Analysis of Ohio Education Association

The Challenge

The Ohio Education Association had a major challenge – implementing a process for their member groups to create and publish full featured websites to support and relay information about the OEA to all of its local members.

“We needed to better connect our members, giving them an opportunity to stay up-to-date on what is happening in the OEA,” said OEA IT Manager Darren Clum. “Our main challenge was, how do we get our members to utilize a website when they have no background in what building and maintaining a website is all about.”

The Resolution

Through numerous conversations with Jumpline.com, members of the OEA management team expressed their requirements for a web hosting package that would not only assist OEA members with accomplishing their website goals, but would also allow for easy management of all of the websites that were added under their plan.

‘Understanding the needs of the entire organization was the determining factor in developing a solution that would benefit each and every member of the group. Focusing in large on the individual users is what lead to the success of this project,” said Jason Beyke, Director of Customer Relations for Jumpline.com.

Utilizing several of the core features available under their existing service offerings, Jumpline was able to develop a custom package aimed at resolving all of the concerns of the OEA. Through the updated plan, Jumpline created a solution that offers each of the OEA member groups additional tools to assist them in creating and managing their newly created websites, including; custom website templates, 25+ available value apps, an rss reader, individual email management panels and direct support from Jumpline’s customer support team.

“Having more knowledge about the individual features that are available with each account has really helped us to understand the full functionality that is available to our members. Showing a member how to get more out of their website is critical to the advancement of this service,” Clum said.

In addition to the full featured websites that were being offered to OEA members, the plan that Jumpline based the custom solution on already included an advanced management system, which was a direct match for the requirements of the OEA. Through the management panel, OEA administrators are now able to choose what applications are available to their members, quickly provision new websites, run usage reports, and add features to individual member plans as the need arises.

The Results

“We are very happy with the results. The management features are fantastic, the feature sets are great and the ability to immediately provision websites in about a minute has really improved the process for adding member websites under our plan,” said Clum.

The end result of the plan implementation has significantly reduced the amount of time required by OEA administrators to manage the web hosting service they are now providing to their member groups. With the new website offerings, the OEA management team has created additional value for their member groups, providing them with the resources necessary to open the communication channels between the OEA, the member groups and the individual members themselves.

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Analysis of Creative Snaps

The Challenge

In early 2005, Kim Crothers began working on her plan to create a scrapbook to highlight the lives and experiences of her children. Just coming off a busy holiday season a couple months earlier, Kim was ready to get started with her new project. As she began looking into the details of her task a little further, Kim realized that the traditional method for building a scrapbook was just not for her.

To get a little more information about what she could do, Kim began surfing through several forums and user groups to get ideas for her scrapbook. After finding a few websites that were offering digital scrapbook starter kits, she decided that this was the best thing for her to do as well. Utilizing for previous design experience, Kim began to develop her own templates to use for her digital scrapbook.

As she got a little farther along, she started to post some of her designs in the forums to get feedback from other users, to see if her designs were any good. The responses that she received were fantastic and provided her with an idea; to offer her designs to others who are interested in digital scrapbooking.

At this point, Kim was faced with the challenge of implementing her idea. ‘Getting started with this project I really had no idea what to do. What should I do first?’ she said.

The Resolution

After finishing several designs, Kim continued posting her designs in the forums that she had found online. As she did, more and more people asked her how they could get her designs to use for their own. At this point, Kim realized that she had a great opportunity to turn her passion for digital scrapbooking into a business that would generate real income.

After a short search, Kim decided to use Jumpline.com to host her website. Moving forward very quickly, Kim designed her website in only a few days so she could get her products out to the public right away to take advantage of the high that she was riding from the interest in the designs that she had posted in the forums.

Utilizing several of the features that were included in her website hosting plan, Kim was able to create a full-featured website to effectively support her new business. With the amount of attention that her designs were getting, her primary concern at the time was having a hosting company that would be reliable enough to build her business on, and with Jumpline.com she felt that she had the right company to work with.

The Results

A little more than two years later, Kim has continued down the path of providing high quality digital scrapbook designs to her customers and has seen her business grow significantly.

‘By having a solid website out on the Internet, I can sit back and let my website do the work that I was doing before. I don’t have as much time to maintain it as I used to, but that’s alright because there are still a lot of people who are finding my website and buying my designs’ said Crothers.

In addition to the great support that she has received from her customers, Kim has also benefited from several other business opportunities that she does not feel she would have had without her website, including a deal to do exclusive work for Sony to create custom designs for a new line of printers built specifically to meet the needs of digital photography and scrapbooking enthusiasts.

‘Who would have thought that all you have to do is have an idea that you are passionate about and you can turn it into a profitable business?’ said Crothers. ‘My website has created opportunities for me that I never would have realized without it.’  

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Analysis of First Choice Medical Supply

The Challenge

First Choice Medical Suppliers opened its doors for business in January 2002, and in their first year did great with nearly a half a million dollars in revenue. A short year later, in January 2003, Kevin Crothers joined FCMS as Chief Information Officer with a primary goal of developing an effective supply ordering alternative to offer their prospective customers.

As is the case with most businesses, the primary concern for FCMS at the time was how to grow the business. By bringing in Kevin to take on the challenge of building a successful internet presence that would meet the needs of their current and new business partners, FCMS got more than they could have bargained for by more than doubling their previous year’s income from online sales alone.

This presented a problem, with the amount of business that was making its way to their website, FCMS needed a web hosting solution that would offer them the features, stability and freedom to develop and install applications designed specifically to meet the needs of their new and existing customers.

The Resolution

Having had a previous relationship with Jumpline.com in another venture, Kevin chose to use Jumpline.com for the FCMS.com website. By choosing a company that was offered a great alternative to the standard shared hosting environment, Kevin knew that he had a solid, reputable company to back FCMS up with their growing website demands.

Relying on the functionality afforded them through Jumpline.com’s VDS hosting plans, Kevin has been able to develop a number of alternatives for their customers to order their supplies, and has never been in a situation where he has been unable to meet the needs of his prospective customers due to technical limitations. Now, with several additional accounts under management with Jumpline for development and testing, FCMS is continuing the development of their website without disrupting their normal business flow.

The Results

Through all of the advancements that have been made in the online ordering and the vendor inventory management systems, FCMS is in a great position to grow their business exponentially. Because of all of the hard work by Crother and his team and the resources available through Jumpline.com, FCMS.com has by far exceeded website expectations and is now accounting for almost 50% of the companies’ annual revenues, which in 2006 was at nearly $50 million for the year.

‘I was afraid that if the guys at Jumpline found out how well my website was doing that I would get all kinds of pressure to expand, buy more, or just pay more for the same service. But the people at Jumpline proved me wrong, they treat me and my website just like everyone else and that tells me that they respect all of their customers regardless of what they are doing with their website’ Kevin said. ‘We are so happy with the level of service that you guys (Jumpline.com) have provided so far, you can count on us to fully support Jumpline.com in everything that you do. You really make doing our jobs much easier and we appreciate you very much.’

As far as the website goes, FCMS.com will be with Jumpline.com for a long, long time.

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