Is your software environment seamlessly integrated? If you answered “no,” you’re not alone. Salesforce research found that organizations currently use over 1,000 applications. Of those applications, less than 30% are integrated, leading to data silos, disconnected experiences, duplicated work, and greater costs.
When you think about delivering a great member experience, your first thought might not be about integrating your technology systems. However, software integration is more important to your association than you might think.
Read our blog to learn why integration is crucial to the success of your organization and discover tips to integrate your association management software with other systems.
Why software integration should be important to associations
Software integration is central to a successful digital transformation and connected staff and member experience. Salesforce research found that 80% of organization leaders identified integration challenges as a major pain point, leading to data silos, disconnected teams, and a barrier to reaching goals.
Not only is software integration crucial to creating a superior user experience, but it also impacts your technological return on investment. Salesforce reports that organizations who fail to complete a digital transformation initiative can expect to pay up to $9.5 million annually.
How to successfully integrate your association management software with other systems
Integrated software plays a major role in creating a connected staff and member experience and cutting organizational costs. And while the latest Community Brands Association Trends research found that 80% of association professionals prioritize creating a seamless member experience, only 47% feel that upgrading or integrating their current software system is important.
It’s time to fully realize the importance of software integration. To support a superior member experience throughout the entire membership journey, you’ll need integrated systems to offer career advancement services, continuing education, and more member benefits.
Here are four ways your organization can begin integrating your current association management software (AMS) with additional systems or applications:
1. AMS + career center software
Your members want career advancement resources. Community Brands research has found that nearly 50% of members prioritize help with career advancement, however only 26% of association professionals value this important member benefit.
What better way to foster the career growth of your members than by investing in the right career center software? Look for career center software that integrates with your AMS and offers the following features:
- Intelligent job recommendations. Based on AMS member profile data, a member can receive intelligent job recommendations, including job title, role, and location. This feature lets members passively search for new career opportunities
- Career advice insights. Increase member value and ensure your association is the number one career resource in your industry by offering career growth resources. Support your members with custom career content and insights into every role in your industry.
- Career paths. Empower members to plan their professional goals and map out a path to their dream jobs. With career paths, members can leverage an interactive plan to set goals and find success.
2. AMS + event management software
Events are one of the major ways members engage with associations. Meetings and events also offer a large source of revenue for organizations, with 53% of association professionals relying on meetings and conferences as a main non-dues revenue source.
Here’s how the right events software integration can take your association events to the next level:
- Intelligent session recommendations. Recommend additional sessions and products for purchase during online registration, based on the event attendee’s interest areas, job title, and/or membership level.
- Additional stored member activity. Record session attendance in registration records for use in targeted marketing campaigns, awarding education credits, and gaining deeper insight into member interests.
- Attendee behavior. Understand how attendees move through your event, assess session success and popularity, and know which vendors they visited.
3. AMS + learning management software (LMS)
What software are you leveraging to foster your continuing education program? According to Community Brands research, members are turning more to their organization as a top source for professional education content; they also rate the quality of content higher for their organization.
However, 77% of members and 85% of professionals agree that if an association doesn’t innovate it will no longer be a go-to source for professional development. Look for an innovative LMS that integrates with your AMS and offers these features:
- Synced profiles. Learners can seamlessly navigate from your website to your continuing education catalog to your member page. Any updates to user data automatically sync across your AMS and LMS.
- Progress tracking. Automatically track learner progress through quizzes, assessments, checkpoints, attendance, scores, and completions along with credits earned. The data is shared through both systems, providing members more insight into their learning path through their AMS member profile
- Personalized learning paths. Customize the member experience with personalized learning paths, empowering members to manage their learning journey. This feature will also help staff easily set objectives and competencies for a certification or credential program.
4. AMS + integrated apps
Extend the reach of your current AMS with third-party applications that seamlessly integrate. If you choose the right AMS platform, you’ll have access to a marketplace of user-friendly, point-and-click apps. The right apps can help you solve challenges, accelerate your digital transformation, and enhance your staff and member experience.
More than any other marketplace, the Salesforce AppExchange sets the bar in offering trusted applications. Here’s how your organization can leverage the Salesforce AppExchange:
- Find the right solution. With over 7,000 applications, your organization is bound to find the best solution to meet your association’s needs and exceed expectations.
- Intelligent recommendations. As you use the Salesforce AppExchange the program will get smarter, offering personalized marketplace recommendations based on your history.
