Gareth Herschel, research director at Gartner Inc, says: "There are two things to focus on to ensure CRM success. One is the notion that you are never done with CRM. Things are constantly evolving. The second notion is that it takes 18-24 months to change and reinforce the behavior of end users with new CRM software."

UPDATE: Link fixed: http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/qna/0,289202,sid11_gci1252855,00.html 

I agree completely that CRM (or in our case, AMS) mangement is never done. Databases evolve, the technology evolves, and the demands of our customers (both internal and external) evolve.

I think the 18-24 month adoption period is perhaps a bit long for most associations, given their relatively small staff sizes. Most associations have 50 staff or fewer; if you can't get adoption from that size organization in under two years, I think you have other issues.

Avectra recently released version 2.0 of netFORUM and several of their existing clients are now working through the process of upgrading.

Christy Gemuendt, Project Manager, Healthcare Assn. of NY State, had the following things to say about their upgrade (posted with her permission):

• Overall, the upgrade went very smoothly. There were very few "showstoppers" found during the testing process. Anything found was fixed in very short order.
• The interface was VERY well received. Even my most cantankerous users are smiling. Big kudos on the overhaul of the UI.
• Users are loving a number of the features, such as add batch on the fly and favorites.
• There are noticeable performance enhancements, and we aren't even taking advantage of all of them yet (we don't yet run IE 7.0, which is required for some of the AJAX enhancements to be most effective).
• We noticed reports are running *fast* compared to before. We received so few helpdesk calls today (all so far have been related to user education) regarding the system that I am thinking of buying a few extra lottery tickets on my way home….

Upgrades are one of the necessary evils that we all have to endure with our data management systems. Congratulations to HANYS and to Avectra for a job well done. I hope to hear from more Avectra clients about smooth and successful upgrades.

Full disclosure: EDM is an independent third-party consulting firm. This means we have no financial relationship with any of the vendors mentioned in this blog. We provide unbiased opinions on what we see.

While attending the TAUG meeting a few weeks back, I heard Tom Brantigan use this phrase (which I'd heard before some years ago). He was speaking in reference to business intelligence, data warehousing, and queries. It reminded me of a line I use frequently with my clients, when describing the benefits of a centralized system:

"When a question about anything data-related is asked, the answer should always be the same: Let's look in the database."

Too often, when a question as simple as "Who is on that committee" is asked, we struggle to determine who has the most up-to-date list, or which staff member has that list on their computer. There are many, many questions like these that should always have the same answer: "Let's look in the database." Your central data management system should be your "single version of the truth."

Is it?

Just saw a posting on the ASAE technology listserver advertising for a "Director position in the CRM and Decision Support Membership and Marketing Strategy group." Sure, it's a long title, but look at some of the job responsibilities:

"…support the Association’s overall data strategy, including: improving data quality, expanding analytic capabilities, ensuring fact-based marketing decision making and ultimately, building stronger relationships with members and potential members."

Wow! Yet another example (like this one) of associations finally taking data integrity and management seriously. Kudos to this "prominent national Association based in Chicago."

We're approaching the end of the first decade of the 21st century and it seems some organizations still haven't grasped some simple concepts of data management.

I hate to pick on ASAE (OK, I don't hate it, I just don't prefer it), but I received two emails from them within two hours of each other, both of which contained glaring errors.

• The first said "Dear First Name." That's right, just call me First from now on.
• The second said "Dear Chicago area association professional." (Hint: I don't live anywhere near Chicago.)

The first error is inexecusable. Before any broadcast email is sent, it should be tested. And simple testing would have caught this merging error. (I have colleagues who also got the "Dear First Name" email, so I know that it was a merge error.)

The second error is just bad data management. I'm assuming the list was not queried properly or the person sending the email didn't use the correct list. Either way, it was wrong.

So what's the big deal?

1. Email like this damages your credibility. The recipient thinks: "If you can't get your email right, how good could what you're selling me really be?"
2. Now that I know you don't really know who I am ("Dear Chicago area association professional") I'll ignore any future messages from you.

Are you sending emails like this to your members and customers. Take the extra five minutes to make sure you get it right. One error every now and then is understandable. Two errors in one day is inexcusable.

I recently sat in a demo for ISSI's IMPAK software. I've been working with ISSI since 2002. I've always said that ISSI offers more "bang for your buck" (i.e., functionality for the dollar) than just about any AMS on the market, and the latest offering didn't disappoint.

During the demo, three things jumped out at me:

1. The contact management piece within IMPAK now provides auto-email capability. Simply put, this means that if an activity is assigned to another user (e.g., a call comes in and another staffer needs to respond to it), the IMPAK system will kick off an email to the staff person who was assigned to the task, even if that person is not logged into the database.
2. Their grassroots module now has an integration with CapWiz.
3. A sponsors module has been added as a separate module (sponsors used to be managed within events). This provides additional functionality.

