Connecting Associations in Person and Online: The Evolution of Naylor AMS
Timberlake Membership Software was founded in 1998 in Fairfax, Virginia by Brian Choate. The company’s association management software helped associations manage their member and operations data including event registration, committees, continuing education, directories, website data and reporting. Timberlake’s team focused on helping small staff associations maximize their resources through one-on-one support and, notably, in-person AMS installation to ensure a smooth transition into use of its software – sometimes an association’s largest investment.
Naylor entered the association management software space by acquiring Timberlake in January 2015. This migration, driven by a desire to provide more technology-based services for associations, was a natural progression for Naylor as it tried to better understand how associations manage and use their data.
Having added Boxwood Technology to its family the year before, Naylor now had a depth of programming knowledge to apply to problems associations face across a spectrum of software design and resource management. “When you have developers, programmers and engineers working together on coding the DNA of multiple solutions, you get a better understanding of the end-to-end experiences of association users across multiple platforms,” Tom Aley, group vice president of Naylor’s SaaS solutions, explained.
“Our team takes the broader perspective of how associations are currently using career, learning, AMS and other platforms. We examine how they could use such software applications to better run their organizations, and comes up with tech solutions that further boost engagement and revenue for their members, vendors and other stakeholders,” he continued.
One prize that has resulted from the Boxwood-Timberlake symbiosis is the Naylor Marketplace. The Marketplace, built on a specialized eCommerce platform, enables quick and easy third-party software integrations with Naylor association management software or career centers. Associations can connect software, such as email marketing automation, accounting, survey apps and more to their AMS or career center, and the platforms will exchange data automatically. Associations don’t need to be coding experts or spend a lot of time connecting these apps to their career center or AMS; Naylor’s programmers have done the back-end work for them.
The Naylor AMS team continues to provide personalized, in-person service for every AMS client. Looking to the future, Naylor will continue to evolve the concepts and connections that enable associations to use technology better.
