CFDT
Optimizing membership management with Bonita
“Until now, it was impossible to get a real-time view of our members. We chose to deploy the scalable Bonita platform to better manage the career evolution of our members, from online membership to job mobility."
Patrick Salsa, IT manager CFDT
Project objective
Develop an online membership management application
After a global overhaul of its global IS launched in 2010, and as it prepares to migrate to the public cloud, CFDT wanted to optimize its processes for its union members by developing a members' portal accessible via the web.
Called GASEL, this application for managing members and online materials now allows thousands of employees to manage everything related to their membership: dues payment; transfer from one union to another in the event of moving or change of career; even temporary membership suspension.
"It had become essential that each of our structures have a precise and up-to-date view of its membership base, with detailed information about each of them (status, region, professional sector, etc.). The objective: to manage the flow of our members as well as possible, whether for online membership services or mobility of membership across employers."
Challenges
CFDT's IT department had two main functional requirements: that the Bonita platform can be invisibly integrated into its IS and that the tasks offered to users can be added to those provided through other applications, such as its MDM (Master Data Management) for example.
The choice for Bonita
An SOA architecture
The CFDT has chosen to decommission old solutions in favor of a modern and integrated application, accessible by a simple web browser and capable of supporting all processes (old and new). Choosing an SOA and micro-services architecture that can integrate different systems and manage processes from different applications appeared to be the most appropriate approach.
After a first POC (Proof Of Concept) carried out at the end of 2011 on integration issues, Bonita was quickly chosen. Bonita benefits from a very comprehensive scalability and connectivity capability. After a first application rolled out in May 2013 for managing members, a series of subsequent development resulted in the opening of a new member portal, offering access to a variety of services, in the summer of 2017.
About fifteen processes are currently being orchestrated by Bonitasoft's low-code platform - which makes it possible to offer multifunctional and reusable services - and developments are continuing with regular production of new modules.
110,000 members already have access to their own personal space to consult and modify their data. Now, thanks to Bonita, the CFDT has an efficient online membership system, which allows members to monitor changes as they change region or professional directions during their career.
Thus, a union member who moves no longer has to terminate their membership with their local union and join another one. The process of transferring membership is now automated when they inform the home union, and the new host structure is immediately informed. This allows CFDT to follow the flows that orchestrate the life of its member unions, and their members, and to adapt action accordingly.
Thanks to Bonita, CFDT can ensure that requests are handled smoothly, from the employee's first connection, through the confirmation of membership by the host union, and then that the regional union and appropriate professional association are informed.
Each level of CFDT has indicators and management tools that allow it to obtain a better overview of these new members arriving via the Internet.
From outsourcing to the public cloud
Between 2010 and 2019, CFDT hosting went from a shared infrastructure to a private cloud for economic reasons. Today, also for cost optimization, CFDT is moving to the public cloud by implementing a hybridization strategy. The membership portal will be the first to move to the public cloud, follwed by the membership management system. At the same time, the IS administration model has been recontructed internally and now depends on dedicated teams working in DevOps mode.
"By bringing applications to the cloud and revising our administration model, we intend to gain availability, robustness, reliability and provide better quality of service to users. In addition, the Bonita platform has proven to be fully compatible with deployment in the cloud, making it possible to reinvent existing business processes thanks to a strong iteration capacity and, de facto, facilitate the creation of new services."
Benefits to the CIO
- An open architecture capable of integrating diverse systems and managing processes from different applications
- An efficient and scalable platform allowing the CFDT to upgrade its services to users on demand
- Perfect control of IS administration and the associated significant gains.
Benefits to the users
- Better visibility of union members and their characteristics, as well as associated flows
- An online membership system, with a real back-office
- An ability to adapt to the reality experienced by members in particular and not employees in general.
La CFDT
CFDT is an association of union organizations with its headquarters in Paris. It includes 1,200 affiliated unions, themselves divided into 22 regional inter-professional unions, 15 professional federations, and 2 confederated unions. CFDT is the largest French union, with a total of 800,000 members, about 60,000 of whom change their status annually. Currently, 5,000 people use the CFDT information system, with 70,000 to be brought on board in the long term.