Case Study

American Chemical Society

Customer Profile

The American Chemical Society is a self-governed individual membership organization that consists of more than 158,000 members at all degree levels and in all fields of chemistry. The organization provides a broad range of opportunities for peer interaction and career development, regardless of professional or scientific interests. The programs and activities conducted by ACS today are the products of a tradition of excellence in meeting member needs that dates from the Society's founding in 1876. The American Chemical Society (ACS) vision is improving people's lives through the transforming power of chemistry. ACS enables the integration of the sciences and enhances the effectiveness and value of scientists, engineers, educators, and others who practice and use chemistry. They enable their members to advance their careers and become leaders of the chemistry enterprise. They are organized to help scientists, engineers, educators, and others advance the science and build communities from many disciplines to answer questions, solve problems, and create new possibilities.

Business Problem

ACS has had a presence on the web for over 10 years. The initial ACS web site evolved quickly to include online journals, as well as major web resources of the ACS Publications Division and Chemical Abstracts Service. Chemistry.org was launched in 2001, and included the full breadth of ACS resources targeted at specific audiences. Version 2 implemented a SilverStream portal, allowing personalization, gated communities, division-only content, and the ability to manage individual member records online. The site has more than 37,500 visits each day, with 23% from outside the United States. There are over 175,000 registered users of the site, 82,702 of whom are ACS members. Due to the rapid pace of additional functionality and increasing demand for new, more efficient ways to communicate, learn, and collaborate, the technology platforms and applications supporting the ACS web presence have not been robustly integrated and are in need of upgrades.

Solution

ACS teamed with NuWave Solutions to migrate its current Chemistry.org functionality from its aging SilverStream portal to a newly designed BEA portal, which will serve as the foundation of its Web Presence initiative, and integrate with other initiatives aimed at enhancing capabilities in areas such as Web Content Management, Security, and Enterprise Search.

Application Results

The first phase of this project, aimed at migrating existing Online Membership Registration, Profile Maintenance, and eRosters capability, as well as establishing the foundations of the Enterprise Portal, including reusable components and abstraction layers for integration with other enterprise services, is nearly complete. Initial testing has revealed a capability to handle concurrent users orders of magnitude above the current system. This initial capability is planned to be available as a backup solution during the peak usage period during annual membership renewals. Release of the re-engineered Chemistry.org capability is scheduled for release as a part of the overall Web Presence initiative in 2008.

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