SIGIS Transitions from ASP.NET Web Forms to ASP.NET Core, Setting New Standards for Member Engagement with Progress® Sitefinity®
Industries:
Associations & Non-ProfitSolutions:
Digital ExperienceChallenge
SIGIS knew it was time to update its decade-old Sitefinity Web Forms based frontend. It undertook a two-phase overhaul, first updating its Sitefinity frontend in 2020, and more recently rebuilding the member portal, a milestone for its team of two developers.
Solution
As part of the two-phase modernization project, more than 30 Telerik ASP.NET Core controls were deployed to take advantage of the technology alignment between Sitefinity and Telerik developer tools. To speed up the process, the Progress support team stepped up and supplemented the two-person development team of SIGIS.
Result
The transition to ASP.NET Core resulted in improved digital experience for SIGIS members as well as development experience for their developers. SIGIS is now empowered to tackle additional modernization projects, extending the capabilities of ASP.NET Core controls to other areas of the business.
Full Story
Challenge
SIGIS, a long-time Sitefinity user, knew it was time to update its decade-old Web Forms based frontend. So, in 2020 the organization undertook a major content overhaul to improve the digital experiences of its 16,000 members who use the site to help meet IRS requirements when processing healthcare transactions like Flexible Spending Accounts and Health Savings Accounts.
“Our design was about ten years old and not up to par with the way sites are designed today as far as the layouts, styles, fonts and colorizations,” said Jeff Beadle, Executive Director, SIGIS. “And a lot has improved around mobile design, and we wanted to make the website a lot more mobile friendly.”
But that was just the first phase of the overhaul. The second phase tackled the member portal, where SIGIS customers submit consumer product item information for eligibility checks against IRS rules, download list of approved items and maintain account information. The UX is driven by tens of components showing data and statuses for the processed requests and documents. This was an important upgrade as SIGIS, with an IT team of just two developers, had to make sure that the end-user experience was as simple and intuitive as possible.
From the standpoint of our membership and the user experience, I do believe that the new ASP.NET Core renderer is faster and the pages load quicker and they're more responsive than the older CMS framework was. There is also a more consistent look and feel across the entire member journey.
Jeff Beadle
Executive Director at SIGIS
Solution
Harnessing their experience with Progress Sitefinity and Progress® Telerik® developer tools, the second phase of the modernization project, building a new member portal, kicked into high gear, beginning with the task of moving the existing Telerik Web Forms components to Telerik ASP.NET Core controls which are wrapped into Sitefinity widgets.
To further speed the process, SIGIS deployed more than 30 Telerik ASP.NET Core controls, taking advantage of the technology alignment between Sitefinity and Telerik developer tools. Once they established the patterns of migrating a few of the wrapped components, it was smooth sailing with the Progress support team providing guidance along the way.
“We have taken some of the default styling of the Telerik controls and adjusted it so that it falls in line with the styling of our website,” Beadle said. “It's more seamless and I think we have a better integration with the newer Telerik (ASP.NET Core) controls, with the look and feel of the website, than we did with the old Web Forms controls.”
Result
With the two-phase modernization process complete, including the member portal upgrade, SIGIS members are now enjoying a faster, more consistent online experience.
“From the standpoint of our membership and the user experience, I do believe that the new ASP.NET Core renderer is faster and the pages load quicker and they're more responsive than the older CMS (Web Forms) framework was,” Beadle said. “There is also a more consistent look and feel across the entire member journey.”
Modernizing web technology from ASP.NET Web Forms to ASP.NET Core was a huge undertaking that required a significant learning curve. The SIGIS team is now prepared to use that knowledge to tackle additional modernization projects, leveraging the latest ASP.NET Core benefits.
“We have a whole set of homegrown applications that we run for our business workflows that have been traditionally written on ASP.NET Web Forms that we are going to move to ASP.NET Core,” Beadle said. “It is our expectation that the Telerik controls package will get used pretty significantly for that project and a lot of other areas, especially using the Grid components. So, what we’ve learned to date with the ASP.NET Core controls will be extending to other areas of the business as we continue our modernization journey.”
We have a whole set of homegrown applications that we run for our business workflows that have been traditionally written on ASP.NET Web Forms that we are going to move to ASP.NET Core. It is our expectation that the Telerik controls package will get used pretty significantly for that project and a lot of other areas, especially using the Grid components. So, what we’ve learned to date with the ASP.NET Core controls will be extending to other areas of the business as we continue our modernization journey.
Jeff Beadle
Executive Director at SIGIS