Background

The planned community of Ewa by Gentry is located in Ewa Beach in Hawaii and consists of more than 6,000 homes. The Ewa by Gentry Community Association (EbGCA) manages the community and has two primary responsibilities: to protect and enhance community value by ensuring that homeowners follow the community covenants and rules and to provide and manage the community center and parks. The community center offers a variety of programs including aquatics, hula lessons, and karate.

Challenge

Staff members of EbGCA became accustomed to managing all facility reservations, program registrations and memberships manually in an Excel sheet. None of the information was automated or integrated and the association only accepted checks or money orders, no cash or credit cards.

To address the limited payment options and inconvenient processes, the Association invested $45,000 on a consultant to design a software program to automate processes. In return for the investment, the Association was given a very basic program that only managed memberships. Staff members could enter an individual or family into the system and issue a membership card, but that was it.

Despite the investment in the software and consultant, the Association’s processes were still heavily paper-based and very time consuming. When the Board of Directors requested information on facility usage, staff members weren’t able to deliver. The software wasn’t able to capture a full view of the operations and only provided one-dimensional reports such as the number of passes distributed.

Solution

In 2006, Karen Ashby joined the EbGCA as its Activities Director, managing programs and classes at the Thomas H. Gentry Community Center. Ashby previously worked for the Parks and Recreation department at the City of Suffolk, Virginia, so she was well-versed on the operations management software solutions available in the market. Noting the inefficient processes at the Association and the inability to provide accurate reports to the Board, Ashby knew the Association needed a new association management software solution.

To get a new solution implemented, the Association’s Community Relations and Activities Committee and Board of Directors would need to approve the request. Ashby knew it could be difficult to get the request approved, given the recent investment in a software consultant. But she began her search for the right solution to improve efficiencies for the Community Center.

Already familiar with Active Network from her previous position, Ashby explored the company’s solutions further and found ActiveNet, a Web-based, hosted association management software solution. Ashby’s requirements for the new software solution included alleviating any need for a dedicated IT staff to support the system and additional investments in servers and equipment. After searching for several weeks, Ashby found that only ActiveNet met these requirements.

Ashby presented ActiveNet to the Community Relations and Activities Committee, explaining the software’s capabilities, as well as providing customer testimonials from other organizations that saved time and money using ActiveNet. For the Committee, the biggest selling points of the software were no additional investments in servers or IT staff and significant improvements in operations at a much lower cost. The Committee supported the project and presented it to the Board, which approved it.

Results

Ashby notes that ActiveNet improves operational efficiencies and makes better use of staff members’ time, alleviating them from time consuming, paper-based processes. With each step more streamlined, registrations and reservations are completed faster, class schedules are tracked daily, and most recently, swim staff can now grade students online.

“ActiveNet has been a phenomenal success. We have come so far from where we were before. Just the office and swim staff alone are very happy because of the time savings that the software provides.”

Processes have been significantly improved for community members as well. In addition to faster services, members can now take advantage of more conveniences, including paying with credit cards and registering and paying for programs online.

“We can’t ask for an easier recreation management system. We don’t have to worry about backing up the system, and there are quarterly upgrades built into the software.”

When it comes to the Board of Directors, Ashby is thrilled with ActiveNet’s reports. “The software’s reporting capability is second to none. The Board is so impressed with the information the system provides to help them understand community usage of facilities.”

Ashby also makes good use of the reports, reviewing them monthly to evaluate the business and make more informed decisions on the programs and services offered. Active's association management software has made the lives or residents and employees easier.

“The software’s reporting capability is second to none. The Board is so impressed with the information the system provides to help them understand community usage of facilities.”

– Karen Ashby
Activities Director, Ewa by Gentry Community Association

“ActiveNet has been a phenomenal success. We have come so far from where we were before.”

Karen Ashby
Activities Director, Ewa by Gentry Community Association