Case Study: Improved Data Management and Renewed Website of a Major European Study Association

‘Asset’ is the association for students studying in Tilburg University. With 6000+ members, Asset is one of the largest study association in Europe. It consists of seven departments serving in the fields of economics and management.

Business Needs

Asset Tilburg needed to provide activities and services for its members to enhance their studies and improve their connection with the labor market.

For this purpose, the old tool they were using for member administration wasn’t able to keep up the pace with the developments taking place in Asset Tilburg; sometimes it even delayed developments. Moreover, the information of members was stored in multiple places, which was prone to inconsistency and errors. This was not at all desirable.

Besides that, maintaining of member administration was turning out to be cumbersome and inefficient. Their website also wasn’t fulfilling their two main purposes properly, which is to cater to companies and economics students of Tilburg University. Their new websites needed to focus on formality, user-friendliness, and layout. Asset Tilburg was in dire need of capabilities like:

Form-builder
Advanced Object Search
Multi-site
Responsiveness

Pimcore Solution

A multi-site setup was created in Pimcore for various departments of Asset Tilburg. User components for login and member base data were combined with custom objects for additional information. For advanced object search, PHP handler for AWS AuthElasticSearch was set up. A university SSO (SAML 2.0) for members to edit their profile (MyAsset) was implemented. To store member registrations for events, a customized Form-builder was created. Also, Pimcore’s APIs were used to create imports. With Pimcore’s PIM and CMS/UX solution, new members can easily register through their extensive registration form. Through the SSO login, students can use their university login data to access the area on the website of Asset Tilburg for which member access is needed. The system is also linked to all the activities that Asset Tilburg organizes. When students log into the website, they can easily subscribe to activities (all the available information is pre-filled) and can see an overview of all the activities they’ve subscribed for.

Thanks to the query builder, Asset Tilburg can easily create exports from specific groups of members; for example, to send various newsletters of the departments to members who are interested in certain studies or to the alumni.

Business Results

Pimcore’s PIM and CMS/UX implementation helped in consolidating the information of more than 6,000 members of Asset Tilburg by storing it in one place. Their website was completely renewed; it now has a more professional and corporate look-and-feel. Also, the information can only be viewed by secretaries, authorized people or those with special access. Asset Tilburg is able to offer better services to its members.

Their administrative workload has decreased significantly. The new system put in place is considerably simplified, due to which the annual transfer to the new board has become a breeze, as Asset Tilburg’s board changes every year.