United Methodist Church Implements Ignify’s eCommerce Platform to Boost Web Presence, Communications, and Online Sales

Platform Centralizes E-commerce Operations Improving User Experience and Customer Service for 11 Million Members

Los Angeles, CA – (February 25, 2009) – Ignify, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and leading provider of accounting and e-commerce solutions for the mid-market and large enterprise business segments, announced today its eCommerce Platform has been deployed by United Methodist Communications (UMC), the chief communications agency for The United Methodist Church.

The new system will offer UMC faster order processing, increased efficiency through customer self service features, and centralized management connecting 35,000 churches, 40,000 employees and 11 million members worldwide across its primary website and eight sub sites. In addition, the e-commerce platform integrates with UMC’s ERP, CRM, and third-party systems to streamline credit card processing and shipping.

“Ignify’s eCommerce platform is critical to serving our global audience through rich functionality and proven ability to deliver large volume transactions in an integrated environment,” stated Sean McAtee, TechShop director at United Methodist Communications. “We drafted a set of functional requirements from the user perspective that would ultimately drive the selection of Ignify for this project. We were impressed by how they were able to meet and exceed our complex requirements at a very affordable price point.”

UMC required a centralized e-commerce system that could fulfill the diverse functional and transactional needs across a number of online store fronts, all which have unique rules that apply to every transaction. The web based e-commerce system also needed to integrate and process transactions in an automated manner without duplicating efforts. In addition, UMC wanted a user-friendly solution that could be easily updated by business users without the help of site administrators, while keeping technical architecture consistent for easy maintenance.

"UMCom.org serves as the agency’s primary information site and online store. While United Methodist Communications already had an e-commerce site, launched in 2004, it was slow, dated, and clunky - incapable of managing increased visitors or business,” said United Methodist Communications Technology Director Danny Mai. “In addition, the site could only support a limited product catalog and we had no way to manage orders once they had been placed – the old system worked but you had to jump though many hoops.”

Ignify implemented a customized, scalable e-commerce solution built on the .Net framework with full integration with the Microsoft Dynamics ERP platform for faster turn-around time from ordering and fulfillment to tracking and delivery. The new system delivers a greater degree of integration and customer service to reduce manual back-office tasks including orders, payment processing, and invoicing enabling internal staff to provide higher value-added services and reduce overall costs.

Online visitors enjoy an enhanced user experience though simplified product searches and catalog browsing, enabling customers to track recently viewed and purchased items, build wish lists, and perform media downloads.

“The store manager and marketing module increased the manageability of our products and that’s been huge,” added McAtee. “We are now able to control how our products are portrayed to our customers. Multiple images, coupon codes, videos, and cross-selling are all new features to us.”

The eCommerce Platform integrates with UMC’s existing systems including: Microsoft Dynamics GP ERP; CRM system; third party payment gateways and other providers; StarShip for online freight computation with major carriers including FedEx, UPS and USPS.

“With over 150 deployments, Ignify was well-prepared to solve UMC’s e-commerce challenges,” said Sandeep Walia, president of Ignify. “By converging with all major back office systems such as ERP and CRM, UMC’s new platform streamlines overall operations and improves the organizations online presence for its churches, members and employees worldwide.”

About United Methodist Communications
United Methodist Communications, is the international communications agency for the 11 million member United Methodist Church. For more information, visit www.umcom.org

About Ignify
Ignify is a privately-held ISO 9001:2002 certified company focused on the mid-market and enterprise business space for ERP, Business Intelligence and eCommerce implementations. Ignify offers a comprehensive set of Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) eCommerce solutions for increasing online sales while lowering overall operation costs. The company also provides consulting services for ERP, Business Intelligence and software development initiatives and is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner and Sage Certified Development Partner. Ignify has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Nashville, Toronto, Pune and Bangalore. For more information, visit www.ignify.com or call 888-446-4395.

Steve Fiore
SZPR Inc.
Ph: 858-523-9023
EM: fiore@szpr.com