Professional Association of Teachers of Students with Specific Learning Difficulties.
PATOSS: from a supplier's notice letter to 17,000 course bookings
What happened when a membership body's web provider walked away, and how the rebuild that followed carried them through a pandemic, a rebrand, and into their next platform.
At a glance
- Client:
- Professional Association of Teachers of Students with Specific Learning Difficulties. (PATOSS)
- Sector:
- Professional association, education (now a charity)
- Client since:
- 2016
- CRM history:
- Website with bespoke PTX payment integration; membership CRM built in Microsoft Dynamics
- Highlights:
- 17,000+ on-demand course bookings since 2020, full rebrand rollout, replatforming to MemberWeb due 2027
Where it started
In 2016, PATOSS received the letter every organisation dreads: their web provider gave notice that they would stop supporting the website. No roadmap, no succession plan, just a deadline.
That's the least glamorous trigger for a digital project and one of the most common. Supplier risk is real; it usually surfaces at the worst moment, and it forces a decision under pressure. PATOSS used the moment well. Rather than a like-for-like rescue job, they asked a better question: while we're rebuilding, can we fix how we manage members too?
What we've built
We redeveloped the PATOSS website, and alongside it we did something that surprises people who know us as a website company: we built their CRM as well.
Working in Microsoft Dynamics, we developed a membership management system that captures their processes end to end. Applications, membership management, accreditations, assessments and events, all in one system, designed around how PATOSS actually works rather than how a generic product assumed they should.
On the website side, we developed a bespoke integration to PTX, their payment provider, handling online payments and direct debits. Members pay online; the money and the records land where they should.
Why does the CRM build matter to a case study about websites? Because integration is a boundary, and we've worked professionally on both sides of it. When we say the CRM should be the source of truth and the website should ask and render, that isn't a slogan we picked up. It's how we build CRMs too.
The pandemic test
COVID was an existential threat to any membership body whose revenue leaned on in-person training and events. For PATOSS, training is core to the mission.
During lockdown we implemented their On-Demand courses, moving their training online so that revenue and, more importantly, the professional development their members depend on, kept flowing when rooms couldn't be filled.
The numbers since tell the story: over 17,000 on-demand course bookings since 2020. What began as pandemic resilience became a permanent part of how PATOSS serves its members.
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The rebrand and what's next
What this story proves
Three things, honestly stated.
First, supplier risk is survivable, and the recovery can leave you stronger than the incident found you. Second, a genuinely integrated setup, where the CRM holds the truth and the website and payment provider connect to it properly, is what allowed PATOSS to pivot to on-demand delivery at speed when it mattered most. Third, longevity: 2016 to now, through a pandemic and a rebrand and into a replatform, is the kind of relationship you can only demonstrate, not claim.
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