Case study·Professional body
A members' directory and e-learning portal, merged into one site.
The Society of Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers came to us in 2017 for an e-learning portal. Eight years later the main website came over too - a dated list of members - and the two became one site.
It started with the training, not the website
In 2017 SOFAA asked for an e-learning portal, on its own address, so members could work through their courses online. They had course videos created but needed help putting it all together. We created a course structure, helped them create the quizzes at the end of each module and designed the certificates for them. That was the whole job, and it ran on its own for years.
The main website was somebody else's, and it was showing its age - a list of members and not much more. In 2025 we were asked to take that on as well, and the two sites became one: the directory and the portal at the same address, with the listings under our control and members keeping the access to their courses they already had.
Our website build
One address now, doing both jobs. Scroll through, or go and see the real thing.
Two audiences arrive at the same address and want opposite things. The public are looking for an auctioneer or a valuer and have no interest in anything else on the site. Members are looking for their courses, their documents and their own listing, and want to get to them without wading through a shop window built for somebody else.
So the front of the site is a directory and the rest is behind a login, and the homepage puts the search where a visitor lands rather than making them find it.
A closer look
The public half first - the directory, a listing, the map - then what a member sees once they are logged in.
Under the bonnet
Merging two live sites is mostly a question of what could break and how to make sure that doesn't happen. Members had logins, course progress and certificates on one site, and the organisation had a public directory on the other. Both had to come out the far side still working, at the same address, without anybody being asked to sign up again or start a course over.
The listings are the part we keep control of, because a directory that anybody can edit stops being trustworthy. Members still get to their own courses and the organisation gets a listing it does not have to administer by hand.
A member has access to courses, certificate downloads, member documents and extended information of upcoming SOFAA events.
We host it as well as maintain it, so the site and the members' area are looked after by the same hands. That includes SSL, Timeline Backups of the site and its database, malware scanning and server maintenance, with edge caching through our CDN so a page is served from a node near whoever is reading it.
The email is ours too, rather than a separate account somewhere else with a separate bill and a separate person to ring. It is the same hosting and maintenance that sits under our clients' sites.
A directory people can actually use
What was there before was a list. Every listing is now a page of its own, and there is more than one way to arrive at it.
How it grew
Nine years, and the website was the last part of it rather than the first.
An e-learning area on its own address. Members work through courses at their own pace and come out with a certificate.
A list of member firms, handed over to us and merged into the same site as the portal rather than rebuilt separately.
Every member went from a line in a list to a page with a description, a gallery, a video, contact details and a pin on the map.
On time, on budget, and two sites made one
Helen CarlessThe Society Of Fine Art Auctioneers and ValuersGoogle reviewAndy re-designed our Society's website. On time and on budget. From the beginning he was meticulous in making sure he had understood the brief.
He offered very sensible advice and was able to talk in "layman's language". He is very patient! We had to overcome some issues with the integration of two sites which meant some extra hurdles and Andy took the time to make sure he had found the correct solution. He is a perfectionist but if something is going to overrun the budget he is scrupulous about referring back before he incurs extra expense. I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending him.
The budget line matters more than it looks. A merge is exactly the kind of job where the scope moves once you are inside it, and a fixed price and a timescale before anything starts is only worth something if it survives the jobs that get complicated.
Got members, or two systems that should be one?
Tell us what your members need to be able to do and we will tell you what it takes to get there.
The call is with Andy, the person
who will primarily be working on your project.
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