Community Online Management System

The geekIT Advanced Community Online Management System (COMS) is a sophisticated web-based hosted application designed and developed specifically for the tertiary sector using today's latest software engineering tools to assist marketing departments (within tertiary institutions) to effortlessly promote the value proposition of a University, College or TAFE and other activities occurring on campus.

COMS is a management system that has pre-built modules such as Events, Jobs, Classifieds, Photo Gallery, Content Management System and more. The system includes a transactional functionality for items such as membership, ticketing and job posts, the ability to create micro pages within the system to promote other business units such as theatre, alumni, etc and integrates seamlessly with selected social media channels. The COMS framework is flexible, scalable and efficient and therefore allows for multiple customisations to meet different project requirements. COMS can be integrated into other management systems such as finance, CRM, etc. COMS can also be seamlessly hosted on the client side.

COMS has been developed to allow Marketing and IT department's full control of their content and the backend management such as complex permission roles, reporting, monitor user-generated content and much more.

We believe every tertiary institution whether you are a University or a TAFE, should have a website that is full of interactivity, rich in content, accepts online payments and most importantly allows you to truly promote campus life using applications students are only too familiar with.

No longer will you have to find the $150k to build your dream website because at geekIT we believe that no matter how big or small your budget you should have the best medium to promote your campus in the most collaborative way.

For as little as $0.66 per member, per month you could have your dream website.

COMS has a customised dashboard enabling users to access the management of the different features. When logging into the administration area of the system, a dashboard will be visible.

The dashboard displays an initial set of charts illustrating vital statistics data 'at a glance' for example:

• Membership signups by week/ month
• Event tickets sold by week/ month
• Top 10 events by week/month

If you can use Microsoft Word, you can use COMS. It is that simple. All the familiar formatting tools are available as is the ability to insert images, tables, and links and more. COMS eliminates the need to have HTML knowledge and allows people to get on with what they do best - create content. COMS allows administrators and publishers to add, edit and delete a page as well as add images and link to external or internal URLs and custom URLs.

COMS allows for specification of user types via various security groups. The Administrator can have full control over user permissions within COMS. Additional user roles are available and include editor, author, member and contributor. Each of these roles is assigned unique access permissions throughout the site with security differentiating between user roles to ensure privacy of content and security of information.

The asset library is simple and easy to use and is designed to reflect a basic folder structure. Most graphic formats and documents can be stored. Simply post images and files into a library through COMS Asset Library interface.

COMS security differentiates between users and roles ensuring privacy of content and security of information in the backend. E-mail verification is utilised for the creation of new memberships.

Role differentiation in COMS allows complex workflow, security and access control. COMSroles define who can do what when, providing granular control and logging of activity.

The archive folder acts as a recycle bin that allows users to archive and restore items through the unarchive button.

Members are able to see a snapshot of their account including recent orders and membership status. The dashboard provides a one-click access to account maintenance and order tracking.

News articles are displayed on the homepage as a news feed, which updates dynamically to show the most recent news articles. Selective publishing feature also allows departments to segment news articles and maintain separate news feeds across the site.

COMS includes a banner or promotions management tool where administrators can upload one or more small promotional image/s, which can be linked to internal or external links. The banner section can integrate with an external advertising module like OpenX which allows user to set publishing schedule and monitor ad click-through rate and impressions.

NB: Integration into OpenX is not included in the site license.

Students and staff are able to purchase memberships through a secure online payment process. After an email verification process, they will receive their membership login and a subscription to the eNewsletter. Members are then able to update their profiles with additional information, and can access applicable discounts when purchasing tickets online through the website. Administrators can track recent membership activity from the administration area and manage different pricing models, cancel orders and edit categories for membership.

COMS incorporates an events calendar module whereby administrators can manage, view, edit, preview, assign image, approve and archive an event. The events calendar widget is deployed to the homepage of the website. Through the homepage, users can view events by month, week or day.

Public area features include:

• Mini events calendar widget by week and month
• Browse events calendar by week and month
• Add comments to events

New events trigger the automatic creation of a photo album to capture associated images. Multiple documents can be assigned to the event. An event may have a series of criteria assigned and can be managed by editors and authors. The administrator is able to validate criteria per request of an event ticket, for example denying minors from purchasing tickets for an 18+ licensed event. An event ticket can be specified with sale start and end dates along with an enrolment capacity and also the location of ticketing availability. Event location can also be assigned to the event, with a link to Google map.

Shopping cart functionality allows users to purchase tickets for upcoming events through a secure payment gateway. There will also be a print button to enable user to print their receipt. Users are also able to purchase multiple tickets.

The system will track all purchases and orders for membership signup, job postings and event tickets. The final step during the purchasing process will be automated, whereby an email confirmation of the purchase will be sent to the user. The payment confirmation email will be sent to the user with a summary of the payment, approved tax invoice and other details related with the order. The smart system also enables users to reverse / cancel the order.

The details of the order will include:

• Contact details
• Billing address details
• Payment settlement details
• If applicable, line items of event tickets purchased
• If applicable, line items of jobs purchased for posting
• If applicable, line items of membership signup

Administrators can update the status of orders (ie. payment approved or declined) and resend a tax invoice for event tickets, job postings and membership. Editors and Authors have limited access to this feature due to the nature of the data presented. Orders for job postings are exclusive to Administrators, while Editors and Authors can create orders for event tickets and resend the tax invoices.

COMS consolidates financial reports by payment type. Reports can be downloaded in .CSV format; eg. orders page. These reports will use data from cross-referencing various data tables for users, members, events and jobs found in the database. The data used to generate the reports will be content from the database that is filtered and preselected based on a series of criteria.

COMS incorporates a jobs board module whereby administrators can manage, view, edit, preview, assign logo, assign document, approve and archive a Job. The jobs board widget is deployed to the homepage of the website. Public users can submit a request for a new job, which is submitted to the administrator for approval prior to going live. They have to attach image, document, input details, agree to terms and conditions, make payment for job posting then receive an e-mail confirming approval and payment.