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Why Salesforce Makes Sense For Associations

Sig VanDamme — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:12:15 GMT

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:

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.
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.

What the traditional AMS system does do very well at is 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 has built Nimble AMS, an Enterprise class AMS on the Salesforce platform. But why should an organization move to an AMS based on the Salesforce if traditional AMS systems do a good job with the basics? There are many many reason but I am going to give you the top 10:

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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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! In addition 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.
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.
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 users grouped in almost every city. The New York City User group just for non-profits alone has over 1,000 members.
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.
The Salesforce UX (user experience) is second to none. Want to add fields to a page? Want the field only be able to be seen 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.
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.

NimbleUser Celebrates Its 20th Year

Dawn VanDamme — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:23:20 GMT

I am excited to be leading NimbleUser into its 20th year of providing technology and services to our Professional and Trade Associations.

Back in 1992 Sig (our Founder) worked alone traveling the Upstate New York area selling and implementing the newly created iMIS Association Management Software. He also helped organizations with anything related to their technology needs. This included troubleshooting printers, ordering computers and setup networks.

Today NimbleUser is significantly larger and we are more narrowly focused on AMS (Association Management Software), Web Technologies and Mobile. Technology is continually changing and we are finding ways to deepen our commitment to make our clients Nimble through effective use of existing technology and incorporating leading edge technologies like Cloud Computing.

Since joining the NimbleUser team in 2000 it has been my pleasure to work with each of you as well. Our team has grown and we are all very proud of our company and what we enabled our clients to achieve.

Thanks so much for your business. Some of you have been with us for as long as I have or longer and we are grateful. You can continue to expect us to do right by you.

Mobile Website VS Mobile App

Janan Compitello — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:01:06 GMT

For association professionals, the term mobile is heard more and more every day. Membership departments hear requests for event itineraries through iPhones and iPads; staff in government relations departments need quick access to member directories. And today, “going mobile” is being looked at as the solution for addressing these needs.

Mobile Websites are:

Browser-based HTML pages linked together and accessed over the Internet
Designed for handheld displays and touch screen interfaces
Optimized for mobile browsing. It can be reached through a phone's web browser directly.
A mobile site can be a version of a main website with fewer content areas.

Mobile Apps are:

A software application written in the native language of a particular platform - in the case of our conference app, iPhone or Droid.
Available in an App Store
Able to work offline

Join us for a free webinar on Monday, February 13th at noon,“Going Mobile - How Associations Can Make the Move”, to learn more. We will review today's mobile landscape, the various mobile experiences and how mobile relates to your association's website.

Also, be sure to check out our Craig Ceremuga's (Senior Developer for NimbleUser) blog on Designing the Mobile App User Experience.

Managing Staff Changes

Janan Compitello — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:22:32 GMT

Staff turnover and changes in staff positions are inevitable. How you manage those changes can be the difference between a successful transition and a rocky start for the employee. It can also mean the success or failure of projects, initiatives and strategic goals. While you’re working through the usual new employee and/or new position transition details, think about how your consultant relationships come into play.

All too often projects die or are negatively impacted by a staff change. It’s not enough to have a project charter that states the risk factor of a staff change – both the client and the consultant need to work together to manage the change.

Here are some items to consider to set you off on the right track:

Make a list of all outside consultants and third party vendors with whom the new staff person will need to work.
For each consultant and vendor, list all recent past, current and future projects.
Who is the primary contact at the consultant and/or vendor?
Are there regularly scheduled check-ins? If so, make sure the new staff person has been invited.
Schedule a “kick off” call with each consultant and vendor to introduce the new staff person and talk about current and future projects and goals. Make sure the parties understand how the relationship is structured. Some consultants are retainer-based, some project-based. This is an important distinction – if the expectations are misaligned, budgets could be severely impacted.
Provide the new staff person with enough information to understand current goals for the position and the department. He/she should be able to communicate how these goals align with existing consultant and vendor relationships. (This can also help staff understand what additional relationships might be needed).
Have your consultant or vendor help in any way they can – make sure they’re part of the conversation and can support the transition for minimal impact.

Change is exciting and usually positive. When handled with care, consideration and keen attention to communication, change can support the achievement of goals and the long term success of staff and your projects.

ASAE Tech Recap

Beth Farrar — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:02:45 GMT

It is hard to believe that just a few weeks ago that the ASAE Tech Show was in full swing. The annual show attracted a total of 1,181 participants including 622 attendees and 370 exhibitors.

