7 Steps to a Successful Association Management Solution (AMS) Implementation

Planning and executing a successful AMS implementation is a unique undertaking and is unlike most IT projects. Since such a project requires an unusual combination of skills, you must create a team with the requisite knowledge, skills and experience, as well as a deep understanding of your internal processes and business objectives. Such a team should be led by a project manager who is a business process expert, motivational coach and strong taskmaster with the wherewithal to obtain executive sponsorship. The team should also be fluid enough to respond agilely to ongoing issues and challenges while keeping their eyes on the prize. 

You should review your association’s service/business areas (such as membership, volunteers, events, etc.) to build a business case and requirements for your AMS implementation. You should arrive at these requirements by carefully considering the following: 

• How will the AMS complement your association’s activities and long-term business strategy? 

• What are the pain points you want to eliminate? 

• What are the needs of your association stakeholders (executives, administrators, users) in regards to an AMS? 

After selecting and prepping your team, it’s time to design an implementation schedule. This schedule should identify the person(s) in charge of the various milestones in the implementation, their roles and communication protocols with the vendor and/or internal stakeholders, as well as details of the testing process. 

Since data migration/conversion is a resource-consuming and expensive process, it’s best to get it right the first time. To facilitate this, you should clean up your data before proceeding to the migration phase. Or, confirm your new AMS vendors has the appropriate staff expertise and tools to de-dupe and cleanse your data. (Quick Tip:  Talk to your vendor about implementing an ongoing data maintenance strategy.) 

One of the most important aspects of the AMS implementation process is staff training. Inability to properly use your new AMS leads to inefficiency, frustration and reduced productivity. As such, you should undertake multiple training sessions with staff and admins before and during implementation and continue with follow-up training sessions, possibly for three to six months after the go-live. 

The responsibility of testing the AMS rests with you, not the vendor. You shouldn’t just rely on the standard vendor tests. Create a unique set of tests based on your business requirements, use cases, goals and pain points. Your staff should also put the system through tests that ensure the AMS functionalities work for your association’s needs (and meets the objectives identified in the selection and requirements analysis). 

Finally, you should always be prepared for unforeseen issues and occurrences. You can’t create a plan that accounts for all eventualities, since something will always go wrong. Being agile and responsive in such scenarios is essential to keeping your AMS implementation project on track.