CRM or
AMS?
What Associations should know about how a
Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution for membership
management compares to traditional Association
Management Software systems
By Altai Systems
September 20, 2012
Table of Contents
What is better Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or Association Management
Software (AMS)? _____________________________________________________________ 3
Why would a Non-profit need Customer Relationship Management? ___________________ 3
How does “sales” software meet the functional needs of an Association? ________________ 4
What are the advantages of Microsoft Dynamics CRM over an AMS? ___________________ 4
What are the advantages of using Altai Systems and Altai Membership? ________________ 7
Altai and CRM functionality your association needs _________________________________ 7
Appendix 1 – xRM Reference Architecture _________________________________________ 9
Appendix 2 – Altai Portal Architecture ___________________________________________ 10
Appendix 3 – Examples of Support Options Available with CRM _______________________ 11
September 2012 Altai Systems. All rights protected and reserved
Page 2
CRM or AMS - Which solution do you need?
What is better Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or Association
Management Software (AMS)?
The answer is that it depends on the Association. If the organization only wants the software
to bill dues, manage event registrations or put people on committees, then the most
functionally mature software with the lowest cost may be the best. However, today’s
progressive Associations need more than standard association functionality to meet the value
demands of their members and be more competitive in the marketplace. This document will
discuss some reasons why many associations are moving from AMS to Microsoft Dynamics
CRM, and why your Association may need to do the same.
Why would a Non-profit need Customer Relationship Management?
You might ask the question: “What does an association need with a Customer Relationship
Management system?” Associations today face more pressure from the “corporate world” whether that is for-profit companies selling similar products and services to your members or
social networks allowing people with like interests and specific business roles to collaborate
without the need for an association. This has required association executives to operate their
organizations more like a for-profit business and consider retaining market share and
assertively trying to acquire new members. Fifteen years ago most associations would not view
their members as “customers”; most would not use the terms “sales” and marketing”. However
today these terms are frequently used by Association Executives when discussing their strategic
plans to grow and maintain their membership, and create non-dues revenue.
Wikipedia defines CRM as:
“… a widely implemented model for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients,
and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize
business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service,
and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and
retain those the company already has, entice former clients to return, and reduce the costs of
marketing and client service. Customer relationship management describes a company-wide
business strategy including customer-interface departments as well as other
departments. Measuring and valuing customer relationships is critical to implementing this
strategy.”
If you simply replace the words client and customer with member in the above statement, you
could easily consider this the definition of an enterprise solution any Association Executive
would want for their organization.
September 2012 Altai Systems. All rights protected and reserved
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How does “sales” software meet the functional needs of an Association?
To start with, Microsoft developed Dynamics CRM as an xRM platform (See diagram in
Appendix 1). Essentially, Microsoft developed Dynamics CRM to allow Partners to extend the
solution to meet the unique needs of specific vertical markets, while also allowing Clients with
the proper technical skills to meet their unique organizational needs.
xRM.com provides the following as an explanation of the xRM framework:
“Software developers and business analysts commonly define xRM in one of two ways. In the
first definition, the "x" in xRM refers to extended relationship management, which represents
the extension of CRM platforms far beyond customer relationship management. In the second
definition, the "x" is an algebraic variable that can represent almost any relationship that a
business needs to manage. In both definitions, expanding the functionality of the CRM platform
is the key. An xRM solution can manage more than relationships with customers; it can manage
suppliers, employees, partners, assets, knowledge bases, and just about anything else a
company might wish to manage in a relational database”.
The Altai Systems Association Management Software, Altai Membership, is an example of an
xRM application built on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform.
By choosing Microsoft Dynamics CRM as the development platform, Altai Systems provides a
proven upgrade path for clients. Microsoft has committed millions of dollars in research and
development for CRM and has continued to release new versions at an aggressive pace.
Originally introduced in 2003, Microsoft CRM is now in its 5th generation, and Microsoft is
releasing new functionality every quarter. By closely adhering to the Microsoft CRM
development requirements the products developed by Altai Systems align with the upgrade
path thereby providing an ongoing enhancement cycle at no cost to the client other than
standard maintenance. More information on Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be found at
http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics.
