Membership, events, committees, components, marketing, and communications—they all revolve around the database. In associations, this all-encompassing database is association management software (AMS).
Your AMS selection decision has an enormous impact on your association’s future. An AMS can either empower or hinder your team’s efforts to achieve your organization’s goals and take advantage of new opportunities.
You have many database options, but AMS software is the best and only choice for associations.
Membership management software (MMS) is built for general membership groups—unions, civic groups, church groups, and hobbyist groups. Membership software cannot handle the extensive requirements of association management.
Customer relationship management (CRM) software is designed to help corporate sales and marketing teams manage customer relationships, sales, and marketing. Like an MMS, a CRM wasn’t developed to handle complicated membership models and finances, never mind other unique association functionality.
But an AMS? It’s designed specifically for the needs of associations by companies (like ours) who exclusively serve the association community.
An AMS can handle the complex membership structures used by professional societies and trade associations, as well as financials, e-commerce, member engagement tracking, committee and chapter management, event registration and management, data analytics, and reporting.
To choose the best association management software for your organization, learn as much as you can about AMS capabilities.
Now you know why association management software is the best choice for empowering your staff. What should your association look for in a new AMS?
When gathering requirements and researching AMS options, look beyond AMS features. Consider these big picture factors.
Seek an AMS partner who brings a deep bench of association experience, even better if they exclusively serve the association community. Many of us worked in associations, but now we’re association professionals who work at an AMS company.
After looking at big picture factors, make sure you cover the basics by selecting an AMS that can manage these functions.
Complex membership structures with varying membership types, levels, and dues for individuals and organizations, and an online portal for members.
Committees, chapters, and SIGs, including positions, terms, documents, and nominations.
Invoicing, cash receipts, and other financial transactions, including membership deferrals, credits, and inventory management.
Registration, badge generation, tracks and sessions, speakers, rooms, floor plans, and booth sales.
Membership analytics with reporting and data visualization tools, dashboards, and Microsoft Power BI.
Full-service Anywhere Payments powered by Billhighway with daily credit card reconciliation, recurring payments, and instant reports.
Get a better sense of your future relationship with an AMS provider by asking these questions.
Selecting the best association management software for your association is a complex decision. With so many options, narrow it down by finding one that serves your staff size and fits your budget.
Focus first on your business objectives and then on your requirements to identify which AMS can help you meet them. Choose an AMS partner who will be there for you every step of the way, from sales to implementation, to customer support, and into the future.
Impexium can help. Trade associations, professional societies, and non-profits of all sizes have transformed their businesses and exceeded member expectations with Impexium’s membership management software. Request a personalized or group demo today.
“I like the fact that by using Impexium versus our previous system, we will be able to reduce staff’s workload. As a result, NAADAC’s staff will be happy, feel more capable and competent…in serving our members.”
“We wanted a partner that would grow with us and one that could innovate with us. Impexium checked all those boxes. They took us from outdated to automated.”
“…very excited because of the possibilities that I see for NADA moving forward, the ability to give our executives the information, any intelligence that they need in order to help our members better…the ability to simplify the whole application ecosystem, removing unbelievable complexity and bringing simplicity to the application.”
“I found Impexium to be more modern, more sophisticated, more user friendly, more intuitive.”
“You have to have a support team that communicates clearly, is a good listener, is patient and can really handle the problem solving…I have been really pleased with Impexium’s support. They are on-top-of things responsive…I know they will stick with me until we figure it out.”
“…Impexium has allowed us to significantly improve our processes and procedures. We’ve automated quite a lot with Impexium and removed a number of manual processes that we had before. And staff are very happy about that.”
