38 Technology There is a common saying amongst association profs, along the lines of ‘nobody loves their AMS’. Sadly, it does ring true to many. Uncovering why so many associations feel this way is key, and bluntly, it ain’t just them friends! Association Management Systems are a mirror held up to the association world, we need to look harder in that mirror and see our reflections in the software systems that serve our market. We can be kinda difficult, just being honest. :) Sure AMS software providers need to own their bugs, issues, and fails. But blaming them really fixes nothing, and if you truly examine the challenges you are facing, many of them are likely the result of poor understanding of the systems you’re in, poor implementation and configurations, nichy programs and initiatives that often have archaic or burdensome rules and policies. On top of these, some general tech-related issues tend to be prevalent in most, including silos of data, lack of data integrity, messy data, AMS portals cause frustrations, and most AMS systems are not ‘open’ to low or no-code options like Zapier, which locks your core data in a vault. Starting to reframe this paradigm is going to be key to moving into the future, being more nimble, and positioning your org for game-change level results. This is not for the faint of heart, and the most difficult decision you will make as an org is the next time you are switching systems, will you go for the known, or the unknown? Let’s think about the latter for a minute, and really what we need to ‘get good at’ to start fully realizing the potential of tech: » Leveraging best-in-class software for event registrations, eLearning, subscription management (that’s all a membership is from a technical standpoint!), and other future needs that are coming down the pipe. » Unifying core data into a CRM tool that provides daily insight into customers and members, provides access to basic historical registration, membership, credentials, subscriptions, event registrations and transactions data. This tool should have an aggressive, robust software development lifecycle that you can hitch a ride on. » Investing in customer service, including strong and continuous focus on Single Sign On (SSO) experiences for members. If you don’t understand SSO, you should learn more, most associations don’t look at their SSO as an ongoing investment in security and customer service, they see it as a one-time dev investment and then something to be maintained, and essentially are relying on AMS providers and consultants to cobble together SSO that works for their ‘current state.’ » Membership and other product payments can be innovated using a flexible, easy-to-use payment system (e.g. monthly, seasonal, trial, etc.). Nimble products make for more opportunities, remove BEYOND THE AMS Empowering Small Orgs to Lead By Brian Birch
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