Because of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform and the unique architecture of our Altai
Membership and Altai Web Portal (See diagram in Appendix 2), we typically do not need to do
code-level customizations for our clients. However, another unique aspect of our solution is a
“Business Engine” layer that separates any customizations from the core software components.
This helps to insure the client’s upgrade path and protect their investment.
What are the advantages of Microsoft Dynamics CRM over an AMS?
Microsoft CRM is developed and constantly enhanced to help organizations streamline their
processes, allow staff to stop doing mundane tasks so they can focus on revenue generating
activities, grow revenue and ultimately improve the bottom line. If you want to improve the
performance of your association, CRM is made for you. Here are some of the advantages of
Dynamics CRM over association management software:
September 2012 Altai Systems. All rights protected and reserved
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Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Association Management Software
The entire system is designed to capture
knowledge about the customer and their
wants. CRM allows the organization to see the
client’s interest, understand who the best
customers are, know which products and
services are generating the most revenue and
then allow the organization to market those
products and services to the customers who
are least engaged.
AMS systems were designed with the specific
goal of successfully managing 4 key tasks:
tracking member contact information, billing
dues, managing events, and producing static
reports such as labels and badges. Marketing,
sales and business intelligence designed to
help generate revenue have always been an
afterthought to AMS functional development.
Dynamics CRM was designed with workflow
automation built in from the beginning. It’s
not an add-on. This means automating
business processes is central to the
functionality of the software.
For many generations of AMS products, the
user interface and process workflow was an
afterthought. The systems were meant to be
a database, and few resources were put into
how to make the association staff’s job more
efficient.
Dynamics CRM was developed from the start
as a marketing platform. This marketing
functionality has been improved upon
through 5 generations of the product based
on feedback from thousands of companies.
Dynamics CRM marketing capability also
includes the availability of dozens of 3rd party
marketing add-on solutions that work
seamlessly with Dynamics CRM.
Most AMS systems do not inherently contain
marketing functionality, and no AMS comes
close to the Marketing automation that exists
in Dynamics CRM.
The choice of 3rd party add-ons for AMS is
also typically limited because other vendors
see limited value in developing solutions for
the small customer base available for each
AMS vendor.
The ability to extend the solution. As we’ve
already shown, Dynamics CRM is designed
from the ground up to be flexible and
extendable. In addition to the ability to easily
create new entities, forms and fields, you can
also develop your own custom workflows to
make CRM fit your business processes. This
flexibility also extends to the web as
Dynamics CRM is a completely web-based
application.
While most AMS systems provide some level
of configuration, none of them have the
flexibility of an xRM system and the proven
ability to protect and upgrade changes to the
application like Microsoft CRM.
Microsoft also provides extensive API’s that
are used by many thousands of developers so
that Dynamics CRM can integrate with other
solutions and easily allow an organization to
Even the more advanced AMS solutions that
provide a “tool-kit” still rely on their own
proprietary SDKs and APIs as opposed to the
much more widely used and supported
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implement outside custom development.
architecture and APIs used by Microsoft.
There are hundreds of companies who are
able to support Microsoft CRM. And an
association most likely already has IT staff
that is familiar with or certified in Microsoft
technologies. There is a much shorter learning
curve necessary to support the Microsoft
CRM solution.
With a proprietary AMS you are typically left
with only the AMS vendor as an option for
support. While some AMS vendors do have
partner channels, the options available are
still very small compared to the Microsoft
Dynamics CRM partner channel. And your IT
staff will have to learn a proprietary piece of
software that they have likely never used
before nor will ever use again.
Microsoft delivers much more innovation and
enhancement capabilities to the Dynamics
CRM solution. The product is in its 5th
generation and clients can be assured their
investment will be well insulated from
changes in technology.
Microsoft employs more developers and
spends more on R&D for Dynamics CRM than
the total revenue of the major AMS vendors
combined. AMS vendors will always be
playing “catch-up” to the new technology that
the major technology players like Microsoft
will be rolling out first. History has shown that
significant shifts in technology and
development platforms are difficult to AMS
vendors to make and expensive for their
customers in terms of product upgrades.
