Case Study: Secure Regulatory Portal for ACOTRO's SEAS
Credential assessment is a processes where technology should disappear into the background.
- Applicants need to clearly know what happens next.
- Staff need data they can trust to work off.
- Sensitive documents need to be treated carefully.
- Payments, application stages and records should all be connected.
The complexity needs to be in the software, not in the path of the applicant.
This is why we're working with the Association of Canadian Occupational Therapy Regulatory Organisations (ACOTRO) to help in the update of its Substantial Equivalency Assessment System (SEAS).
In recent years SEAS has seen a growing number of applications from internationally educated occupational therapists. Successful completion of the process allows the individual to proceed to registration with a Canadian occupational therapy regulator.
Technology behind a key process for people at a key point in their career matters.
Why This Project Was Important
An application through SEAS has information about credentials, academic documentation, evidence of fieldwork, identity information, assessments, multiple stages and payments. ACOTRO’s own guidance makes clear that applicants may need to submit sensitive documentation at a number of points in the SEAS process.
Moving the process online required mirroring the way SEAS operates and to ensure privacy of data.
What Changed At a High Level
We deployed Members Village's enterprise-level Nation Builder tier as the backend infrastructure and tailored the platform to SEAS’s specific workflows.
The system is comprised of:
- Custom online portal for SEAS applicants
- A dedicated and secure management portal for SEAS staff
- A database containing SEAS records, terminology and application requirements
- Features customised for sensitive documents, application cycle & payment management
A system needs to be one process where multiple apps work together, not six individual pieces of software.
The Applicant Portal
The underlying Members Village app is the Member Portal which we tailored to the experience of tasks applicants actually need to do.
With the new SEAS portal, an applicant can start the process online by creating an account and making their first payment.
The goal was to make the Members Village infrastructure act like a SEAS application system for its regulatory processes.
SEAS Staff Portal
We extended the Members Village association Leadership View into a custom management environment specifically for SEAS staff.
The management portal provides staff with a purpose-built space to work with SEAS data securely.
This also shows an important part of the architecture of the Members Village. Our apps can offer the starting point, not just the finish line.
The standard Leadership View is designed to bring important organisational information to the surface. That foundation, for SEAS, was changed to a different need: manage a specialised regulatory application workflow.
Privacy Built into the Architecture
SEAS deals with information that needs careful handling.
ACOTRO advises that the information provided by applicants may include contact details, education and employment history, identification documents and financial information. Its privacy guidance also stresses safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information and access on a need basis.
In this project, privacy couldn’t be an afterthought after the application workflow was built.
We built custom privacy and security features around the documentation, and shaped the system around the way SEAS needs to manage information. With the entire portal hosted in Canada to ensure data residency.
A Database Built Around SEAS
A specialised portal generates specialised data. Trying to force that information into a rigid, pre-determined CRM structure would simply move the administrative friction from one system to another.
We configured the database based on the actual needs of SEAS using the Database Builder.
Database Builder enables organisations to create custom fields, terminology, record structures, views, rather than forcing them to change their processes to fit a generic database.
For SEAS, this means that the database can mirror the program it is supporting. That seems obvious. Software has to fit the job.
Applicant Cycles and Secure Payments
The flexibility continues with the Members Village Database & CRM which was configured to the SEAS intake process, approval gates, and assessment cycles.
Milestone payments were configured to meet payments and tax jurisdiction needs for SEAS. An example of what a configurable platform with secure credit card payments should be able to do.
Infrastructure that can grow
The June 2026 launch was just the beginning.
ACOTRO’s bigger improvement project will run from 2025 to 2028 and will involve automating processes, making it easier to navigate the program and bringing more SEAS capabilities online over time.
That made the software foundation especially important. SEAS can support applicants & staff, and has a team of experts to guide the next steps.
Complex Regulatory Use Cases
Associations and regulatory groups often have processes that do not fit neatly into standard software.
The SEAS project demonstrates what can be done when the underlying infrastructure can be shaped to the distinctions.
We started with core Member Village regulatory software and tools. Then we got busy configuring, expanding and customising them around the actual work ACOTRO and the SEAS team had to do.