Is your association resilient?

It’s a question that all member-based organizations have faced recently—and the answer is critical for ensuring your organization not only survives the next disruption but also grows and thrives.

However, many associations are realizing their current technology systems are not enabling the resilience they need. In fact, those systems are holding them back.

It’s time to make a change—to both your association management technology and your expectations of how those systems serve your business.

What makes a resilient association?

To achieve their missions and support future growth, associations need resilience—the ability to weather change, disruption, and even disaster—and come out the other side stronger and better.

By their nature, associations have made it their business to demonstrate leadership and responsiveness as industries, circumstances, and members evolve. But today, the challenge has been dramatically amplified. The abrupt pivot into a fully virtual world has required associations to accelerate digital initiatives to enable rapid—even near-real-time—responses to disruption.

At the same time, organizations must be able to rely on proven software solutions that support business continuity through a predictable, stable platform. Those critical business technologies must adapt and scale—without requiring a costly upgrade or system replacement every few years.

The future of association management is NOT an AMS

If you’re running association business functions with aging association management software (AMS), you’re already feeling the effects of its limitations.

A traditional, on-premises solution—painstakingly installed on local servers and hardware, and even more painstakingly maintained one license at a time—is a static solution. Even when such legacy systems are moved into cloud-hosted models, the information at different locations and in different applications remains siloed.

Over time, your member and organizational data becomes more and more fragmented. Staff are saddled with tedious, manual workarounds. Upgrades are costly, time-consuming, and disruptive.

And critically, these systems are not built to adapt and change.

Customizations and integrations require specialized teams of developers and can take weeks or months. And that kind of time is a luxury that most associations can’t afford any more.

How a true association platform future-proofs your organization

To understand the profound difference between an association platform and a traditional AMS, think about how you personally navigate through any busy day in your week.

You communicate with your coworkers through collaboration software. You text your mom to wish her a happy birthday. You chat with a friend to set up a time to meet for dinner—and add other friends to the planning conversation with a simple click. You schedule service for your car and transfer money to your bank account to pay for it. And if you don’t already have that banking app—you can download and use it in a matter of seconds.

All on your phone. All without missing a beat.

A true cloud association platform enables that kind of responsiveness for your association. The core business functionality you need across all your operations is built directly, natively, into one of the two leading enterprise-class cloud platforms: Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics 365.

From that proven, secure foundation, you can configure your solution’s core business software modules to meet the specific needs and requirements of your organization. Through OpenAPIs and extensive app libraries, you can extend your systems’ functionality without costly custom integrations.

All these elements are purposely built to work together—not created separately and then stitched together. That enables an elegant, seamless experience that transforms the way you operate.

  • Improve operational efficiency: Your staff’s workflows are streamlined as they move without distraction between tasks and modules.
  • Simplify member engagement: Members can easily navigate, locate resources, connect and network, and complete transactions.
  • Contain costs: Transparent subscription models enable leadership to establish an accurate, predictable budget—and reduce costly, unforeseen expenditures.

Most important: Your association now has a powerful, centralized, always updated technology solution that lets you accurately forecast future needs, spot upcoming changes and disruptions, and proactively address them.

All without missing a beat.

Are You Ready for What’s Next?

Using software solutions that allow you to run your association cost-effectively is important. Having a solution that grows and adapts with you is imperative.

Association platforms empower member-based organizations with the extensibility, scalability, and seamless adaptability they need to weather the next storm—and demonstrate the leadership and innovation that their members demand.

Take the next step—talk to an Association Platforms expert.

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