Information Technology at APA: We’ve Got IT

The Information Technology (IT) Department, under the direction of William Bruce, provides support and technical guidance to meet the needs of APA members and staff. It serves as a staff resource for maintaining technology infrastructure and stewarding technology projects from early development through production support.

With a staff of 14 and a budget of $1.8 million, IT calls upon its combined experience of 106 years to provide day-to-day internal support for staff operations, as well as direct member support via long-term development projects and Web applications.

APA’s IT infrastructure is built on enterprise-class industry standards. Using first-tier vendors for hardware and software, IT provides a secure and stable environment for office operations. Staff is currently planning a major update in the security and authentication systems in conjunction with a network system upgrade. When complete, these updates will bring state-of-the-art network services to APA’s central office, providing improved internal quality of service and systems availability.

Now at the top of the department’s project list is the implementation of an organization-wide association management system (AMS). APA is in the process of replacing its membership system with a more evolved business-processing system that will provide improved abilities to manage the Association’s data needs, such as improved reporting capabilities, more accurate billing statements, and tighter integration between systems and departments. Staff, working closely with a committee consisting of members, consultants, and district branch executives, has selected TMA Resources’ membership relations management software TIMSS 6.NET to replace our existing member management system. The new system will integrate the functions of several offices, thus simplifying the internal flow of information between offices and improving the overall quality and currency of data.

Initially, this system will be used in the Membership Department and Answer Center, and by the accounts-receivable team. The system will be then made available to district branches and other APA departments over time. More information about TMA Resources and TIMMS 6.NET is posted on the Web at www.tmaresources.com.

The result is that members will see improvements in the accuracy of the Association’s reports, as well as improvements in the “Members Corner” area of APA’s Web site due to the improvements in e-commerce and Web applications that the new system will facilitate.

On other fronts, IT has been working closely with the Communications Department on the redesigned APA Web site and DB Extranet projects. The new site will reflect a much-improved public presence for the Association. The site is expected to be launched some time this month. This should coincide with the launch of the DB Extranet, a site specifically for district branch staff to find useful information. The extranet will serve as an information source for DB executives, as well as a forum for online communication with colleagues.

• In other areas, IT is involved in facilitating several projects to improve APA’s technical capabilities. For example, in APPI, the IT staff have been working closely with production managers to upgrade APPI’s publishing fulfillment system.

• IT recently aided in the selection of a new registration-system vendor to address technical problems experienced during previous annual meetings.

• IT will be working with the new vendor and Annual Meetings Department staff to develop the online registration system and the on-site self-registration kiosks.

• IT is working collaboratively with the Office of Research to develop a site to facilitate the submission of ideas and changes to the DSM-V development process.

IT continues to work to improve the technical capabilities of the Association. Feel free to forward your comments, ideas and/or suggestions to me at [email protected]. ▪