The Technology Conference & Expo is designed for CEOs, CTOs, CIOs, CXOs, and other technology staff to gain knowledge, perspective and insight into the technology issues facing associations and nonprofits. A hot topic from this year’s conference was mobile technology. Interesting fact: There are 7 billion people in the world but 10 billion are expected to be connected via mobile devices by 2020....an important consideration when thinking of your next website redesign.

It was an especially proud moment for NimbleUser given that we were able to debut our fully restored Airstream Trailer as a fun way to get the word out about our AMS built on the Salesforce platform--Nimble AMS--and we happen to have a love for vintage airstreams. As you may recall from a previous blog, our journey began back in August with a not so sleek looking 1960s trailer and a vision. We were excited by the response we got from people and other vendors at the show for bringing something different to the table this year with both the trailer in our booth space and with our product, Nimble AMS.

We had several great discussions with people who were looking for a more intuitive AMS--one that comes with the power of CRM but that gets where associations are headed. Our on-site product experts, Jeff G, Senior Consultant, and Matt Rist, Services Manager conducted several impromptu demos showing the power and potential of Nimble AMS from a social, mobile and overall platform perspective. General feedback from the show confirmed that associations are looking to go beyond the standard AMS features and the technology platform is playing an increasingly important role. Rather than having to constantly switch to the latest and greatest AMS on the market, choosing a CRM platform is similar to buying an Airstream trailer vs. committing to buying a vacation cabin/home. You want the flexibility to choose your next destination. Just because you are an association does not mean that you cannot have all the other features that make a CRM so appealing to leading companies all over the world. In a nutshell that is why we built Nimble AMS on the Salesforce platform. The technology platform keeps innovating, the App Exchange keeps growing and we add in the association expertise needed to add in the AMS features you need to run your association.

Check out some of the pictures from the Tech Conference and Contact Us today to discuss where your association is going!

BELOW: The NimbleUser Crew at the show, pictured from left:
JeffG, Senior Consultant, Matt Rist, Services Manager, Janan Compitello, Senior Consultant, Sig VanDamme, CIO, Dawn VanDamme, President & CEO, Beth Farrar, Marketing & HR Manager, Joe Shaben, Account Executive.

Ahhh Memory Lane--The "before" picture:

Nimble AMS, Nimble Airstream

Beth Farrar — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:18:23 GMT

It started with a few ideas...don’t all great things? First, we thought “What if we built an Association Management System (AMS) on Salesforce?” Seemed not so crazy. Afterall, Salesforce is the leading CRM in the world used by over 100,000 organizations. So why shouldn’t associations have the opportunity to leverage this same technology? Obviously, Salesforce straight out of the box would not cut it. That’s why for the past few years, NimbleUser has been rolling up our sleeves to bring Nimble AMS to associations...complete with everything you would expect from an AMS and a whole lot more built on one of today’s leading technology platforms.

While we were in this mad scientist mode of creating the perfect AMS on the perfect platform, we also had sights set on the next big association event--theASAE Technology Conference & Expo. We had just left our mad scientist lab and were ready to shout “Nimble AMS” from the rooftops but somehow it seems less glorious to do that in your typical 10’x10’ exhibiting booth space. You’ve seen these booths at tradeshows before--pretty standard. We knew the average booth and the average exhibit wouldn’t suffice. Enter idea #2....what if we put an airstream trailer in a 20x20 booth? This seemed to make sense for a few reasons. This company was founded on two things we are passionate about--associations and cool technology. Airstream trailers just so happen to be a passion of our company CIO & CEO-Sig and Dawn VanDamme. In between client implementations and internal meetings, the VanDammes love to hit the open road in their vintage airstream trailer. To the VanDammes and many others, Airstreams represent a getaway, a sense of freedom and the mobility and possibility of never knowing what lies around the next bend or “the places you’ll go” (channeling Dr. Seuss here). All of these concepts embody what we bring to associations with the Nimble AMS product. With almost 20 years of experience in the association technology industry we didn’t want to bring just another AMS to market....it had to be more powerful, much cooler, more savvy, more mobile, more social and give associations that same sense of freedom with respect to how they managed and communicated with their members. It needed to be revolutionary.

Airstream trailers are an American icon, well known for their streamlined look and feel, quality, performance and even fuel efficiency. That’s what NimbleUser’s Airstream WILL be but was far from what it was when we purchased it. Take a look at this picture:

Not exactly road ready or cool, right? It was late August when we decided that NimbleUser was going to purchase and restore a vintage Airstream trailer in time for the ASAE Technology Conference & Expo in December. We knew we had a long way to go and we wanted it to be a hands-on process. On any given day we might be selecting colors to paint the wheels or picking fabrics out for the new interior of our Aluminum Vision on Wheels.

