Compare / Membership system CPD modules
Your membership system's CPD module, or a dedicated CPD platform?
If you're replacing your membership system, its CPD module is tempting: one supplier, one database, one contract. It's often the right choice when CPD is a light, optional part of membership. When CPD decides who stays registered and you audit it, test the module against how members actually record, how you'll audit and how its AI behaves. A dedicated CPD platform can sit alongside any membership system and connect to it through standard sign-in.
Choose the module if…
- CPD is optional or light-touch for your members
- you don't audit, and don't expect to
- there's budget for one system only, and the module answers the nine questions well enough
Choose a dedicated platform if…
- CPD decides who stays registered
- you audit members' CPD
- members need to record on their phones
- you want AI that coaches rather than writes
Nine questions
Nine questions to ask any supplier, including us
| Question | Why it matters | RiverCPD's answer |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Can members record on a phone app, including a photo of the certificate, and offline? | Uptake follows effort. Most CPD happens away from a desk. | Yes: iOS and Android apps, camera and file capture, offline drafts |
| 2. Can the scheme count points, hours, or neither? | Many health and care schemes judge reflection rather than counting hours | All three. Counting can be switched off for reflection-led schemes. |
| 3. Can you set targets, including minimums by subject area, and see each member's progress? | Renewal decisions need evidence | Yes, with pace (ahead or behind) for every member |
| 4. How does an audit work? | This is where most admin time goes | Random sampling, member submission, entry-by-entry pass or refer back, every decision recorded |
| 5. How does it help members write reflections, and does its AI write them? | Regulators expect reflections to be the member's own work | A coach asks questions and checks entries against your standard. It never writes reflections. |
| 6. Can members export their full record in your format? | Members need it for renewal, and when they move on | Yes: CSV or a branded PDF, using templates you set |
| 7. Where is the data hosted, and is it kept apart from other clients' data? | Your DPO will ask | UK hosting; your own database |
| 8. How often is the CPD part itself improved? | In a large system, CPD is one module among many | CPD is the whole product |
| 9. What happens to members' CPD records if you change membership system? | Records must outlive the system | They stay in RiverCPD, connected to whichever system you use next |
What a module does well
One supplier, one contract
- One supplier, one contract, one support line.
- CPD data sits next to membership data, so reporting is simpler.
- It's bought as part of a bigger project, so there's one procurement instead of two.
Working together
How RiverCPD works with your membership system
- Your membership system stays in charge of membership. Members sign in to RiverCPD through your portal (OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect), and their details sync at each sign-in.
- Members are matched by membership number, then by email. Nobody keeps two lists.
- An API is available for your other systems.
- Choosing a new website or member portal too? RiverCPD's makers, Senior Internet, also build MemberWeb, a membership website platform: one supplier for both, if that's what you want.
See your own scheme running in RiverCPD.
Book thirty minutes with the people who built it. Send us your CPD policy first and we'll load it.