Salesforce.com is the leading CRM on the market today and is used by over 2 million users representing 100,000+ customers. But does it make sense for associations to use Salesforce as their AMS (Association Management System)?

Lets take a look. At its core an AMS has two major functions:

1. It is a customer relationship management (CRM) application; i.e. a system used to manage relationships with customers (or members) in the hopes of being able to better serve them.
2. It facilitates your organization’s business transactions and processes. i.e. the tracking of memberships, billing and collection of dues, event management, etc.

We can all agree that CRM functions performed by an AMS are incredibly important yet traditional AMS options offer very basic and rudimentary CRM functionality. Especially when you compare their functionality to that of an enterprise class CRM like Salesforce. 

The traditional AMS system does a very good job at the transaction management of an association. Here is a little secret that I have learned over the past 20 years: Just about every AMS does an excellent job of managing membership, processing dues, conference registrations and other similar tasks. This goes for higher end systems like TMA and Avectra, mid market systems like MemberSuite and Protech and entry level / small association systems like Wild Apricot and MemberClicks.

NimbleUser created Nimble AMS, an Enterprise class AMS built on the Salesforce platform. But why should an organization move to an AMS built on the Salesforce.com platform if traditional AMS systems do a good job with the basics? There are many reasons but I am going to give you the top 10:

1. True world class CRM. Until shown the difference in CRM functionality between traditional AMS systems and one built on Salesforce it is impossible to imagine how wide this gap is. Everything from usability to security is at a different scale. You owe it to your organization to at least look at an AMS built on Salesforce; you will be amazed.
2. Salesforce is innovating at a rate that no AMS firm can ever match. Salesforce spent $132 million on R&D last year. To contrast, the leading AMS firm has gross revenues of about $36 Million. Every quarter Salesforce is widening the already huge feature gap.
3. Salesforce has an app store with over 1,000 applications in it. It is similar to the app store for the iPhone. Need to extend your system with an application for Volunteer Management, Project Management or to survey members? Simply go to AppExchange.com and search for what your are looking for and install it into your database.
4. Salesforce is a true platform. Your AMS, CRM, custom applications and 3rd party applications from the app store all run in your organization’s instance. Salesforce manages the infrastructure, applications, and operations.
5. Salesforce is socially enabled. What does that mean? For many AMS packages that means a field to store a Twitter address or a Facebook link. With Salesforce social profiles, you can directly connect the organization to the member’s social ecosystem; staff can see the latest Twitter posts and Facebook posts and look up information on LinkedIn - all from within Salesforce! Additionally, Chatter enables staff to follow members, KPI’s, events, product and more to keep your staff fully aware of everything going on within the organization.
6. Mobile is part of Salesforce. It is not an afterthought or something that needs to be purchased from a 3rd party. Full Mobile apps for Salesforce, Chatter and dashboards are provided. Your staff can stay in the loop regardless of where they are physically.
7. Salesforce is the leading CRM in the world. How many people were at the last user conference you went to for your AMS? A couple of hundred? A thousand? Salesforce hosts the largest user conference in the world and last year 46,000 people were treated to world class keynote speakers, hundreds of sessions, hands on labs and even a performance by Metallica. There are user groups in almost every city. The New York City User group just for non-profits alone has over 1,000 members.
8. Salesforce has a true Multitenant Cloud architecture powered by thousands of servers with redundant data centers around the world. This is in stark contrast to current AMS providers who may have a couple of hundred (typically far, far less) servers in one location.
9. The Salesforce UX (user experience) is second to none. Want to add fields to a page? Want the field to only be viewable by certain users? Want to restrict what can be entered into that field? Even administrator tasks like these are very simple to do and all share the same consistent paradigm. Context sensitive help for everything in the application? Even better, how about an online learning center with videos, pre-printed tip sheets and written best practices? Salesforce has all of that.
10. Salesforce is a company you can feel great about. They are a green company and has the lowest CO2 emissions per transaction of any company. Saleforce has its own philanthropic organization called the Salesforce Foundation. The Foundation is based on a simple idea: Salesforce donates 1% of resources to support organizations that are working to make our world a better place.

I hope this sheds some light on why it makes sense for an association to use Salesforce and why NimbleUser chose to develop its groundbreaking AMS on their platform.

True story - At ASAE St. Louis I wore a Salesforce shirt and had a number of people (that I had never previously met) approach me and proudly exclaim “I love Salesforce”. In 20 years representing a variety of products I have never experienced the product goodwill that Salesforce has. Checkout Nimble AMS and perhaps you can tell me “I Love Salesforce” at ASAE Dallas.