It has been an interesting journey so far. We knew we needed professional help and we selected Colin Hyde of Colin Hyde Trailer Restorations. Colin is a leading expert on Airstream Restorations and is one of the hosts of the Vintage Airstream Podcast. A couple of years ago Colin did a beautiful restoration on one of Matthew McConaughey’s Airstreams so we knew we were in good hands. But with the condensed timeline even the greatest Airstream craftsman couldn’t deliver everything we needed in time for the show. No problem--we will just send our CIO, Sig VanDamme, to take on some of the work himself. After all, he started NimbleUser back in 1992 as a one man shop and grew it into the company it is today so this was not a guy who was afraid to roll up his sleeves and dive in.

We are still racing the clock to get this Airstream ready and prepped for the tradeshow but it has been an amazing experience for all involved. It has built a sense of buzz in the company around the latest news/gossip, “Hey did that part come in on time?” and “What’s the latest update on the airstream?” (all happening through Salesforce Chatter no less). And in between praying that our project does not get bumped for some high profile celebrity’s Airstream restoration we have come to recognize the Airstream as a symbol for where we want to take associations going forward with Nimble AMS. It’s not a typical AMS and its not going to be a typical tradeshow booth. It’s going to be a way of life.

Live the Nimble Life! And see you at ASAE Tech in December!...Booth 335 or just look for the super slick Airstream.

Ted @ ApacheCon

Ted Husted — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:43:57 GMT

Ted Husted of NimbleUser will be speaking at ApacheCon in Vancouver BC CA on November 10 and 11 on "The Secret Life of Open Source" and ".NET @ Apache.org".

The Secret Life of Open Source

Apache, GNU, Mozilla, Ubuntu, PHP, LibreOffice, Wikipedia -- Today, there are hundreds of open source groups, each with its own culture, methodology, and governance model.

How are these groups alike?
How are they different?
Is there one true path to open source enlightenment, or do many paths converge around a common singularity?

.NET at Apache.org

Like it or not, many open source developers are moving to the Microsoft .NET platform, and we're bringing our favorite tools with us! This session looks inside ASF projects that are creating software for .NET and Mono -- like ActiveMQ, Chemistry, Logging, Lucene, QPid, and Thrift -- and show how to create leading-edge ASP.NET applications with ASF open source libraries. We'll also look at integrating other .NET open source projects, like Spring.NET, NVelocity, and JayRock, into your C# application to create a complete open source .NET stack.

Before joining NimbleUser, Ted consulted with teams throughout the United States, including CitiGroup, Nationwide Insurance, and Pepsi Bottling Group, and he is a regular speaker at ApacheCon and the Ajax Experience. Ted is also a former member of the Apache Struts project and co-founder of the Apache (Jakarta) Commons. His books include Google Wave (Preview) Explained, JUnit in Action, Struts in Action, and Professional JSP Site Design.

As a Business Analyst for NimbleUser, Ted concentrates on identifying business needs and crafting solutions that meet an organization's goals, objectives, and budget. Locally, he also serves as VP of Finance for the Rochester Chapter of the International Institute for Business Analysis (IIBA).

Ektron 8.5 Features, Changes, Requirements

Craig Ceremuga — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:18:08 GMT

Ektron recently released version 8.5 of its CMS software and it includes a number of large changes and additional features. There are also some changes to the product and additional requirements that could introduce additional costs to an upgrade from a prior version to 8.5

The workarea has been redesigned again since the previous 8.0 redesign. The changes include moving some functions to new sections based upon their frequency of use. Additional standardization to labels and buttons has been introduced to improve the consistency between different sections of the work area.

Search has been completely changed from the ground up. Gone is the built in Windows Search Indexing service that was previously used to index and search through content on the site. Ektron has introduced Microsoft Search Server in version 8.5 to replace the old, often problematic indexing service. The new search software allows for additional search improvements including increased relevancy, faceted searches, automatic query suggestions, reports and more.

Microsoft Search Server is free to use (the express version). However, despite the software for search being free, it's possible that utilizing search on an Ektron 8.5 site could introduce additional software / hardware costs. Search server needs to be run on a 64 bit edition of Server 2008 or newer. It also requires a backend database running on a 64 bit edition of SQL Server 2005 (with service pack 3) or newer. Microsoft also recommends that search server be run on a separate server from a production website due to the amount of resources necessary to scale it. Also required for running a search server is 8GB of RAM on a 64-bit quad core processor server with at least 80GB of space available in the system drive of the server.

