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Catalyst Starter transforms Qualmark’s digital experience

09 Dec 2024, 10:30 AM

Learn how Qualmark and Catalyst collaborated to transform Qualmark’s digital experience and operations using Silverstripe CMS.

Background

Qualmark is New Zealand tourism’s official quality assurance organisation, providing tourism businesses an accreditation using the Sustainable Tourism Business Criteria as an official mark of quality.

Opportunity

Qualmark were seeking a modern replacement for their website and the creation of a new portal for their members. They wanted to add value to their membership and provide extra support for the recovering tourism sector by introducing new functionality.

  • An extensible content management system (CMS) that could support future development, and the ability to easily test and update content on their website.
  • A self-service member portal enabling members to manage and update their account information, and conveniently access relevant and tailored resources.
  • To modernise the existing manual process for a new member to sign-up.

Qualmark chose Catalyst to bring their new website and portal to life and help improve their customer journey for members.

Solution

Catalyst worked closely with Qualmark's Product Owner and stakeholders to understand the core business needs for their website and member portal. In the discovery phase, Catalyst's Business Analysis team ran a series of workshops with Qualmark to identify:

  • Core business needs
  • How members would interact with the portal
  • What tailored information do members need to access
  • How to ensure a good user experience for members
  • What workflows needed to be improved
  • Where information entered in the sign-up form needed to go and why.

Following discovery, the decision was made to use Catalyst Starter as the basis for the new Qualmark website and member portal, due to its versatility and capability.

Catalyst Starter is a Silverstripe CMS(external link) recipe created to deliver a full-featured, scalable, highly accessible, and ready-to-go base for websites. It is pre-configured to enable users to start adding content quickly and be confident that their website is compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2.)(external link)

Additionally, Catalyst’s web accessibility team(external link), ran an accessibility review to ensure custom changes were also WCAG compliant.

Photo credit: Miles Holden(external link)

Van driving on an open road next to Lake Pukaki Canetebury. There are yellow leaves framing the van and it's a sunny day

Streamlining and automating processes

Discovery also highlighted a clear need to streamline and automate the manual process for new Qualmark members to sign up. As a result, the end-to-end process was transformed by leveraging Silverstripe User Forms within Catalyst Starter. The new member portal and Qualmark's customer relationship management system based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 were integrated as part of the new sign-up process.

During the delivery phase of the project, Qualmark refreshed its brand, so Catalyst's designers worked with the Qualmark team to roll out the new branding across the portal and website. Due to the versatility of Silverstripe CMS, the new brand colours, imagery, and font sizes were easily implemented.

Qualmark decided to add the option for members to pay for their membership conveniently to further enhance the portal. The Catalyst team was able to work quickly to integrate the new payment method in time for launch.

Finally, Qualmark’s new website and portal required a hosting platform to ensure that these services remain secure and available at all times. Catalyst’s Cove platform-as-a-service was chosen alongside hosting on Catalyst Cloud(external link). This fully managed service means Qualmark’s website and portal are running on a robust infrastructure, maintained by an expert team. As Catalyst Cloud is a New Zealand-based cloud provider, Qualmark’s data is sovereign and under NZ laws.

Photo credit: Miles Holden(external link)

Haast, West Coast
Qualmark logo test

We were consistently impressed by the speed of service provided by Catalyst IT. Their quick delivery allowed us to maintain momentum and meet our deadlines with ease.

- Steven Dixon, General Manager, Qualmark

Results

The new website and portal have transformed the Qualmark members' overall experience.

  • Their team’s operations and new member workflow are streamlined to save time without compromising on business outcomes.
  • New members enjoy a simple sign-up experience and Qualmark is empowered to follow up promptly ensuring they can deliver a high-quality service for new members.
  • Since the launch, Qualmark has had over 600 new registrations.

Services provided

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At Catalyst, we enjoy working collaboratively to develop a future-proof solution for you and your users. Contact us to discuss how we can support you in achieving your goals.

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