The Need for a Scalable, Integrated Platform
CPA Academy creates leaders in the accounting industry by providing high-quality continuing education for Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) that is easy to access. They offer an easy-to-use platform for knowledge sharing and idea exchange through the marketing and presenting of the most up-to-date educational content and developments important to the accounting industry.
CPA Academy’s mission required a powerful platform that could deliver online learning materials, manage industry news, and foster a community for knowledge exchange. However, their existing system lacked the capacity to support their ambitious growth plans.
The client needed a platform with the scalability and robust features required to support thousands of CPAs pursuing continuing education. Content management for self-study courses was difficult, hindering their ability to expand their curriculum. Moreover, the platform lacked an integrated marketing system, making it impossible to effectively engage with its growing community and promote new offerings.
In short, CPA Academy required a technical partner to develop a fully integrated ecosystem for learning, marketing, and community management.
Building a Platform for a Growing User Base
CPA Academy required a dedicated engineering partner to architect, build, and maintain a platform that would meet their long-term vision. Over a successful five-year partnership, KMS Technology has served as the core engineering team behind CPA Academy, driving its evolution from a simple application to a sophisticated, Salesforce-powered educational hub.
1. Application Modernization
The first hurdle was the application’s outdated codebase, which hindered scalability and the addition of new features. KMS upgraded the platform to the latest version of Rails and adopted Test-Driven Development (TDD) practices.
By writing tests before deploying any code, we ensured new features wouldn’t break existing functionality and could be delivered quickly. This disciplined development approach enabled the seamless introduction of critical modules, including Self-Study, while providing a robust foundation for future enhancements.
2. Performance Optimization
As CPAacademy’s user base grew, performance bottlenecks surfaced, threatening the learning experience for thousands of CPAs. KMS conducted a deep analysis of existing workflows, identifying inefficient code and resource-intensive operations. Through code refactoring and optimization of database queries, we eliminated these pain points.
The team migrated key workloads to Heroku, which provided scalable infrastructure and ensured consistent uptime as CPA Academy’s user base scales. We also implement new server monitoring tools like New Relic to ensure the platform’s stability and high performance.
3. Salesforce Integration
Integrating Salesforce Sales and Marketing Cloud presented unique operational and technical challenges, from mapping legacy data models to aligning complex webinar management workflows. KMS engineered a custom integration that connects event registration, education tracking, and marketing communications directly into Salesforce.
The integration empowered CPA Academy to automate credential management, centralize content distribution, and personalize communications at scale. Hence, the academy and its community started seeing a significant increase in their productivity.
4. Marketing Tools Integration
The massive growth of CPA Academy came with the urgent need for robust marketing solutions. CPAacademy needed to reach prospective learners, nurture leads, and empower staff to create targeted campaigns without adding cumbersome overhead.
KMS Technology integrated various third-party marketing platforms (including attendee engagement tools and analytics suites) with Salesforce. The new marketing tools enabled CPA Academy to expand its online community, enhance engagement, and achieve an 800% increase in sales and revenue.
Driving Innovation in Professional Learning
The long-term strategic partnership with KMS provided CPA Academy with a dedicated product squad to build a market-leading educational platform. By continuously evolving the technology and deeply integrating it with advanced technologies, our team created a seamless, scalable, and highly effective system for building community and delivering education.
The platform successfully scaled to support a thriving community of over 40,000 CPAs. The integrated marketing and sales ecosystem drove a staggering 800% increase in sales and revenue, while targeted campaigns boosted marketing effectiveness by 30%.
“KMS did an amazing job supporting our website — their team is always available, quick to respond, and creates high-quality solutions for the business.”
With expert and sustainable engineering, KMS successfully translated CPA Academy’s educational vision into a high-performing platform designed to advance professional education.