Technology Team

ACA's IT Department keeps the association in step with technology trends

As ACA International's use of technology has evolved, so has the association's IT Department. IT staff members work to ensure that ACA uses current technology to grow and meet member needs as efficiently as possible. Over the years, the department has helped expand the association's website, enhanced ACAs online educational opportunities and supported the association's e-mail and online communication methods.

ACA's IT Department consists of Director Pheng Yang; Network Support Specialist Connie Skala; Application Development Manager Joleen Klose; Senior Programmer Kevin Johnson; Web Content Application Specialist Michelle Pletz and Senior Programmer Yuliya Portnova.

The department provides facilities for data entry, data storage and recovery; ensures that ACA has access to a fast network both for its internal local area network as well as its Internet connection; runs applications that enable staff to effectively perform their duties and communicate with one another as well as with association members; and keeps ACAs electronic data secure. The department also creates and maintains the association's website infrastructure.

As ACA has grown and its business processes have evolved, so has its technology infrastructure. In 2010, a technology audit from independent consultant LarsonAllen confirmed ACAs technology was overdue for a major upgrade and provided several recommendations, including redundancy, collocation of data and network improvement. As a result, the ACA International Holding Company Board voted to invest $460,000 to upgrade the association's technology infrastructure, recognizing the need for ACA to have world-class technology in order to deliver cutting-edge member benefits.

Today, the technology infrastructure upgrade is mostly complete, and the project came in approximately $25,000 under budget. The IT Department enhanced the association's system performance, created a system capable of expanding to meet future growth and provided fail safes to ensure ACA systems and services are always available to staff and members.

Through server virtualization and storage area networking, the IT Department also boosted its software and hardware performance to meet future needs. These technologies ensure that ACA has a robust platform for growth and that systems use only the amount of resources needed.

Additionally, ACAs network architecture has been redesigned to separate systems used solely by association staff from systems that members can interact with, placing ACAs member- facing systems at a data center facility that guarantees greater availability thanks to the facility's power and Internet connectivity.

ACA's IT Department helps all association staff members do their jobs more efficiently. As new technology is introduced and improved, the IT Department will continue to refine its hardware, software and network infrastructure to ensure the association provides ACA members with the state-of-the-art resources and support they have come to expect.

[Author Affiliation]

Anne Rosso is associate editor of Collector.