From The Blog

A Letter from Your Chair: The Salesforce Solution Opens the Door to Enhanced Member Services

Dear members,

The Kiawah Island Community Association has completed the initial implementation of the largest technology upgrade in the organization’s history. In September, the association replaced several antiquated and siloed technologies with the industry-leading Salesforce platform. At its core, Salesforce is a robust customer relationship management (CRM) platform that houses all of the association’s membership data. It also powers an unlimited assortment of integrations to customize and enhance member services.

Salesforce is the foundation for the new Community Member portal on kica.us, which enables members to view and edit their contact information and preferences, see their billing history and make secure online payments, connect with neighbors and make trackable inquiries to the association.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about Salesforce is that we’ve only scratched the surface of what this platform will facilitate for our community. In the next year, KICA hopes to combine the three member portals (the new Salesforce Account Management Portal, Gate Access Management Portal, and Sandcastle Reservations) into the single Salesforce Community Member Portal.

Complex implementations like this rarely go smoothly. However, due our incredibly dedicated staff, our excellent implementation partner Torrent Consulting, and the many community members who assisted throughout the process, KICA’s implementation was a success.

We must first thank the entire board, current and former, who prioritized technology, recognizing that to provide best-in-class services, we must have quality tools. Chief Operating Officer Jimmy Bailey strongly advocated for a comprehensive technology solution that would streamline the member experience and evolve and grow with the association. Our previous director of Finance and Administration Jane Ovenden executed the initial research to select Salesforce. The IT Task Force, led by director Jerry McGee and including Richard Ames and Rajan Govindan, oversaw and advised the almost nine-month implementation. Cynthia Hadley, a community member and Salesforce Administrator who offered her implementation expertise, provided her insights to staff throughout the entire process. Finally, many thanks to director of Human Resources Sarah Bond, who acted as KICA’s project manager, and the core project team including Executive Office administrator Holly Newman, director of Operations Shannon White, Information Systems supervisor Dan Kokkos, and Communications manager Leah Burris.

We look forward to providing continued education and tutorials to our members to facilitate use of the new member portal and will be excited to share new features and services in the years to come.

Dave Morley
Kiawah Island Community Association Board Chair