annual Conference, March 23-25, 2006, booth 26 and 27.
About The Active Network, Inc.
The Active Network, Inc., based in San Diego, Calif., provides application services technology and marketing access to community service organizations and is a leading online community for active lifestyles. The company's application services help organizations increase efficiency and reduce the cost and complexity of managing community activities and fundraising events, providing technology that automates information collection, activity registration, facility reservation, membership and fundraising management. The company offers marketing access through integrated marketing and consumer promotions that develop authentic relationships between brands and active consumers. Organizations can also access marketing services that promote community use of online services as well as municipal and community marketing partnerships that create new revenues and services for the public and institutional sector and build brand loyalty for marketers. Through its Web properties, www.Active.com, www.eteamz.com, and www.ActiveGolf.com, The Active Network provides consumer services and resources that support participation in healthy lifestyles. The Active Network serves organizations and participants in multiple markets throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. For more information, please visit www.TheActiveNetwork.com or call 1-888-543-7223.
Media Contact:
Shelly Burnside, The Active Network
shelly@active.com or 858-964-3813