The Association for Perioperative Practice (AfPP)

About AfPP

The Association for Perioperative Practice (AfPP) was established as the National Association of Theatre Nurses in 1964 and is a registered charity working to enhance skills and knowledge within operating departments, associated areas and sterile services departments. It aims to enhance the quality of care in the NHS and the independent sector throughout the UK. 

The AfPP also works to encourage the exchange of professional information between members and co-operation with other professional bodies. These include the Departments of Health in the UK, the Perioperative Care Collaborative, the medical royal colleges, Chief Nursing Officers (CNOs) of all four member countries, Skills for Health and many of the British Safety Institution Committees and other groups set up to discuss specific issues related to perioperative care.

Launch website - www.afpp.org.uk

The key objectives

At its highest level, the AfPP identified a need for a new website to improve interaction and communication between its members and the organisation itself, as well as having a need for a central resource for members and student members to maintain their own Continued Professional Development (CPD) records, as well as being able to instantaneously update their own membership profiles. Furthermore, they needed a new site that could more effectively promote the AfPP to potential new members, commercial organisations and other site visitors.

Whilst the AfPP’s old site was integrated to their original membership database, the whole online system fell short on delivery for members and student members. As a result, the new website not only had to be brought into line with the AfPP’s new branding, but also integrate seamlessly to their new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, Microsoft Dynamics. A highly adaptable customer management system, Microsoft CRM has become increasingly popular with many membership organisations in the UK. This trend has also been echoed by the AfPP, who approached Microsoft CRM experts, The CRM Business (www.thecrmbusiness.com), to implement the new system and work with their already chosen and already established website development supplier netXtra to ensure that the final solution delivered exactly what was needed to all stakeholders of the AfPP.

The new website had to also allow members to interact through a series of forums and Special Interest Groups (SIGs), as well as allow them to find detailed information about the many regional AfPP groups around the UK. The site also needed to promote the AfPP to potential new members, providing them with an intuitive and convenient way to join the AfPP from anywhere within the site. It also needed to allow existing members to easily update and renew their membership, access and buy AfPP books, articles and other documents, as well as subscribe to journals and book onto the AfPP annual Congress and Exhibition, and other events. 

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The solution

With the new website’s project objectives centred on ‘interaction’ and ‘optimisation’, what netXtra ultimately designed, developed and launched was a new website that not only met all of the AfPP’s objectives, but surpassed them.

Providing a number of new benefits, the newly integrated website has enabled the AfPP and their members, who include theatre nurses, student nurses, midwives and healthcare workers, to really get the most from their AfPP membership. For example, one of the most popular features netXtra has included is the site’s CPD (Continuing Professional Development) area. Here members log into the secure members’ area and maintain their own career development itinerary. This is then used to demonstrate the member’s own personal development record - detailing criteria such as courses and seminars attended and qualifications gained

This is essential for members, such as health workers, where working practice dictates that they should be able to instantaneously show evidence of their professional credentials. The site also analyses this information and identifies areas for improvement; suggesting future events, study days and other learning initiatives that may be of interest to that specific member.

The website also provides members with a new ‘Communities’ area - a series of forums and Special Interest Groups (SIGs)where members interact and communicate with each other online about a range of perioperative related topics. The site also gives visitors the ability to easily find information about the many regional AfPP groups around the UK. They can also use this area to download a wealth of useful AfPP subscription, best practice and guideline literature submitted by the Association’s volunteer ‘Link Members’.

Other popular features on the site include a job forum which lists latest career opportunities and an interactive calendar of industry events being run by the AfPP and others within the industry. The homepage also exhibits eye-catching revolving banners that keep the site looking fresh and a BBC-esque ‘ticker’ that highlights new AfPP alerts, messages and events to all visitors as they arrive on the site.

As the AfPP looks to the future and seeks to develop new areas of opportunity, the new website is already playing a fundamental role in the growth of the organisation, by allowing them to better promote its marketing support and advice services to commercial businesses. This is being done through a new area on the site that gives details about everything from how the AfPP can assist commercial members with product development best practice advice, to sponsorship and advertising opportunities at AfPP events, such as the annual Congress and Exhibition, as well as within their two monthly journals.

Russell Pollock, I.T. Manager at the AfPP said “I’d have no hesitation in recommending netXtra to any organisation looking to integrate their back-office systems with their website. Not only have they provided us with a vibrant new website that is enjoyed by all our members, but have also improved the user experience by seamlessly integrating it to our Microsoft Dynamics CRM.”

The benefits to the AfPP of having an integrated content managed website...

• Seamless integration to Microsoft Dynamics CRM thanks to netXtra’s unrivalled business relations with CRM supplier, The CRM Business Ltd (www.thecrmbusiness.com)
• Integration to MS Dynamics means real-time data processing – no routine batch processing required.
• Real-time membership renewals, registrations profile updates and event bookings
• All products - tangible (books, etc) and intangible (event bookings, online documents, etc) - can be purchased in a single transaction from the same shopping basket
• Is an essential central repository for members maintaining their Continued Professional Development
• Has increased AfPP’s inbound revenues through better promotion and by adding more value to AfPP membership
• Provides a valuable forum for members and student members to share ideas, advice and opinions
• Provides members and other visitors with easier access to the AfPP’s resources and valuable, up-to-date information on research, evidence, analysis and policy
• Is an effective leverage tool for the acquisition of new AfPP members and related commercial business partners
• Provides those in healthcare with a highly popular job forum, that in turn is driving new traffic to the website
• Helps to provide the AfPP with leadership in a developing sector

For more information please contact netXtra on 01787 319393 or email: info@netxtra.net.