iChapter network

Support for APICS

iChapter Network supports over 30 APICS chapters across the county and growing monthly. Some of the unique features iChapter supports for APICS chapters include:

APICS sponsored template web site design - don't need a custom desigend site? Use the standard APICS Template with iChapter. It's less expensive and pre-populated with the standard pages and features a typical APICS web site uses.
Membership management - download your membership data from APICS and upload right into iChapter!
Certification recognition - each month when you load a new set of data into iChapter from APICS, all web pages recognizing CPIM, CFPIM, CIRM and CSCP members is updated on your web site automatically.
Education program descriptions - all content describing the certification programs APICS supports is already created and supported on your site. Load an event for CPIM Basics of Supply Chain Management and the content describing the class is automatically hyper-linked into the web site.
Event and Reservation Management - let your web site manage your reservations on-line and review, add or update reservations in the iChapter BackOffice.
Mass EMail capabilties - send out eamil blasts to everybody on file, members only or one of many more options. EMail looks just like your web site with fully functioning hyper-links to your site. Save the $15 to $30 a month you pay to ConstantContact!
Member/Non-Member pricing - let iChapter determine who's member and handle pricing.
Extensive Financial Support - Pull Excel file payment summaries by event, manage profit and loss via event cost loading ability and much, much more.
Credit Card support - process credit cards on your web site via secure HTTPS/SSL and get approval instantly!
Document Storage On-Line for your board - store meeting minutes, agendas, presentations, Excel files and just about anything else you like.
Real-Time Event Management - bring a laptop to an event and process reservations on-the-spot! Add a credit card swipe terminal and get approvals instantly! Add a barcode reader and streamline check-in at all or larger events! iChapter does it all!

For more information and to order an informative CD outlining this information and more, request a CD today!

Pricing

iChapter Network uses reservation transactions to determine your annual cost for services. Each year, your organization handles a number of reservations for your dinner meetings, education classes, seminars, plant tours and other events. As your chapter grows, your reservations typically increase, generating more revenue for your organization.

First Year Pricing

Your first year, pricing can be determined two ways. 1) by your current membership count or 2) by an estimate of annual reservations. For an example, if your chapter has 225 current members, then a reasonable estimate of reservations for the first year would be 250. If you would like to estimate your reservation you would take an average of attendees for your dinner meetings times the number of meetings held a year, plus average attendees in your educations classes times the number of events a given year and so forth.

Following Year Pricing

After your first full year using iChapter, your actual reservation count is known and then the annual support fee can be easily calculated:

Reservations	Monthly	Annual
up to 250	$19.95	$239.40
251 to 500	$24.95	$299.40
501 to 750	$29.95	$359.40
751 to 1250	$34.95	$419.40
over 1250	$39.95	$479.40

Hosting

Your web site must be hosted on a Microsoft .NET Server. These are commonplace today and typically are no different in cost than any other server operating environment, like Unix. You are welcome to use your existing hosting service (as long as it supports Microsoft .NET Technology) or use one of the hosting services we recommend:

Installation and Setup

iChapter Network must be installed on your web site to support all the reservation and credit card processing features. This work is done by trained contractors but also could be done by an experienced web master already supporting your site*. You have three options for installation:

Install into an existing web site
Install and setup using the ISM Template
Install and setup using a custom design

Regardless of the choice you make, you will work directly with the contractor including all negotionations for the setup and installation costs.

* If your current web master has questions about installing iChapter Network on your web site, have them contact support@ichapter.net

Timeline

A typical web site can be setup and running iChapter Network in a month or less but typically situations occur that can delay events and extend processing times. Some of the more usual issues causing a implementation delay are:

problems in transferring the domain name (assuming anew hosting account is used)
delays in reviewing the site content by the customer
site design review, when a custom site is being created
credit card processing approval, when a customer requires credit cards to be working before site go-live
hosting service issues, usually happens when the customer is using an existing hosting service