February, 2011 Archives

Amazon continues to Amaze

Regular readers of my blogs and articles know that I'm a huge fan of Amazon. I've been buying from Amazon for well over a decade now and they continue to impress me with the things they do. Here's my recent experience: I was searching for a specialized business book (a book on data analytics) ...

“Uptalking” Makes You Sound Confused and Unsure

For those who don't know, "uptalking" is when the speaker has a tendency to end any sentence on an "up" note, thus making it sound like a question rather than a statement. For example say to yourself  "This is the spot" and then "This is the spot?" The latter is an uptalked sentence. The ...

CiviCRM a Year Later

Just over a year ago I posted this item on how the Evangelical Press Association is using CiviCRM as its association management software system. To my knowledge, CiviCRM is the only open source product on the market that directly addresses non-profit/membership organization data management needs, ...

New Article Posted – Skills Required of a Database Manager

I’ve posted a new article on my website. Increasingly I’m hearing from my clients that they want to create a position designed to manage the database. In the old days, they called them database administrators (DBA), which was a mostly technical job focused on keeping the database running ...

Often it’s about service, not product

Association management software (AMS) has existed for over 20 years, so I think we can fairly say the market has matured. That's good news for AMS consumers, because these days you can get more functionality for a lower price than ever before. And what this means for associations selecting new ...

Focus on Outcomes, not Inputs

When I work with my clients on selecting a new association management system, one of the first steps we take is to review what data the organization needs to manage. When I have these discussions with association staff, the tendency is for staff to focus on HOW data is processed (input), as opposed ...

Are your self-service web pages working?

According to research firm Gartner, 65 percent of self-service interactions currently escalate beyond the Web to an agent. In other words, a customer has come to your website and is unable to complete his or her transaction, and thus needs to call your organization for help. Assuming this ...

Here’s my money, but keep the premium

I recently made a donation to my local Boy Scouts of America chapter. In return for my donation (although I did not know it at the time) I was sent a BSA polo shirt. I didn't want the shirt. Had BSA asked, I would have told them to keep it. That would have saved the BSA some money and stretched my ...