As is typical of ISSI, all of these modules come as part of the baseline package. I'm amazed at what they squeeze into their AMS for such a relatively low price.

UPDATE: Full disclosure: EDM is an independent third-party consulting firm. This means we have no financial relationship with any of the vendors mentioned in this blog. We provide unbiased opinions on what we see.

A vendor asked me the following: "What are the top 5 most useful or most valuable reports that you've seen from an AMS?"

My response:

I think the top five will vary based on three things: type of membership (trade vs. professional vs. hybrid); largest source of non-dues revenue (e.g., events, certification, products, fundraising, other); and what is politically important (e.g., committee participation, speaking/presenting, PAC).

But in general, I would suggest these:

1. Membership count by membership type, including dollars per category
2. Invoicing (i.e., ability to print one or a group of invoices from the system without having to format or merge)
3. Aged receivables (30-60-90 days old)
4. Event attendance count broken out by registrant type, with revenue
5. Event attendance by last name

What do you think? What's your single most important report from your AMS?

ARC Solutions is a small but growing AMS provider located in Washington, DC. One of my clients purchased their original product (the MAP) so I've had some extensive experience using the product and working with the company.

ARC recently secured $1 million in funding from two venture capital firms to help develop their new product, Polaris. I had an opportunity to see a demo of Polaris recently, and overall, I was pretty impressed. The product is fully web-based and takes advantage of AJAX functionality throughout. It has a nicer user interface and seems relatively easy to navigate. Most importantly, they've made some significant changes to the architecture so that organizational and individual membership is managed more elegantly, and financial management is now done via batches.

One of the cooler tools they have is a "screen development" tool that allows the user to create separate screens for editing data, capturing data, and viewing data. This is a pretty big leap forward, as most systems on the market tend to have the same screen for capture and edit, and frequently even the same screen for display of data. Polaris allows you to modify each separately. Very slick.

ARC is seeking further financing and I expect to see a lot more from them in the coming months and years. You can find them at ARC Solutions.

UPDATE: Full disclosure: EDM is an independent third-party consulting firm. This means we have no financial relationship with any of the vendors mentioned in this blog. We provide unbiased opinions on what we see.

I read an interesting report from CSO Insights. The report is a study on premise-based CRM products (e.g., Siebel, Oracle) as compared to on-demand CRM products (e.g., Salesforce.com, netSuite). The result of the study shows that on-demand customers have higher satisfaction ratings, did better on budget, and had dramatically shorter implementation times.

I find this interesting because the initial assumption could be that on-demand is better than on-premise implementations. I don't think that's a fair assumption, though. I think there's an "apples-and-oranges" thing going on here.

I think that on-demand customers are different from premise-based customers, in several key areas:

1. On-demand customers have lower customization needs. They can work with a more "vanilla" product.
2. On-demand customers have fewer in-house technical resources.
3. On-demand customers know that they have to give up some long-held processes in order to better conform to the on-demand product.

On the flip-side, premise-based customers probably want more control over the application, want to customize it to their needs, and may perceive that on-demand products do not provide enough flexibility or control. So in the end, these are two different types of customers.

So what does this have to do with the AMS world? Well some of the vendors (e.g., Avectra, ARC Solutions, Affiniscape) are offering on-demand products. And they're pretty slick. But I also think they are not appropriate for all organizations. You have to really know what you're getting into, and what you're willing to give up, when you commit to these products.

I recently renewed my directory listing in ASAE's Technology Solutions Guide. The renewal has a fee attached to it. I renewed online (how convenient!) about three weeks prior to the deadline. About a week after I renewed, I received a reminder to renew. Well, since it had only been a week, I decided to cut ASAE a little slack. But when I received another email reminder a couple of days later, I decided it was time to check to be sure my renewal had actually gone through (I had an email receipt, but that wasn't giving much confidence at this point).

I checked my credit card online (how convenient!) and found that I had not been charged by ASAE for the directory listing. So I contacted ASAE directly to check if my order had indeed gone through. I was assured it had. But why no charge to my credit card? "Oh, that will be charged at the end of the month. And you're still getting notices because we must not be working off an updated list."

One week later, like clockwork, I received another notice to renew my directory listing.

Folks, at this point in the 21st century, there is absolutely no excuse for things like this to happen. Lists should be updated prior to each use, and credit cards should be charged immediately (with the possible exception of advertisements and pledges). Check your processes. Are you sending notices to customers and members who have already renewed, or already registered for a conference? Do you realize what kind of not-so-subtle messages these "reminders" send? If you can't even manage your email lists, what kind of meeting or product can I expect from you?