Customer Data Integration Project Helps AARP Keep Up With Members

The face of American retirees is changing, as AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons) knows. Its ranks are growing younger, and members want information via the Web. AARP strives to be "the trusted source of information for every life event," says Tony Habash, director of IT strategy, planning and information services at the $878-million nonprofit. With an IT staff of 160 and an IT budget of $30 million, the organization undertook a customer data integration project to bring more members into a thriving online community.

How does IT stay on top of business demands at AARP? We have solution managers that are assigned to business areas. And they basically map processes. This way we keep very much synchronized with exactly where the business is heading.

These people are technical types? Those people come with a business background and IT [expertise]. My solutions manager for publications understands publication processes extremely well, and he is also a very seasoned IT professional.

And how do you keep track of solution managers? The association has clarity on our goals through a dashboard. There are declared goals each year, and our progress is based on the dashboard goals. We make that available to the organization through our business intelligence platform.

Linda Tucci is senior news writer for SearchCIO.com. Write to her at ltucci@techtarget.com.

This was first published in February 2006

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