3fifteen completes content engine for Heartlines' forgood programme

Local Microsoft development powerhouse and Britehouse subsidiary 3fifteen has announced the successful completion of the first phase of an online development project for Heartlines - a South African non-profit organisation aimed at getting people talking, thinking and acting towards building a better world.

The project consists of a Web site and social networking platform, aptly named forgood (www.forgood.co.za) and aims to provide customised information to individuals, thereby helping make a difference in their own lives and their communities. The Web site was built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) for Internet sites with custom integration components for SMS and e-mail.

Forgood is designed to connect people with similar interests to each other, forming virtual communities to enhance the good work of individuals and groups.

The two main conduits used to connect individuals are the forgood Web site and SMS messages delivered to users' mobile phones.

Vanessa Black, e-Business Development Manager at 3fifteen, explains that the initial design brief her team received was for the Web site to be purely informational and for social networking elements to only be implemented in phase two. Over the six months that followed however, the scope of the project changed substantially and additional functionality was added through forgood's support agreement with 3fifteen.

“The site was originally designed to allow Heartlines the ability to detail the values, goals and engagement models epitomised by forgood, and for regular updates of forgood's campaigns and other news to be provided to members via Web site updates and regular SMS messages. These updates form the dual purpose of keeping members motivated to continue doing good in their communities, but also, to inform them of new campaigns. New members can also sign-up quickly and easily through the Web site or via SMS.”

Apart from it simply being a nice-to-have, Black says forgood now relies heavily on SMS as the primary messaging conduit for communicating with its members.

Instead of this functionality existing in a separate system, 3fifteen has used MOSS Web-parts to manage the back-end for the SMS campaign engine.

Black explains that servicing the roughly 22 000 members forgood currently has on its books wouldn't be a reality without some form of mobile component.

“The vast majority of forgood's members don't have regular access to a computer or the Internet,” she explains.

SMS is therefore a perfect medium as the primary form of communication with members.

During a campaign, forgood members can expect to receive up to eight SMS messages a month in their choice of five SA languages. In addition to those messages, depending on their areas of interest members can expect to receive an ad-hoc SMS message whenever appropriate.

“The safety campaign for example consisted of five SMS messages, delivered over the course of five weeks,” she says. “If they were subscribed to additional areas of interest, members would have received more than one SMS per week.”

That means forgood is sending well over 22 000 SMS messages per week - something Black says is enabled by the platform built by 3fifteen.

“The platform doesn't simply send SMS messages out to all members subscribed to a particular campaign or area of interest however,” she says. “There's quite a bit of intelligence built into the back end, ensuring that SMS messages aren't sent out wastefully.”

Here she gives an example of an individual signing up in week four of the safety campaign.

“Instead of simply sending them the last two SMS messages over the next two weeks of the campaign, we built an algorithm that gauges whether it needs to send the new member the previous three SMS messages in a catch-up fashion, or whether it should simply exclude them from the remaining messages in that campaign, because of their join date.

“This not only streamlines the system but ensures that funds aren't wasted on SMS messages that aren't absolutely necessary,” she explains.

A strong enabler for all of this functionality, Black says, was 3fifteen's decision to use Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for Internet as the platform for forgood's online presence.

Apart from enabling administrators to update the site with information on a daily basis, it allows for easy integration with the SMS functionality the campaign required, is designed to handle a massive volume of users and, best of all, is adaptable enough to cater for forgood's future plans.

“With phase one behind us, we move onto the second phase of the project, which entails a stronger focus on community-created content, collaboration between community members and an offer of classic social networking benefits,” Black says.

“Phase two will also see us beginning to customise members' landing pages to their exact interests and requirements.”

“We're extremely excited about the site's future prospects,” she says, “and believe we can enable forgood to make a huge difference.”

“Knowing that you're contributing to an initiative this worthwhile makes your efforts mean that much more,” she concludes.