Case Studies

I run a high school alumni web site. The site offers users reunion news, message boards, etc but the most popular feature of my site is the email directory. For the first two years I had a very simple script that allowed users to place their name and email under their graduating year. This was great at first, but as the site grew, more and more people made errors or wanted to make changes. Since the script did not allow users to make change from the web, I found myself tied to the computer every day just updating the directory. I also received frequent requests from users to find a database that allowed them to put personal information up so their classmates could see what they had been up to. I quickly realized that I needed a program that was easy to modify, self sufficient, and allowed users to enter personal information. After a year of looking for a good script, I finally found Profile Manager Premium and it has changed my site many positive ways.

First, I needed a program that was easy to modify. Profile Manager Premium is the easiest program that I have ever worked with. I had the script up and running in 30 minutes and was able to modify it to fit the needs of my classmate site within just a few hours. Since I run an alumni site, I needed fields like graduating year, address, marital status, number of children, what have you been up to, etc. After I had the script running, then I went to work changing the colors and fonts to fit the look and feel of my site. It was a snap.

Second, I needed a program that was self-sufficient. I didn't want to be tied to the computer updating profiles and emailing people their passwords. This program covers all the bases. The users are allowed to create, maintain, and delete their own profiles. If they lose their password, it is emailed to them. What could be easier than that? Over 100 people have registered with the database to date, and I have not had ONE person email me with a problem or question yet.

Third, I needed something that allowed users to get personal. My users wanted to be able to tell their classmates how many kids they had, where they were working, and what they had been doing since high school. I set up the database so users were able to put in as much or as little information as they wanted (although you can make it required!). They are even able to upload a current picture of themselves. Everyone loves seeing the current pictures of their classmates in the database and being able to upload pictures of their kids to show off.

Last, I would like to point out my favorite feature of Profile Manager Premium, the search engines. My users can search by any field they choose. They can search by graduating year (to see just their classmates), zip code (to see who lives in their area), marital status, hobbies, maiden name, married name, etc, etc, etc. The search engine really makes this program unique and fun for the users.

I can not say enough good things about Profile Manager Premium. It has made my site more personal, more interactive, and best of all it has freed up the time I used to spend updating and maintaining my old database. I can guarantee that you will not find anything better on the web because I have looked. The author even has a free version of the program for those of us on a budget.