It’s no secret that ASI’s annual iNNOVATIONS conference is the premier event for partners, clients, and ASI staff to collaborate, learn, and discuss topics that will help not-for-profit organizations with their digital transformation.
In 2020 & 2021, ASI successfully offered the iNNOVATIONS experience virtually due to the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic. For 2022, ASI is going back to an in-person event. However, ASI has decided to shift from a Spring to a Fall conference for 2022, tag-teaming with NiUG’s Discovery conference.
One of the exciting parts of the traditional iNNOVATIONS conference is the App Challenge – an opportunity for solution providers to showcase new and exciting iMIS add-on applications. With iNNOVATIONS moving to the Fall of 2022, what did ASI have planned to replace and/or augment the App Challenge for this Spring? The answer is ASI’s first-ever Hack Day.
2022 iMIS Hack Day for AiSPs & AiCs
The Challenge: Can you develop a solution to extend iMIS in just one day?
The Details: Participants had 24 hours to develop their iMIS solutions and were given the opportunity to present them live to a panel of judges. The Participant’s Choice Award was bestowed upon the best solution, while Awards of Distinction were given to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. The solutions were required to use the current release of iMIS EMS and use only out-of-the-box RiSE tools and/or the iMIS REST API.
Keys to Success: ASI provided contestants with insights regarding critical factors for judging the entries. “Alignment with iMIS marketing messages (e.g. Performance Improvement, Engagement Management, Usability, etc.)” and “Broad appeal for all iMIS clients” were noted as two essential judging criteria.
CSI Submits Two Entries
What better way for CSI to showcase its technical depth and extensive knowledge of the iMIS EMS platform? CSI’s strong consulting relationships provided valuable insights to improvement opportunities, and coupled with our technical depth and creativity, it led to the following two submissions for this inaugural Hack Day Challenge:
· Submission #1 – iMIS Quality of Life
This submission tackled common pain points that iMIS staff members experience on a day-to-day basis. The concept was to create and publish a browser extension that could be installed that would make UI improvements to various user experiences in the iMIS Staff site.
Working within the time constraints of the contest, we decided to focus on the IQA editing experience. We improved the look and feel of the IQA editor and added clever functionality to reduce common mistakes and mis-clicks. New and seasoned iMIS users alike are sure to appreciate the enhanced experience and new features that this extension brings.
CSI is pleased to announce that we are releasing this browser extension free of charge and are open sourcing the code on GitHub. Community contributions from AiSPs and iMIS developers are welcome and encouraged.
Install the iMIS Experience Plus browser extension today from the Chrome Web Store or Edge Add-on Store!
Submission #2 – iMIS Work Bar
iMIS is constantly being updated with new modules, features, and configurable options and settings. As iMIS becomes more robust with each update, there’s a need to keep iMIS approachable, easy to use and easy to navigate. That’s where the iMIS Work Bar comes into play.
With a simple tap of the space bar, a new window pops up that becomes your keys to the kingdom. Navigate iMIS faster than you ever have before with the initial set of iMIS Work Bar features:
· Navigate to over 250 pages within iMIS instantly
· Get at-a-glance profiles of contacts and organizations by adding their iMIS ID
· Jump to contact or organization profiles as well as user credential pages
· Browse to the iMIS documentation search quickly based on your search entry
· Keyboard shortcuts enabling navigating iMIS faster than you ever thought possible
The iMIS Work Bar will be integrating into the 
iMIS Experience Plus browser extension coming soon – stay tuned!
The Result? CSI Takes the Top Two Places!
Hack Day took place on April 1, 2022 and the live demos were conducted April 4, 2022. Over 65 AiSPs/AiCs attended the live meeting and voting took place immediately after all demos were completed. The iMIS Quality of Life browser extension took home the 1st place award, while the iMIS Work Bar took home the coveted Participant’s Choice Award, the elite solution among all contenders.
Takeaways
CSI continues to be a powerhouse in the iMIS community. We are creative and innovative. We listen to our clients and can translate their challenges into solutions. We have unsurpassed technical and functional depth. And most importantly, we care. If you are interested in learning more about our Hack Day solutions or want to try them for yourself, please contact us at [email protected].