Goodbye, 2020!

When the clock struck midnight a year ago, we all anticipated a fresh start with the new decade. Nobody had any idea what was to come. None of us could have prepared for the pandemic that swept the globe and all the other major catastrophes sprinkled throughout. I think we can all agree - 2020 was the worst, but it also taught us patience and adaptation. Many of us had to adapt to the new "normal" and have learned how to be productive working from home. And for those essential workers who still went out to work every day, we thank you! We did it, everyone - we got through 2020! 

It's important to reflect on the crazy year we all had, and all of the lessons learned - both in your professional life as well as your personal life. Give yourself some credit for what you accomplished as a team, an organization, and also on a personal level during these strange times. Begin 2021 with gratitude and set goals for the following year. We have learned we can get through anything! 

With that being said, Vanguard would like to highlight some of the work we accomplished and are proud of in 2020: 

Website Redesigns and Refreshes

• Professional Beauty Association (PBA) - Vanguard leveraged Sitefinity CMS Blog functionality to create a dedicated area on the website that highlights PBA’s blog content, driven by Sitefinity search and taxonomy filters.
• CEDIA  - Vanguard developed a visually stunning website that combines three pre-existing websites into a centralized one, catering to all of CEDIA’s audiences and members. User experience was a heavy focus for this website rebuild. The architecture and navigation of the website ensures that the user’s journey from one piece of content to the next is seamless and keeps them engaged. The design and gallery-style feel showcases CEDIA’s member’s imagery. Vanguard developed a faceted and federated search system to allow users to quickly find events from all of CEDIA’s event platforms.
• Academy of Management (AOM) - Vanguard developed a heavily customized and integrated website for AOM, making navigation and login easy between the website, their online publishing platform, association management system and online community platform to create a seamless experience between these web properties. Custom functionality was developed to automatically update content based on information within these other systems. The website was built to be admin-friendly, giving creative and functional flexibility for website admins and content creators and editors. We also built a large faceted and federated keyword search allowing users to quickly and accurately narrow down their search to find what they are looking for.
• Cornerstone Credit Union League  - Vanguard developed the Cornerstone website into a centralized hub for their online presence that provided all their content in one place, while creating a streamlined experience and maintaining legacy features. We created a faceted search to help users find content faster and easier, along with defining subsections for clear navigation.  
  

Single Sign-On (SSO) Integrations

• Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP) - Vanguard reconfigured AHP's existing SSO between their Career Center and Sitefinity CMS.
• Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) – Vanguard reconfigured STTI’s existing SSO integration between Sitefinity CMS and netFORUM Enterprise to create a standalone web application that passes user’s information to Sitefinity CMS. 
• Professional Beauty Association (PBA) - Vanguard created a Single Sign-On (SSO) between Sitefinity CMS and netFORUM Enterprise, and as a result, probeauty.org acts as an entryway into membership-based information such as event registration, user account management, and membership renewal.
  

Sitefinity CMS Upgrades

• Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools (CLAS) upgraded to Sitefinity CMS Version 12. 
• Residential Real Estate Council (RRC) upgraded to Sitefinity CMS Version 12. 

While this is no where near all that Vanguard has completed this year, these accomplishments highlight our capabilities and can hopefully inspire something great for you and your website in 2021.

Thank you to all of our partners and clients. We hope everyone has a fantastic and successful 2021. Cheers to the New Year!