Working in a homegrown system is malpractice. (Click here to read why.)
I continue to marvel at the number of associations I encounter that are still using homegrown software (or worse yet, Excel spreadsheets) to manage all of their association’s data. There is a large number of association management software systems now available (see here for a list, and even my list isn’t complete). Several of these products are available for less than $10,000 annually. Regardless of the size of your association, you should be able to afford $10,000 annually to manage all of your association data in one system. If not, you may have greater issues!
If you’re still stuck with a homegrown system, take advantage of my remote consulting (click here) and let me help you find a system that can manage your data more effectively and more efficiently.
Wes, you make some comprises going with an off the shelf AMS. We use filemaker pro, Regonline for events, Constant Contact for e-mail and Scholar One for speaker abstractions. We found that going with best of breed solutions work well for us coupled with it being cost-effective. When we perused out of the box AMS systems none of them were capable of handling speaker abstractions without integrating with a 3rd party. Not to mention, the e-mail marketing solutions they offer were not up to par with a Constant Contact.
Fair enough, Barb. But surely you’re making compromises, as well.
I notice that three of your four solutions are off-the-shelf software. I’ve written before (see here: http://effectivedatabase.com/why-your-association-should-NOT-develop-software) on why associations shouldn’t develop their own software. I stand by those thoughts.
Hi Wes, I definitely agree with your perspective. As a developer who has had to live with maintaining a custom system, the easy solution on the front end becomes a long term burden and expense. The approach I am intrigued about now is using off the shelf cloud tools such as Google Apps (specifically sites, docs and apps script) to put together customized workflows to automate some of the back and forth between planners and the other organizations involved in large scale events.
Thanks for the comment, Tom. I would agree that taking the approach of an OTS AMS as your core and leveraging third-party tools for other things (like workflows) makes a lot of sense.