Royal Society of New Zealand

The Royal Society of New Zealand is one of New Zealand's oldest membership organisations, dating back to 1867. RSNZ was constituted under the act of Parliament to foster in the NZ community a culture that supports science and technology. RSNZ promote science and technology in schools, in industry and in society. A key role RSNZ plays is to administer several funds for science and technology, publish science journals, offer advice to Government, and foster international scientific contact and co-operation.

RSNZ came to expert in 2008 with an existing website that was outdated in terms of the technology and functionality, combined with an outdated look and feel. RSNZ had the following outcomes driving the development of a new website;

• Modernise the existing website design to a contemporary design that reflects RSNZ professional image
• Re-design the navigation structure to be intuitive for members searching for information (RSNZ has over 15,000 pdf documents) 
• Feature and highlight to members content of interest
• Promote revenue gathering opportunities through the sale of membership and publication sales
• An easy-to-manage CMS for all RSNZ staff to administer the website regardless of their technical expertise
• Promote and run RSNZ events online 

Expert's solution:

After a thorough scoping out RSNZ needs, expert proposed the site be maintained using our Content Management System, MoST (Management of Site Tool). MoST is an intuitive and feature-rich product that would enable RSNZ the ability to maintain their own web presence. Expert also recommended the site be re-designed using the current branding guidelines and built inside MoST using the latest website standards, CSS and dynamic navigation. The re-design of the webite templates gave RSNZ a more professional and contemporary look and feel, combined with greater accessibility for non-conventional site users. 

Key Project Components undertaken by expert in conjunction with RSNZ

Data migration

Expert developers had the task of migrating data from the existing site into the new CMS driven, MoST site. A grand total of 11,000 php pages and 15,000 pdf's were to be transferred, requiring the skill and expertise by our CIO, Aaron Main.

Website design

Expert undertook the process of designing new website templates for RSNZ based on the current branding and style guidelines. Expert designers focused on maintaining the integrity, history and quality of services provided by RSNZ. A comtemporary look and feel was devised, bringing RSNZ up to modern website design standards.

MoST Features RSNZ.org.nz utilises

• Client Management Database for membership subscription management
• Online Event Management System (includes ability to register for events and pay online using a CR card)
• Full e-commerce facility for online shopping cart
• MoST Transaction system and integrated with ChargeIT (expert's online payments gateway)
• RSS feeds and e-Zine component and database emailing for targeted
• Password protected areas

Hosting:

The RSNZ website is powered by MoST and hosted on expert's secure hosting platform, iBOX.