The Top 3 AMS Pain Points in 2021
Membership Software, Association Management System, Association Management Software – regardless of how you refer to it, let’s face it – the pain is real. We feel for those of you who have to deal with it. Thanks to the association professionals who have taken our AMS change quiz, we’ve identified the three top AMS pain points—and provide solutions below. These pain points are even more frustrating when you have a heavy workload. You need your technology to work for you, not against you.
AMS Pain Point #1: Manual Labor
82% of our quiz takers said their current AMS/CRM hasn’t alleviated manual work for staff.
This makes our hearts sink. As if you have time for that! But, unfortunately, association professionals find themselves entering data and doing other soul-killing, laborious tasks that a modern AMS can prevent.
Requirements. An AMS implementation’s long-term success depends on the thoroughness of your requirements gathering process. Make sure you interview everyone who will use the system or use data in the system. If you overlook any needs or processes, you can expect headaches later.
Demos. Will the AMS deliver what the sales team promised? Before demos, make it clear that you want to see how the software will deliver all the outcomes you expect. Processes may look different, but that’s okay as long as the outcomes meet your requirements.
Adapting processes. Most associations only want to make a limited amount of change during system implementation. They change some processes so they’ll work better with the new AMS, but decide to tackle other processes in the future—and then that future never comes. Commit to a scheduled review of remaining processes. Ask your assigned Customer Success Manager (CSM) for guidance on streamlining and adapting old processes to your new AMS.
Customization. As your association’s needs change, your AMS should grow with you. Unfortunately, with customized systems, you’re often locked into an old version because it’s too expensive to adapt the code to new releases. As a result, staff has no choice but to resort to manual processes.
Member portal. If your AMS doesn’t have a member portal, members can’t update their profiles, so guess who has to? That’s right, you do.
Training. Make sure you budget for refresher training so you can relearn what you’ve forgotten since launch and find out about any functionality you haven’t used yet. Attend training on new releases so you can take advantage of new enhancements and bring those new capabilities into your workflow.
Release time is an excellent opportunity to review processes. What are you still doing with paper and/or spreadsheets? Can you convert those processes? What data entry is happening in other systems? Would integration eliminate those redundancies?
AMS Pain Point #2: Lack of Integration
Speaking of integration…
82% of our quiz participants said their current AMS/CRM doesn’t allow for easy integration with third-party applications, such as marketing automation, event management, and online community platforms.
A lack of integration limits what you can do with data. If you can’t easily share data between systems, you end up handling it manually—the other top pain point.
You also end up with data silos, which result in poor reporting and impossible data analytics. Without a 360-view of your members, attendees, customers, and prospects, you don’t have the insight needed to understand behavior, target marketing, improve engagement, and make sound decisions.
When researching a new system, ask the AMS team (and client references) about their experience with specific integration partners. You don’t want to limit your association’s potential by not having access to a “best of breed” email marketing, community, LMS, or CMS platform.
Beware: customized code doesn’t always play nice with upgrades and integration partners. With a SaaS AMS, integrations and upgrades work for all clients because everyone’s using the same code base.
AMS Pain Point #3: Implementation Fears
The idea of implementing a new AMS seems overwhelming to 76% of our quiz participants—that’s why they resist making a change.
We won’t sugarcoat it: implementation is a huge project. But even associations with a staff of one have managed successful implementations by following these guidelines.
Don’t let your board or senior staff push you into an unrealistic timeline. Implementation typically takes between 12 and 24 weeks. The length depends on these factors:
- Quantity and quality of data you’re importing into the new AMS—allow time for multiple data dumps and tests.
- Number of integrations.
- Number of modules.
- Interruptions caused by the association’s calendar.
When you and your AMS partner agree on a timeline, add a buffer to it, just in case.
Ask your AMS partner for implementation tips. Make sure you understand your association’s responsibilities during implementation, for example, preparing data for migration, and configuring and testing modules.
Clean up your data. Make sure everything is in the right fields. Be ruthless in identifying data you won’t migrate to the new system because you’re not using it now.
Your AMS partner should assign an implementation manager to work alongside you throughout the project. This soon-to-be best buddy will become familiar with your needs, understand how you and your colleagues do your work, and advise you on what will work best.
You still need someone to manage the implementation at your end—and that’s a big job, especially when you add it to your existing workload.
Identify any work you can postpone so you have enough time for implementation.
Ideally, you’re not doing it alone. Many firms in the association space specialize in managing AMS implementations. It’s worth the investment because they know what you don’t know and can keep you within budget and on schedule.
If you’re doing it yourself, your AMS partner can help you understand what lies ahead and what they expect from you. Talk with other associations who have recently implemented the same AMS to find out what they didn’t know going in and what they would now do differently.
Want to see if you are ready for a change? Join the hundreds of association professionals who have taken the quiz and get your own score to see if you’re ready. Click here to get started.