With the recent mega-merger of the YMCA of Western Ontario and the YMCAs across Southwestern Ontario to form the new YMCA of Southwestern Ontario, the question of which software operations system was posed.
The former YMCA of Western Ontario worked collaboratively with TechShare group to build Avocado on top of the Salesforce CRM platform. Initially rolled out in 2017 to the YMCA of Western Ontario’s nine locations, the Avocado project posed a number of challenges.
“It’s safe to say that our initial rollout of Avocado back in 2017 was an interesting one.” said Marilyn Himbury, VP, Risk Management and IT. “Like many, we had years and years of CLASS data and an untold amount of duplicates and orders that didn’t quite pass muster. The new Avocado system reinforced data integrity quite a bit more than the previous system, which meant the data migration process was a bit of a challenge. However we worked closely with TechShare and were able to create really solid migration scripts to help normalize our data and preserve our audit trail. And over the next two years we really improved Avocado. We stabilized the system and went through a phase of continual improvements to make Avocado really meet the unique needs of the Y.”
Himbury continued “So when the decision was finally arrived at to roll out Avocado to the seven additional locations of the new merged association, we felt very well prepared for it. We had a wealth of knowledge, lessons learned, and data migration and normalization scripts that we felt very confident in.”
In November of 2018 the Avocado team executed a phased rollout approach, with Phase 1 being to bring the Child Care portion of operations onto the Avocado platform. “First we did the data migration out of the existing Mistral [Unison] system, bringing over all the accounts and contacts into the Avocado system. We then did a detailed audit to ensure data integrity. We then moved into training, getting the staff up to speed very quickly. And finally, in the new year, we did the cutover for Child Care. The rollout when off without a hitch. The Avocado team was on-site to ensure the cut-over went as smoothly as possible. Change is never easy, but the staff was incredibly impressed by Avocado.” said Himbury.
With Phase 1 a resounding success the Avocado team sets their sights on March 1, 2019. This will be the final phase of the transition project, getting all other operations up and running on Avocado.
“We feel very confident the final phase will go as smoothly as the initial one did. We have great people working hard to make sure the impact on our members is as little as possible and that staff are prepared and ready. This will be a great step towards a stronger and more modern Southwestern Ontario.” said Andrew Lockie, CEO of YMCA of Southwestern Ontario, about the final phase.
Michael is a digital veteran, with over 20 years experience in the internet and software development and delivery space. Michael began his career as a graphic designer, moving into web development and programming, then onto leading development teams and eventually moving into the client service, strategy and sales side of business.
