I often hear from association executives (particularly from very small associations, e.g., under five staff) that they can’t afford to buy an off-the-shelf association management system (AMS). Thus they will continue to use with a homegrown Access system or a bunch of separate Excel lists and Outlook distribution lists, and suffer the consequences of the weaknesses of such an approach.
But with the advent of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product pricing, even smaller associations can afford to buy really robust AMS software.
Obviously, “affordability” is relative and in the eye of the beholder. But I would strongly argue that if your organization cannot afford several hundred dollars per month (for SaaS fees) for access to a database specifically designed to manage membership and related processes, then you have bigger issues than database management.
So which packages am I talking about? While this list is not exhaustive, I would include the following, in alpha order:
- Association Management Online
- Avectra
- Computility
- Internet4Associations
- Memberclicks
- YourMembership
I’m sure there are others.
Given the availability of these packages, even with their inherent limitations, I can’t understand why some associations choose to suffer with their current systems rather than upgrading to one of these.
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.
Great list!
The point that we often make with small associations is that can’t afford NOT to have an AMS. So many are spending time rekeying data and entering forms that once they compute the time/$$ spent on that, it is less than the fees for an AMS and the ROI more than covers the costs (much less the functionality and other benefits).
An AMS (member database) should be treated as a mission-critical part of an association’s operations. I agree that if an association isn’t using one and operates using a variety of Microsoft Office products, they’re probably wasting a lot of time (and money) each month.
I’d like to throw DAXKO Connect into the mix. It’s a SaaS AMS solution that’s highly configurable and also very affordable.
http://www.daxko.com/connect
Agreed, that’s exactly the point I’m trying to make. But “soft” costs (e.g., staff salaries) are easy to ignore or hide and it’s apparently “easier” to suffer than to spend the money.
Let me also mention Wild Apricot (www.wildapricot.com). From what I know about this space (and what we have researched), I think we actually have the most affordable SaaS solution (flat monthly fee from $25/month) and we already have thousands of associations using it.
(A clickable link: http://associations.wildapricot.com/)
Ray and Wes, TOTALLY agree with your points about associations not being able to afford not to have an AMS solution, but Wes as I think you’re saying, it’s the pain of getting started that often stymies organizations from switching from whatever solution they are using, even if it is just paper or Excel sheets. Part of the challenge is convincing them that the pain of switching isn’t as great as the pain of the status quo.
I also thing there’s still a lot of people with the attitude of 4-5 years ago that says if you want a good functional solution that does things like online registration or allows a secure member-only area, you MUST get an expensive custom solution.
I’d LOVE to discuss ideas about how we can help convince association professionals that this is something they need be thinking about. I feel like, as AMS providers and consultants, there’s a lot of opportunity in educating people and giving them the tools they need to pick the right solution for their organization.
I have a theory about why associations have trouble with these types of issues (i.e., their willingness to accept long-term pain to avoid short-term pain) which I think I’ll blog about in the near future.
NimbleUser just launch a new AMS built on the Force.com platform and is call called NU Members (NU is pronounced like NEW). We get to leverage the powerful CRM aspects of Salesforce.com which make the application easy to use. We then took our 17 years of association management experience and built association specific features like subscriptions, meetings, orders, payment tracking and grouper for things chapters, region and committee management. We also have a module that allows organizations to document their use of NU Members right within the application for easy reference and training. We call this the Procedures module.
We just lunched our application at the ASAE Annual conference to rave reviews and we were just recognized by Salesforce.com for having one of the Top 40 Applications built on the Force.com platform. Our application comes with things like great reporting, dashboards, mobile and communication templates. The ability to add fields and create workflows are also a part of the application. All of this for $ 65/user /month with an introductory price of $ 40 / user / month for anyone that buys it this year.
We have built the application so that some organizations will be able to implement it themselves, while other could buy packages if they need some help.
We are dedicated to small staff associations with this offering.
We have web modules in beta right now.
To learn more about us: http://www.nimbleuser.com
To learn more about application: http://bit.ly/GRCCn
I _definitely_ look forward to reading that. :-) Thanks Wes.
Throw in the concept of convergence, and many small-to-mid associations quickly discover they are already spending enough $$ each month on disparate systems to cover the cost of a comprehensive SaaS AMS. Are you hosting a website? Using email marketing? Event registrations/management? Web calendaring? Wiki solutions? Shopping cart/e-storefront? etc. etc… all from different vendors that charge small monthly fees that can add up quickly!
Also, association management and social media needs are converging. Associations need to address 1. gaining operational efficiencies their administrative efforts 2. delivering enhanced value to your members. That’s ‘association management software’ (for you) and ‘social media’ solutions (for members). YourMembership.com happens to provide those solutions in one complete, affordable package!
Love the topic and your blog. Thx.
http://www.yourmembership.com/pricing/
Thanks for the note, David. Good point about considering ALL costs already being incurred by the association.
In 2008, my association (staff of 8) realized the limitations of our Access database & did an exhaustive search based on staff-driven criterion for a new database. We are now using internet4associations (i4a).
FYI: There’s a user group for current i4a clients @:
http://groups.google.com/group/cli4aents?hl=en?hl=en