How Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. used CONNECT Identity Provider to successfully improve their registration process
Background
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is an independent publisher of scientific, technical, and medical content, renowned for their repertoire of over 100 peer-reviewed journals, as well as trade publications in a range of fields, including biotechnology and regenerative medicine, biomedical research, medicine and surgery, public health research and policy, and technology and engineering.
Challenge
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. was exploring different ways to improve the ease of user registration, and looking for better, more user-friendly ways for their authors to be able to sign into their website.
Solution
After conversations with Atypon, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. decided to migrate to CONNECT Identity Provider. The decisive factors for them were the streamlined user journey to register and sign in, the ability for authors to authenticate their CONNECT Identity Provider account using their existing Orcid iD, and for readers from other CONNECTed sites to register on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. site with one click.
In September 2021, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. moved from using the Atypon Experience Platform IdP to using CONNECT Identity Provider on their website.
Transitioning to CONNECT Identity Provider
The Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. team that worked on Atypon Experience Platform on a day-to-day basis communicated the upcoming change to their marketing, operations, and sales teams. Thanks to documentation shared by Atypon beforehand, no major training requirements were identified.
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. did not communicate the change to their end users in anticipation of the move to CONNECT Identity Provider. Roberto Acosta, Content Delivery Administrator at Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. commented, ‘In hindsight this likely contributed to some end user confusion in the initial period following the migration.’
‘Atypon could have provided more advice and instructions to aid the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. marketing team in communicating the change to their readers,’ Roberto continued.
Following the launch
Immediately following the move to CONNECT Identity Provider, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. received some client support requests asking for guidance on how to navigate the new sign-in flow. Predominantly, this concerned users who were confused by the sudden appearance of the CONNECT Identity Provider interface.
In addition, some libraries had to make some changes where they were sharing a single user account with many members; the move to CONNECT Identity Provider meant this was no longer an option for them.
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. was quickly able to provide support for their users. Finding that the same customer support queries were recurring, they soon created templated support instructions that they were able to share with customers to ease their transition into using CONNECT Identity Provider, and to clarify to them what CONNECT Identity Provider is and how Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. fits into that ecosystem.
Results
The positive impact of CONNECT Identity Provider was evident from the start. The first month on CONNECT Identity Provider, September 2021, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. saw their new person user registrations go up by nearly 700% compared to the corresponding month the year before. It didn’t end there. The following months saw increases of ~570-800% in new user registrations.
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is still receiving one or two queries per week, but the initial uptick of support requests has definitely been successfully tackled, and the sizeable increase in registrations and authenticated users on their site more than makes up for it.
‘It is really good because we are getting so many more contact details,’ says Roberto. ‘They can be reached for marketing purposes, and our marketing team is in a better position to directly engage with them.’
So did Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. meet their initial goals with CONNECT Identity Provider? Despite some initial bumps in the road, with a more streamlined and versatile registration flow, a significant increase in their user base, and possible access to countless more users in the broader CONNECT Identity Provider ecosystem, the answer is a resounding yes.
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