Summary
A near 50 percent growth in membership during the COVID-19 pandemic, and new privacy laws and regulations emerging throughout the globe, meant the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), a nonprofit membership association, needed to reassess its technology stack.
Company
Founded in 2000, IAPP is a resource to help data privacy professionals develop and advance their careers and guide organizations in managing and protecting their data. They are the world’s largest and most comprehensive global information privacy community and resource.
The IAPP brings together the people, tools, and global information management practices needed to thrive in today’s rapidly evolving information privacy industry.
Business Problem
Due to an uptick in growth – both external and internal – the IAPP had to improve their content management system intelligently. “The last three years have been about modernizing our technology stack to prepare for growth. We are in the business applications phase of our modernization and have adopted a fit for purpose strategy,” Cathleen Scerbo, VP, CIO describes.
The IAPP engaged with SingleStone with a new CMS in mind. “We didn't have deep expertise in current CMS technologies to support an accelerated assessment,” said Scerbo. “When you're a captive tech organization, you need know the business that you're in so you can help the business select the right technology to support its needs. Our business is still learning the tech that we use and the tech that's possible.” Referred by a trusted advisor, SingleStone brought, as Scerbo explains, “The depth, breadth and level of understanding of what's offered in the market. Partnering with SingleStone was an accelerator to identify the right CMS solution for the IAPP.”
Solution
SingleStone used a formulaic approach to understand the distinguishing requirements of the IAPP to navigate the sea of possible solutions. Then, SingleStone created a vendor shortlist and vendor scorecard.
“We immediately felt that SingleStone cared about us as a customer. Many suppliers will indicate in the sales pipeline that ‘you can do this out of the box.’ Having SingleStone helped us determine what was the best fit for purpose that would best enable our unique needs,” said Scerbo. “Without a big investment, we needed to find that tool that truly is configurable, will fit in our modern architecture and will give us the most value possible to support our growth and customer experience aspirations.”
Outcome
SingleStone developed a list of four content management systems and/or platforms for the CIO, and set up product deep dives with each vendor, along with a variety of stakeholders from the IAPP. After the initial demo round, the client quickly decided on two final choices. By employing SingleStone to do the heavy lifting of culling through possible providers, Scerbo was able to have her team focus on their unique business objectives.
“SingleStone accelerated this modernization project,” said Scerbo. “Now, we are in the driver's seat of this decision and are well-positioned to be strategic.”