There is a very deep level of technical and
user support available for Dynamics CRM. This
includes not only the documentation available
from Microsoft, but also thousands of
discussion forums, blogs and user
communities. (see appendix 3)
While many AMS systems also have user
groups, they are often controlled by the
vendor or the group is simply too small to
provide a broad or deep knowledge base.
Microsoft is a proven leader in technology
innovation. There are more than 2.7 million
users on Dynamics CRM. This very large user
base helps drive enhancements to the
solution that will help all types of
organizations.
While AMS vendors do generally have specific
knowledge with regard to the functional
needs of their customers, this narrow view of
functionality and business requirements can
limit their ability to “think outside the box”
when it comes to solution enhancements.
AMS vendors will continually be followers of
technology improvements.
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What are the advantages of using Altai Systems and Altai Membership?
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The principals and staff of Altai Systems have decades of experience working with
associations. That experience shows in the deep functionality available in Altai
Membership.
Our non-profit specific functionality is created in Dynamics CRM following Microsoft’s
xRM application framework, using the tools within the product to take advantage of the
CRM platform instead of trying to build on top of it.
The Altai Business Engine allows custom configurations to be made without using codelevel changes to the application. This insures a smooth upgrade path.
The Altai Web Portal is controlled from within CRM. This allows customers to configure
their shopping cart experience, create new web forms and control role based security
for the Web Portal without programming and without engaging Altai.
We are very good at project management, and have experience implementing projects
as small as 5 users to as large as 400 users.
Our approach is to make the client as self-sufficient as possible. Out business model
does not include having our customers call us every time they need something
configured in their system.
Our goal is to make every client a reference, and our customers will tell you we are
achieving our goal.
Altai and CRM functionality your association needs
Membership Management
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Individual and organizational membership
Dues Billing
Committee Management
Relationship Management
Track member participation
Subscription Management
Event and Education Management
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Single function or multi-function/multi-day events
Trade show Management/Booth Sales
Continuing Education Tracking
Certification Program Management
Sales/Order Management
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Quotes and sales order management
Invoicing and receipts
Product and inventory management
Coupons/discounts
Manage advertising space sales
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Fundraising Management
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Campaign Management
One-time and recurring donations and pledges
Accept donations online
Fundraising events
Grant Management
Accounting
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Batch management
Deferral and Proration scheduling
Manage multiple “companies”
Integrate with Dynamics or other accounting software
Member Web Portal and Shopping Cart
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Member Profile
Unified Shopping Cart
Create custom web forms and make any CRM form available on the web
Restricted or unrestricted shopping process
Social and Mobile Solutions
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Sync LinkedIn profiles to your contacts
Sync CRM data to mobile device: contacts, emails, events, tasks
Make CRM forms mobile compatible
Integrate to your Private Social Community
Add-on tools to measure and enhance social engagement on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter
Business Intelligence
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Personalized Dashboards
Easy to use Query tool
Export any query to Excel; dynamic and static spreadsheets
Create reports in Microsoft SSRS or any SQL compatible report writer
Staff Productivity Enhancements
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Work within Outlook or a web browser
Personalized Staff Workplace (Homepage)
Staff Community - “follow” other staff members, contacts and activities
Task assignment and management
Workflows for automating processes
System Management Tools
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Add unlimited custom fields with pick lists and validation
Create custom forms and expose to the web or mobile device
Workflows for automated or on-demand processes
Create custom entities
Open API for integration to 3rd partly applications
Duplicate detection and record merge capabilities
Hundreds of Microsoft Dynamics Add-on applications available
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Appendix 1 – xRM Reference Architecture
Source: Microsoft White Paper “The xRM Advantage for Solution Builders”, April 2010
September 2012 Altai Systems. All rights protected and reserved
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Appendix 2 – Altai Portal Architecture
Dynamics CRM
Members
hip
Participation (committee,
chapter, subscription, etc..
Events
Financi
al
CustomerCustom
Business Engine
Altai Solution Code Base
Altai Business Plugin
Logic
AltaiREST
CMS Systems (WP, DNN,
SiteCore, SharePoint,
etc…)
AltaiCommerce
Mobile
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Appendix 3 – Examples of Support Options Available with CRM
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