When Lane Boyd looked to launch a new website, he needed a Web Content Management System (Web CMS) that could grow and adapt to his organization’s needs. Boyd, the Digital Communications Manager at Texas Hospital Association (THA), noted, "We needed a new CMS that we’ll still be using in 2025."

Modernizing the Association’s Digital Presence

THA is a non-profit trade association representing over 450 hospitals in the state of Texas. THA serves as an advocate for the state's hospitals and health care systems.

Image: Texas Hospital Association's new homepage.

When Boyd evaluated his current systems, he saw a website that was not mobile-friendly and a Web CMS that required knowledge of HTML and CSS to make content updates. In addition, the association had already discovered that its outdated Association Management System (AMS) wasn't meeting the association's needs.

Just as the association needed an AMS that could make the most of its membership data, Boyd needed a new website that could support daily content updates from a growing team of business users.

Selecting a Web CMS

First, the association selected Personify360 as its new AMS. Boyd needed to find a Web CMS that could integrate with Personify’s powerful back-office engine.

At an industry conference, Boyd met attendees who shared stories about how they successfully integrated Personify with DNN.

Conference attendees indicated that the integration was straightforward due to DNN’s extensibility model and Open API.

Pictured: Lane Boyd of Texas Hospital Association

Note: For more information on our extensibility, visit the Developers section of our Documentation Center.

"For the cost and functionality of Evoq, there was really no match."

Next, Boyd and a team of co-workers evaluated Evoq, DNN’s Web CMS, from the lens of his business users: could these non-technical users manage content and edit pages easily? Was it intuitive and easy to use? Boyd was sold: he was convinced that business users would be empowered to manage their content without technical or development resources.

After evaluating Evoq against other platforms, such as Sitecore, Ektron, Ingeniux and Sitefinity, Boyd chose Evoq. "For the cost and functionality of Evoq, there was really no match," he said.

Helping THA Create a Modern, Future-Proof Website

To create a future-proof website, THA needed an extensible and flexible Web CMS backed by a strong customer success team. Let’s consider the business benefits realized by THA by deploying the Evoq CMS.

Image: A product page on the new THA website.

The Website as the Central Access Point for Members

THA wanted its website to be the central access point for its members. In order to serve that role, the site needed to have Single Sign On (SSO) integration with its Personify AMS-driven e-commerce web portal. This capability enabled members to login using a single set of credentials as they browsed between the general and data-base driven portions of the website.

THA uses Personify's e-commerce capabilities to allow both members and non-members to purchase publications and tickets to industry events. THA hired Brightfind, a digital design and web development agency, to implement the integration between Evoq and Personify.

DNN’s customer success team was available throughout the integration phase, assisting THA and Brightfind developers by answering questions, troubleshooting issues and taking an active role in verifying, installing and updating the SSO module. According to Boyd, "DNN's customer success team is a shining star. They worked across the THA and Brightfind teams and diligently worked all issues through to resolution. I could not be more pleased with the DNN team's responsiveness."

Sustainable Model for Website Growth

THA chose Evoq OnDemand, which provides Evoq products via a cloud offering that’s fully managed by DNN.

With Evoq OnDemand, THA replaces the responsibilities of server, software, network and infrastructure with a single Software as a Service (SaaS) subscription.

Evoq OnDemand includes a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for availability. "If the site were to go down, I don’t have to send an IT engineer to the data center. Instead, DNN resolves the issue for me," said Boyd.

In addition, Evoq OnDemand provides an auto-scaling feature, which dynamically adjusts cloud resources to meet increases in website traffic. This increase in cloud capacity happens with no manual intervention. If THA sees a spike in website traffic during the holidays, Boyd and team can rest comfortably knowing that Evoq OnDemand will handle the load.

Sustainable Model for Expanding Website Content

The healthcare industry sees frequent changes in legislation and regulations. As an advocacy organization, THA wants to keep members up-to-date with industry changes. According to Boyd, "We strive for near-continuous content updates. We want our site to provide new and fresh content, to satisfy the needs of our members."

Image: THA's Public Policy page.

Since Boyd knows it’s a challenge to manage all of the site’s content himself, he works with other departments within the organization (e.g. Education, Advocacy, etc.) to bring on new users to the Evoq CMS. As he grows the content team, he uses Evoq’s permissions and workflow features to help manage the process of keeping the website properly updated.

Evoq's permissions feature enables Boyd to lock down certain sections of the site to authorized users. For example, the advocacy pages can permit updates only from specified members of the Advocacy Team. Workflow enables him (and other managers) to review and approve updates before they’re published to the site. Approvers can also reject an update, sending it back to the original requester with an explanation.

Flexible Solutions to Address Business Requirements

Every organization has unique business requirements for its website. DNN provides a range of options to address these requirements. The simplest option is the DNN Store, a website with thousands of commercial modules available for sale.

Another option is to have web developers use DNN’s extensibility model and API to build applications in Evoq. Brightfind’s integration of Evoq and Personify is an example of this option.

The breadth of modules in the DNN Store was an important factor in Boyd choosing Evoq. "I purchased a theme from the DNN Store that provided responsive design out of the box. This enabled me to focus on the content of my site, knowing that all of the pages would be mobile-ready. That’s huge," said Boyd.

Next Steps

In early 2016, THA successfully launched a modern, mobile-responsive website. The new site includes integration between the Evoq CMS and Personify. Boyd is in the process of working with internal groups to expand the website content team.

Next, Boyd plans to migrate additional websites into the same instance of Evoq: sites for trustees, endorsed partners, advocacy efforts and hospital insurance. In a sense, it’s back to the future: migrating these sites to Evoq will also make them future-proof.

Request a Custom Demo

THA's new website is powered by the Evoq CMS. Want to see what Evoq can do for your site? We'll listen to your requirements and use case, then put together a custom demo of our Evoq CMS. Request your custom demo today.