On behalf of a client, I had the opportunity to see a brief demo of iMIS 15 last week. My client is on iMIS 10.4 and is wondering whether they should upgrade to iMIS 15. Following the demo, it was unanimous: there is no compelling reason to upgrade at this time.
ASI has been advertising iMIS 15 since August '06 (they were pushing it at the ASAE Annual Meeting), but as of a couple weeks ago, they still had not released a production version. That's nearly a year(!) of promotion for a product not yet available. ASI is not the only AMS vendor guilty of promoting a product that doesn't exist yet (the software industry is notorious for this) but I don't think it does anyone a service to talk about a product a year before it's available.
Don't get me wrong: There's nothing wrong with iMIS 15. There are a few significant changes from the 10.x version, but the operative word is "few." There's a nice new interface for casual users, but the back-office, the "core" of the product remains unchanged. That's good if you're a current iMIS user. I'm not sure how good it is if you're looking to change from your current system to a new AMS.
iMIS 15 holds promise, but it's a promise not yet delivered, in my mind. Perhaps in another six months.
Full disclosure: EDM is an independent third-party consulting firm. This means we have no financial relationship with any of the vendors mentioned in this blog. We provide unbiased opinions on what we see.
I was surprised to read your negative comments about iMIS 15. Surely you must be misinformed. I have been working with associations and non profits – implementing iMIS solutions – for over 15 years. iMIS is installed in thousands of organizations around the world and is the most widely used AMS system on the market today. iMIS 15 is being embraced by the existing iMIS community and is up and running very successfully at many clients around the world. iMIS 15 offers a number of enhancements over previous versions – including enhancements to the web content management system, enhancements to the self-service area on the website for members/donors, including social networking, and offers new tools and functionality for staff to streamline business processes and make them more efficient, and many more. Feel free to contact me or contact ASI directly for additional information about the value of iMIS.
Jodi, thanks for the comment. I don’t think I’m misinformed; this information was based on a demo I saw in July of 2007, which is almost two years ago. I know many things have changed in iMIS since then, but I stand by what I wrote here at that time.
While not a scientific sample, I recently spoke at an iMIS users group meeting in DC and of the 13 associations in attendance, only one had upgraded to iMIS 15 (the rest were still in version 10.x). I found that very telling.