The recent MemberWise Digital Excellence Report for 2023/24 showed how a lack of system integration and poor data management in the membership sector was holding organisations back.
It’s a technical subject that you may not be too familiar with. So, as we’re feeling festive, we decided to explain it through the medium of Santa’s Workshop. Here’s how Santa might be using system integration to run his Workshop, and how it compares to what your membership organisation can do.
Every Wish List is Received; All Your Members Are Linked
Santa doesn’t want any child to miss out. To make sure every child’s present list makes its way to the North Pole, his system brings all letters, emails and other requests into one place. Then, it’s sent straight to the Workshop (after being vetted against the Nice List of course).
When you integrate your AMS (association management system) with your website, it streamlines your overall member experience. Your members don’t have to access a separate system to make a purchase, and their online activity is tracked within your AMS; allowing you to measure member engagement and send personalised marketing communications.
Automate Your Purchasing; Santa Cuts Down Procurement Costs
Santa may make the toys, but he needs to source the materials from somewhere and resources in the North Pole are scarce. In the same way you can integrate your billing and purchasing management modules to your AMS, Santa can link his financing systems to his main system to streamline his purchasing process and keep his purchasing costs down.
Of course, Santa doesn’t bill children for their presents, but he does need to pay for the materials he buys in. Integrating his procurement system to his main management system means it automatically makes a ‘materials required’ list from every wish list and compares process from different suppliers.
Organising Your Events; He Never Misses a Grotto Visit Again
As soon as the last firework fizzles out into the air on 5th November, Santa begins visiting children non-stop at different grottos, events and parties all over the world. He needs a system that tracks all the events he’s attending and lets him take notes of what all the children asked him for.
Your events management system is what helps you with organising your events and can integrate with several systems to improve efficiency and member engagement, including:
- AMS: To personalise your communications and simplify your members’ ticketing journey.
- Online Payment Gateways: To give you payment reports and be able to take payments online from attendees, sponsors and exhibitors.
- CRM and Marketing Software: To track member engagement and allows you to send personalised communications to your members.
Member Engagement; Santa’s Nice List
Integrating various applications – such as your learning management system with your website and AMS – allows your members to easily keep track of their CPD and lets you measure membership engagement rates. When sending communications to members, you can filter your audiences based on their engagement rates.
Saint Nick has adopted a similar system for his naughty and nice list. Only he knows how he decides who’s naughty and nice (and only he can see the list) but he needs to pull that data from somewhere and securely store it. In the same way you can make a particular campaign only go to members with low or high engagement levels, Santa can set his system to only accept wish lists from those who are on the nice list.
Employee Management; Elf Management
You might not employ as many staff as Santa employs elves, however it’s still important to manage your people effectively to keep them happy and motivated.
His elves themselves have a lot of deadlines to meet, so they need to stay organised and well-managed. His system keeps him in the loop of production and lets him see all their timesheets, production rates and if they’re hitting their targets.
A fully integrated HR system lets you find the right talent, train them and retain them. The all-in-one system lets you combine hiring, HR, payroll and performance measuring all in one place.
Feel Festive Now?
That’s our way of breaking down system integration and data management into something more festive and (hopefully) understandable. It goes without saying that there is more to this, but what kills the festive mood more than talking about APIs and reading countless IT buzzwords?
There are loads of types of integrations that your association can benefit from, and the ones mentioned in this article are some of the common types that organisations like yours have implemented. If you want to find out more, you can read more on the subject here or speak to a member of our award-winning customer service team who can offer some impartial advice.
Merry Christmas from everyone at PSP!
PSP IT Design & Development: Although we didn’t make Santa’s data management system (we’d love to be able to say we did), we have executed countless integration projects with membership bodies and chartered institutes. If you’d like to explore your system integration capabilities, get in touch.
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