Canadian Association of University Teachers

Differly was chosen to work with the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) to conduct a systematic review of its information management systems and infrastructure with a specific focus on the management of member data.  

As a membership-based association, CAUT recognizes that high-quality member data and accurate information is critical to achieving its mission. Like many growing associations, CAUT was challenged with disparate systems and decentralized data management, which led to duplication of data and effort, unnecessary complexity, competing applications as well a lack of automation, and interoperability. These unintended consequences were detracting from CAUT’s ability to achieve its mission and focus on serving members and creating new value. 

 Our work included: 

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1. Interviews with the leadership team to gain alignment on strategic objectives and information challenges across departments.  
2. Inventory of the existing systems, tools, and employee and member touchpoints, to assess risks inherent to the current tech stack.  
3. Review and mapping of the data and information flow between tools 
4. Mapping the member data lifecycle (how data is gathered at onboarding, maintained during membership, and retired) 
5. Data and list management requirements: reviewed all current segmentation strategies and opportunities to improve from a member engagement perspective. 
6. High-level assessment of internal technical and digital skills and delivery capacity 
7. Review current IT and digital/data governance models and processes. 
8. Risk and Readiness assessment to set the appropriate pace of change.  
9. Development of user stories to define the requirements for a new member management system and new website.  

This culminated in a comprehensive gap analysis mapping out the current state and identifying gaps between CAUT’s strategic objectives (where we want to go) and the current digital capabilities (where we are capable of going today).  We developed actionable recommendations specific to each of the gaps.  

Once approved, a multi-year roadmap provided the leadership team at CAUT with a clear action plan from which to plan resources and budget. We identified dependencies and prioritized efforts at a project and solution level, as well as identified ‘quick wins’ relative to more significant initiatives, starting with their membership data system.   

The Differly team was then retained to act as virtual CIO for the association and play a key role in executing and managing the change associated with the projects on the road map. 

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