UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST ASSOCIATION  IMPROVES WEB SITE WITH
CROWNPEAK CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
 
CrownPeak Eases Web Site Management Issues to Make Non-Profit Web Site a Better Online Resource for the UUA Community

Los Angeles, Calif. – March 7, 2006 – CrownPeak (www.crownpeak.com), the software service leader in content management, today announced that the Unitarian Universalist Association, a non-profit organization that represents the interests of more than one thousand Unitarian Universalist (UUA) congregations across the United States, is using CrownPeak’s award-winning content management solution (CMS). Since implementing the solution, UUA has attracted more online contributors and added more original content to its Web site, as well as improved its online publication UU World (www.uuworld.org), without growing its IT staff.

The UUA Web site is an important communications tool for the organization. It provides members and potential members information on the Unitarian Church, upcoming events and is even used as a fund-raising tool. Maintaining such a robust site was a heavy burden for the IT department of two. Since the organization is a non-profit and operates under a very limited budget, hiring additional IT staff to keep UUA’s online presence in top form was out of the question. Therefore, UUA turned to CrownPeak’s content management system to help keep content fresh and dynamic, make it easier for contributing writers to share information and stories online, as well as help improve UU World. 

Since implementing CrownPeak CMS in the summer of 2005, the association vastly improved the user interface and workflow for their online publication UU World, allowing many more people to publish content without having to increase staff capacity.  By modifying the scale and scope of site access, UUA World publishes online material faster, timelier, and with far more community participation.

“The CrownPeak system has given our online publication an amazing boost,” said Kathleen Montgomery, executive vice president for the Unitarian Universalist Association.  “We have greatly improved our ability to improve access for contributors, keep the site dynamic and fresh with relevant information, and improved our readers’ overall interaction with the publication.”

Customized to meet the specific needs of the association, CrownPeak’s solution allows final edit control to be assigned to someone outside the Web staff.  This eases the Web manager’s workload and results in content that is aligned with institutional messaging.  This approach has proven to be very effective for UUA – their new system has attracted five times as many authorized users, and traffic to the site is steadily improving because of new, updated content.  

“Our content management solution is helping organizations like UUA transform their Web site into an interactive and community-centered communications tool,” said CrownPeak CEO Jim Howard.  “CrownPeak’s elegant software-as-a-service model fosters simple collaboration, which creates dynamic results for organizations with limited resources.”

About UUA
The Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA) was formed in 1961 through the consolidation of the Universalist Church of America and the American Unitarian Association. Today the UUA is a faith community of more than 1000 congregations that support each other and bring to the world a vision of religious freedom, tolerance and social justice.  Our congregations elect a Board of Trustees to govern the Association in accordance with our commitment to the democratic process. Our Association supports the ongoing vision, mission and ministry of member congregations. Annually, we hold a meeting of the entire Association, called General Assembly, where delegates representing their congregations vote on Association issues.

About CrownPeak
Based in Los Angeles, CrownPeak is the first company to provide world-class Web site management software as a service. CrownPeak solutions include CrownPeak CMS, an enterprise-class Web content management solution, and CrownPeak Search the first on-demand search tool designed specifically to automatically and continually learn from both the content and user’s search behavior.  CrownPeak delivers its unique combination of software and services to such clients as Crain Communications, Honeywell, Hyundai Motors, the University of Southern California and the State of Virginia. CrownPeak solutions support hundreds of sites, thousands of users and millions of Web pages.  CrownPeak has been named to EContent's 100 most influential companies list, has won eWeek's prestigious Analysts Choice Award and InfoWorld’s Product of the Year Award and is a 2003, 2004 and 2005 SIIA Codie Award finalist as Best Content Management System.