Member onboarding, 65% faster.
How the M&GN Joint Railway Society moved from fragile spreadsheets to a centralised member platform with a self-service portal and real-time insight.
About the client
The M&GN Joint Railway Society is a membership organization whose growth depended on volunteers manually processing new members through spreadsheets.
The Challenge
Every renewal season meant manual spreadsheet updates, duplicate member entries and no self-service. Reporting on membership health was effectively impossible, and every mailing meant hours of list cleaning.
From shared workbooks to a proper member platform
Alphavima replaced the spreadsheet estate with a centralised member database and a Power Apps workspace for administrators. Records were merged and de-duplicated during migration, and role-based access controls now govern exactly who can see and edit what. Renewal workflows in Power Automate handle reminders and confirmations, the self-service portal lets members update details and renew without volunteer effort, and Power BI dashboards give the committee a live view of membership health. The 65% onboarding improvement came from removing every manual step between application and welcome.
From workbook chaos to self-service
Data rescue
Spreadsheets merged, de-duplicated and migrated into one database.
Admin workspace
Power Apps for administrators with role-based security.
Renewal workflows
Automated reminders, confirmations and onboarding steps.
Portal & insight
Member portal launch and Power BI committee dashboards.
What changed
- Manual Excel spreadsheets
- Duplicate member entries
- No self-service options
- Limited reporting capabilities
- Centralised member database
- Automated renewal workflows
- Self-service member portal
- Real-time business insights
“Our last renewal season ran itself. Members update their own details, and we finally know exactly where the society stands.”
Questions about projects like this
We are volunteer-run. Can we maintain this ourselves?
Yes, that was the design goal. Administration happens in a simple Power Apps interface, and we hand over with training and documentation sized for volunteer teams.
What happened to the old spreadsheets?
Their data was cleaned, de-duplicated and migrated. The workbooks were retired, and exports remain available any time for archival comfort.
Is this expensive for a small organisation?
The platform runs on Power Platform licensing suited to small organisations, and the build is a fixed, phased scope. Most societies find it costs less than the volunteer hours it releases.
Can members pay online?
Yes. The portal pattern supports payment integration for renewals and donations as a natural next phase.