"I feel like we went from circa 2008 technology to the leading edge of technology."
Products
Key Features
Nimble Create
Nimble Fuse
The American Foundry Society (AFS) was no longer on a supported association management system (AMS) platform, which posed a significant challenge, as there was no future path or help for their AMS.
Committed to improving healthcare quality, safety, and efficiency, SIIM offers professional development and learning opportunities for members and constituents. SIIM has a complex continuing education program that requires manual staff processes and a complicated member experience. The organization needed a new platform to streamline course management by integrating with its current learning management software (LMS), Path LMS.
Challenge & Solution
Unfortunately, the association technology industry lacked future-forward AMS options. Mike Lakas, Senior IT Director for AFS, had over 15 years of experience in the association technology space. He was looking to take AFS to the next level and had “been there, done that” with many of the AMSs on the market. He knew he wanted a cloud-based solution and had already moved other organizational tools to the cloud.
AFS was updating many aspects of their organization, and their AMS troubles became the “elephant in the room.” Leadership recognized that changes were needed across the organization, and the AMS was a cornerstone of those changes. Mike commented, “The AMS is every piece of the organization–you can’t get that wrong.”
Mike had prior exposure to Salesforce and began his search for a Salesforce-based AMS. “Other vendors were structured like a private equity target, and we did not want to hitch our wagon to that. At the end of the day, I knew Nimble AMS was a relatively new product. However, it was built on a future-forward platform.”
AFS was interested in a true partnership. Mike commented, “I’ve worked with several AMS companies. By far, Momentive staff and culture are amazing. They have a start-up atmosphere with an experienced mentality. People on the project were Grade A experts, enthusiastic, and wanted to see the project succeed. From implementation through to post-project support, I still feel like we are getting world-class service.
Results
AFS no longer had to worry about costly upgrades or runaway projects, as they did with their old system. Momentive offers pain-free upgrades and always stays on the latest version.
AFS wanted to empower staff and free up their IT department. Staff wanted to take control of their own data to create list views, run and create reports, as well as produce data exports without going through IT for simple information. The intuitive nature of Nimble AMS makes this possible. Mike remarked, “Staff are very excited over the ability to do point and click configurations to meet their requirements, a clear sign that Nimble AMS can evolve and grow with AFS to meet future needs.”
AFS wanted to extend, connect and integrate the AMS data with various other systems without intensive manual work to make it happen. Nimble AMS, leveraging the Salesforce App Cloud, is an innovation machine unmatched by legacy systems in this regard.
AFS required a system that maintained a high level of online performance for both staff users and constituents. There are redundancies at all levels of the Salesforce infrastructure, including power, internet service providers, networks, hardware, and software, ensuring 24/7 performance and security.
AFS is a forward-thinking, innovative association, and technology is not just a tool for them. It is a strategy. AFS became a first mover and pioneer of Nimble Create, recognizing some cost savings in the process. By partnering with Momentive and leveraging Nimble Fuse, AFS was able to reduce the overall cost of their implementation and integrate with several solutions, including:
- Higher Logic (Community)
What is Nimble Fuse? In a nutshell, this API framework simplifies integrations, making inbound and outbound data accessible to outside vendors without requiring complicated architecture or modifying code. Because of the Salesforce platform and the power of Nimble Fuse, AFS didn’t have to spend valuable project dollars on integrating with other systems.