Additionally, if your existing site has deep search customizations, all of these templates / customizations will need to be rewritten and re-developed as they will not function as a drop-in upgrade to 8.5 The new search backend introduces an entirely new way for developers to utilize search for customizations and therefore introduces many code changes to keep existing search customizations working the same way as they are now.

Ektron 8.5 also utilizes .NET 4.0 so any integration pieces between Ektron and other .NET applications in the same site will need to be examined to make sure they are compatible prior to any upgrade.

Ektron 8.5 also has additional hardware / OS requirements which are different from prior versions. Ektron now requires a server with a 64 bit quad core processor with a minimum of 8GB of RAM. Also newly introduced is a requirement for a 64 bit install of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 or newer for your web server, as well as a 64 bit edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (with Service Pack 5) or newer for your database server.

Overall, aside from interface changes and performance improvements as well as introduction of a new search backend, Ektron 8.5 is an ode to developers. 8.0 Introduced major changes to end users and content authors, but 8.5 is largely targeted at developers and server administrators, making development simpler and faster to increase efficiency and decrease development costs and frustrations.

What 15.2 Means to You, Our Clients

Dawn VanDamme — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:58:19 GMT

Recently ASI released iMIS version 15.2. Many of our clients have been seeing the marketing that ASI has out promoting the 15.2 version, and there are a number of worthy fixes and enhancements in this release.

Aside from the fixes, there is also new functionality for the web. This new functionality requires some explaining from the perspective of iMIS clients already using iMIS eCommerce because it is a completely new approach to that function from ASI.

First, the idea is a good one. The 15.2 eCommerce functionality allows for a more fluid experience by not using the older methodology of having modules be sections of the website. Rather you can pull in various iParts onto the pages of the site where ever you think is best.

There are a few things to keep in mind if you are already using iMIS Public Views or another eCommerce product:

You must use the ASI product wCM for your web site Content Management, at least the eCommerce portion of the site. While this is sometimes an okay idea, many of our clients prefer to use best of breed CMS systems for their Web sites. If that is the case, adding wCM to the mix with iParts is just not feasible.
There is lots of promotion around the additional “social” features of Facebook, Twitter, buttons for promoting content outward. This functionality is really some buttons on the pages, which are generally included these days in modern sites. And upgrading to get this functionality is just not necessary.
If you are already using Public Views, you would need to have a completely new implementation of eCommerce. There is no upgrade from Public Views to the iParts version.
There are some basic functions available in Public Views that are not yet available in the 15.2 iparts Web product that many of our clients use including:
- Register Guests
- Use stored procedure pricing for events

So our take on the 15.2 release right now is:

1. Wait and see, for a bit anyway. Generally we like to recommend new versions after about 3 to 6 months of real use. Let the folks that really need the fixes go for it.
2. For your web eCommerce, it is likely that the iParts would be good for new iMIS clients that do not already have an investment in Public Views. If you are ready for an eCommerce overhall, see my point one above and give it some time before embarking.

If you have been considering iMIS 15.2 feel free to contact NimbleUser to discuss your options. And post any questions you have right here on this blog!

2011 NiUG Discovery

Sig VanDamme — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:37:50 GMT

NiUG Discovery

Jeff G and I attended the 2011 NiUG Discovery conference in Baltimore last week. NiUG is the International iMIS Users Group and NiUG’s motto is "Share, Compare, Become More Aware" and I can say that NimbleUser definitely lived that at the conference.

Highlights:

* NimbleUser’s Jeff Golembiewski was the recipient of the John Howarth Memorial Award . This honor recognizes those, who through their passion, persistence, optimism and grace under pressure, have distinguished themselves in service to the iMIS community, representing the mission of the organization, and mirroring the quality of character of John Howarth. Congratulations to Jeff!

* iMIS 15.2, the latest version of iMIS, was shown and it is worth upgrade. It features the new iParts based commerce engine. While there are a lot of technical advances in using the iParts version, the most noticeable improvement is how great it looks and feels; it is a beautiful interface.

* Doug Morris from CSI and I had a lot of fun with our annual “Improve Your Work and Home Life for Free” presentation where we showcase some of the newest technology (not necessarily associated with iMIS). You can see the slidedeck below

* And, of course, the networking with peers, customers and ASI staff was invaluable; over the past 20 years I have made so many close friends in this community that it is like a homecoming to go to these conferences. The most memorable networking event was the Camden Yards dinner event where we recieved a tour of this famous baseball park.

If you are an iMIS user I highly suggest you join today and be part of the this fantastic community.