Emergency Nurses Association: Updating the Look and Capabilities of Its Website

The Emergency Nurses Association is the professional organization for emergency department nurses. The association has more than 38,000 members worldwide, and its mission is to advocate for patient safety and excellence in emergency nursing practice.

When ENA decided to offer a completely new and enhanced Web site experience for members, the association engaged with .orgSource to begin the process of creating a new ena.org.

Deb Zirkle, ENA director of online services, says the former site was in existence since 2002 and needed updating to newer technology. The biggest drawback was that all coding for content had to be put in manually by ENA staff, which was extremely cumbersome and time-consuming. After consulting with .orgSource, ENA launched a site that included:

• Full SharePoint capabilities, including single sign-on, the ability to share documents and, perhaps most importantly, an integrated and easy-to-use content management system.
• A new visual design that is appealing to visitors and members, and simple to navigate.
• Robust search function.

Zirkle says the multifaceted project would not have been possible without the expertise and input of .orgSource from the start, particularly Sherry Budziak, founder and CEO of the consulting firm.

"We approached Sherry with our concept of what we wanted to do," Zirkle says. "She was with us from the very beginning, including sitting in on meetings during the planning phase. She was extremely instrumental in the whole vendor selection process and, even though I was the main point person, she was truly my right hand. Her ability to keep the project on task and yet not let any detail slip through the cracks was key."

When it came time to launch the new site, .orgSource was instrumental in making sure any issues were worked out before the site went live, she says. This kind of commitment is why ENA brought .orgSource back after the launch to implement the Phase Two launch of the ENA social network, "myENA." ENA also has contracted with .orgSource again to develop mobile capabilities, launch an intranet site and work with the ENA education department to implement an LMS.

"We've been so satisfied with Sherry and .orgSource that we use her for a lot of different things," Zirkle says. "Sherry is very good at looking at the overall picture and offering the best advice based on our needs and what's economical."

Zirkle says the most important thing is that members are satisfied with the new site.

"The reviews of the site have been very positive, and the staff loves the ability to have the CMS."