BIRA: one association, four websites, one source of truth

How the British Independent Retailers Association went from a clunky WordPress site to a growing family of integrated websites, directories and a thousand-member community.

At a glance

Client:: British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA)
Sector:: Trade association, independent retail
Client since:: 2019
CRM history:: Oomi
Highlights:: Single sign-on across the estate, 1,000+ members active on the community forum, microsites supporting the integration of Retra and G&LC into the BIRA family

Where it started

BIRA came to us with a website problem that half the association sector will recognise: a clunky WordPress site that was no longer fit for purpose. Fine for a brochure, wrong for a membership organisation, and disconnected from where the real membership data lived.

We designed and built them a new website, integrated with their CRM, oomi, so that membership status, access and data flowed from one source of truth instead of being maintained by hand in two places. The design has since been through another full iteration, because a website for a growing organisation is a product, not a monument.

What we've built together since

Deep oomi integration. The website asks the CRM who a member is and what they should see. Membership logic stays in oomi, where BIRA's team manage it; the website renders the answer. It's the unglamorous principle that makes everything else on this page possible.

Directories. Two of them, driven from the CRM's data, doing what association directories should do: making membership visible and useful to the outside world without anyone rekeying a record.

Content workflows. Multiple content update workflows on the website, so the team can keep a large estate current without bottlenecking through developers.

A real community, properly integrated. We implemented and integrated a Discourse forum with single sign-on, so members use one identity across the website and the community. More than 1,000 members use it. Anyone who has tried to run a members' forum on a separate login knows exactly why that number depends on the integration: every extra password is a locked door, and single sign-on takes the door off its hinges.

748+ Member Companies

Then BIRA started growing

Here's where this story becomes about more than a website.

BIRA has been bringing other retail-focused trade associations into the BIRA family, including Retra and G&LC. Each of those organisations needs its own identity, its own home on the web, and a connection into the same underlying membership infrastructure.

We've developed several microsites to support that consolidation. Today the estate stands at four websites including bira.org.uk, all part of one coherent digital family rather than a scatter of disconnected builds.

This is the pattern worth noticing if your association has growth or merger ambitions. Consolidation lives or dies on infrastructure. When the CRM is the single source of truth and the websites are built to ask it, adding an organisation to the family is an engineering task with a known shape. When every site keeps its own truth, every merger is an archaeology project.

What this story proves

That integration is a growth strategy, not a plumbing detail. BIRA's move from one clunky site to a four-site estate with directories and a thriving community wasn't a series of unrelated projects. It was one architectural decision, made early, compounding: put the truth in the CRM, connect everything to it, and the estate can grow without the admin growing with it.

Testimonial

I've been consistently very happy with the service from the web team. They work quickly and are always responsive, which makes a real difference when relying on them for something time-sensitive. Communication has been excellent, and results have consistently met what I needed.

Martyna Kocjan

British Independent Retailers Association BIRA

Sound familiar?

If your association runs on oomi or Eudonet and your website isn't pulling its weight, we're easy to talk to. No deck, no pressure, just a straight conversation about your integration.

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