Case Study: CANSI

CANSI uses the Firmwater LMS to manage its membership, track certifications and handle payment and delivery of its blended courses.

Firmwater made a significant improvement in the administrative aspects of our association. They have developed a web site, applications and central database that allow us to easily keep track of memberships, certifications, courses, and revenues. They took the time to understand our business and develop systems that met our needs. We now know how CANSI is performing anytime we want that information. We have also been able to increase our revenues by about 20% per year, and we have just started to utilize the system. I would recommend Firmwater to any company that needs an LMS system to manage their clients and courses.

—Garry Almond, CANSI Director

screenshot of CANSI courses pageCANSI courses listed on their site

About CANSI

CANSI is the Canadian Association for Nordic Ski Instructors. CANSI was formed in 1976 through the influence of Nordic instruction programs of the Canadian Ski Association, the Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance, and Ski Quebec.

CANSI has presided over the introduction of the skate technique, and the addition of telemark instruction as a distinct discipline. CANSI continues to shape the future of nordic skiing in Canada.

Issues & Problems

For the first thirty years of CANSI's existence, everything was done manually, and mostly by volunteers. And most of the volunteers' time was taken up with administrative tasks. This led to a number of issues affecting the running of CANSI, and its collection of moneys.

Some of the major issues included the following:

  • The record keeping was poor, and it was difficult to know how many members there were at any one time.
  • It was onerous for members to renew their yearly membership.
  • It was difficult to sign up for instruction, and all fees were collected by the instructor, and were difficult to track.
  • Because of the manual systems, it was arduous for the instructors to update the member's certifications, and it sometimes took months for this to happen.
  • It was also difficult for instructors to update their skills and to easily find what courses were available, and at what location.
  • And because there are six regions involved, if someone signed or took a program outside of their region, it was basically impossible to find and track their results.

Overcoming Challenges with Firmwater's Solution

Firmwater was contacted to come in and help CANSI out of this situation by automating their processes, where possible, with a web-based solution.

Firmwater completed three major projects to bring CANSI into the 21st century. These three projects were:

  1. Firmwater built a new public web site for CANSI that allowed CANSI to communicate with their membership nationally and internationally. This allowed CANSI to post news and events that everyone could read at their leisure, and also to keep the membership up-to-date and follow news about all events in this and associated organizations.
  2. Improving Membership Management. Everything was done on spreadsheets until Firmwater was called in. They developed and implemented an online membership directory so members could register and update their personal information and customize how they view it, either in English or in French. It also allowed the members to pay online when renewing their membership, and increased member satisfaction enormously.
  3. The new system allowed complete management of the courses and programs for the members. All courses were posted and customized online by regional volunteers to suite the regional needs. As members participated in these courses their interaction can be accurately tracked and certifications automatically granted immediately after the course was marked up by the course leader.

Benefits of Choosing Firmwater LMS

Because of Firmwater's commitment to ensure that CANSI became as automated as possible over the web, many benefits accrued to CANSI. These include the following:

  1. CANSI's volunteers were able to cut down substantially on their administrative duties, and in some regions paid administrative staff may no longer be required.
  2. All of CANSI's information is located in a central database, and easily accessed by everyone who needs it over the web.
  3. There is an accurate tracking of membership and certifications, as each member can verify and/or update his/her information online, without any need for administrative assistance.
  4. Members can now pay online both for their yearly membership and for their courses. This has led to a significant increase in membership renewals.
  5. The volunteers that run CANSI can now easily access the system, and set up programs as members needs dictate.
  6. There is a much improved communication with the membership through the web site, allowing for better programs and membership activities.
  7. The new web site and system allow for more flexibility to offer more certification programs.
  8. This has allowed for a minimum of 20% increase in revenues, as members are now able to renew their memberships very easily online.
  9. The demands on admin staff have been significantly reduced, as most questions and issues can now be dealt with, through the web site.

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