By: The Protech Team    

Our staff has the privilege of working with professional and trade associations every day, and occasionally, our clients use the terms association management software (AMS) and customer relationship management (CRM) interchangeably. This is a common misconception that clouds the benefits that an AMS built on top of a CRM platform can bring to associations.

Securing buy-in for new or upgraded tools becomes much more difficult without a clear idea of what is required. Plus, you could miss out on the broader benefits of being a tech-savvy organization—members who see an organization as an early adopter of technology are 81% more satisfied with their membership.

To equip your association for long-term success, we’ll distinguish between AMS and CRM platforms. We’ll cover:

• Quick Comparison: AMS vs. CRM
• What is AMS Software?
• What is CRM Software?
• Understanding the Difference Between AMS and CRM Software
• Do You Need Both an AMS and a CRM?
• AMS and CRM: Creating a Complete Association Toolkit

Read on to learn more about how the right association software systems can strengthen your organization’s operations, relationships, and long-term health.

Quick Comparison: AMS vs. CRM

What are the fundamental differences between AMS and CRM platforms?

To sum up, you can think of the general distinctions between AMS and CRM platforms as such:

• AMS platforms
  • Designed specifically for membership organizations to facilitate member interactions, foster engagement, and process transactions. An AMS allows you to learn more about your performance and bring your strategies to life.
• CRM platforms
  • Designed for any organization to store large sets of contact data, track engagement and touchpoints, analyze contact behavior, and automate tasks using the organized contact data. A CRM gives you foundational insights into your organization’s operations and relationships.

With these big-picture differences in mind, let’s take a closer look at how each platform works.

What is AMS Software? 

Generally speaking, association management software (AMS) refers to the technologies, business tools, and services that an association utilizes to manage and leverage data for decision-making.

Depending on your AMS’s functionalities, it is also frequently used to facilitate most day-to-day interactions with members. For example, Capterra describes how AMS systems can be used for “generating mail lists, organizing events, tracking the interests of members and donors, and sending out mass emails to your lists.”

With an AMS, your association can:

• Streamline workflows
• Automate daily administrative tasks for your staff
• Deeply engage with members through community forums
• Maintain website development
• Organize e-commerce history of your members (including subscriptions)
• Organize committee and chapter management tasks
• Create exhibit, sponsorship, and advertising services
• Integrate learning management systems (LMS) for education and professional development for your members
• Develop fundraising channels and organize volunteer management services
• Securely accept a variety of payment methods, including international, ACH, and digital wallet payments
• Integrate with financial management systems for seamless accounting functions
• Create surveys
• Support job boards
• Integrate with social media platforms
• Create interactive events for your members
• Develop mobile apps

Think of AMS software as the member-facing system that not only helps you strategize your different campaigns and events but also provides an interface for interacting with members. If you’re interested in learning more about association management software, contact us for a consultation.

What is CRM Software? 

Customer relationship management (CRM) software refers to the tools and strategies organizations use to store interaction data and strengthen relationships with their target customers, members, or supporters. For example, CRM systems can store your members’ engagement histories and data, which can be used in targeted marketing campaigns.

However, a CRM system isn’t just a kind of software for associations — it’s a broader way of thinking about your members and where they fit into your operations.

As Wes Trochlil of Effective Database Management points out, “CRM is not a functionality or a technology; it is a strategy and philosophy. At the center of this philosophy is the customer.” This idea is also explained at CIO.com —

“One of the most important things to keep in mind about a CRM system is that it is ultimately less important than the data you put into it. That’s one reason to think of CRM as a philosophy and set of practices for recording data about customer interactions, not just a software package you buy.”

You might be asking yourself, “Wait, I thought the CRM is the platform I use to look up accounts and contact records of my members?” And, you’d be right.

However, making the most of CRM software requires that you truly understand both the technology and the philosophy behind it. This promotes organization-wide adoption, allows you to customize the software to fit your needs, and enables you to fit it into your broader member engagement and acquisition strategies.

Any CRM, especially those at the enterprise level, can be complicated and needs dedicated attention and support to generate value.

Understanding the Difference Between AMS and CRM Software

To recap, both an AMS and CRM collect and store data about your association’s members.

To summarize their differences, an AMS is a specialized tool designed to serve your members, assist staff in day-to-day operations, and address association-specific needs with precision. It helps you provide stellar member experiences and keep your association running smoothly in the short and long term.

A CRM, on the other hand, is a more versatile tool for closely tracking interactions with prospects and current members so staff can determine the best ways to engage them. A well-managed CRM fuels strategic efficiency and long-term growth, for example, by revealing new strategic insights (which you can address using the features of your AMS).

Do You Need Both an AMS and a CRM?

It’s no coincidence that businesses and nonprofits alike prioritize the online experiences they offer. It’s a data-driven decision. 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience, customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable, and 1 in 3 customers will leave a brand they love after just one negative experience.

This is why investing in technology that is designed to cater to your targeted audience—association members—is essential.

A dedicated AMS platform is a great first step, offering member dashboards, member community functionality, and other tools tailor-made to promote the online member experience. But what benefits does a CRM bring?

Strategic Benefits of CRM Functionalities for Associations

Without a member-specific CRM strategy and tools to support your AMS, you can miss out on many opportunities to refine your engagement, retention, and acquisition techniques, which lead to long-term revenue growth and increased efficiency.

Just take a look at the following functions made possible by a member-oriented CRM:

• Scale operations as your association grows
• Automate customer-facing business processes
• Optimize member engagement and customer service
• Implement business intelligence and analytics tools
• Provide revenue projections for executives
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
• Score prospective members
• Implement geolocation technology
• Human resource management
• Implement marketing automation tools
• Implement artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and robotic process automation (RPA) tools
• Access data through mobile devices
• Social networking integrations
• Field services automation

If your association considers itself an enterprise organization, you need a fully functioning CRM to handle these administrative tasks.

From engagement history to acquisition rates, the essential data stored by your CRM will give your association a better view of your members and enable you to communicate with, engage, and retain them more effectively.

Finding a CRM Solution for Your Association

For associations ready to upgrade their tech stacks on a large scale, the best choice is a purpose-built CRM-based AMS (an AMS solution that includes foundational CRM functionalities).

As you research your options, prioritize vendors that:

• Specifically discuss and walk through their CRM features — You want real details and examples, not vague descriptions.
• Include CRM features in a straightforward pricing structure — Upgrades and add-ons can become costly fast.
• Offer demos of their software — Get a firsthand look at both the AMS and CRM features your association will rely on.

Be sure to explicitly discuss the distinctions between AMS and CRM software internally, as well, so that your entire purchasing team understands that CRM features boost long-term growth and bolster the benefits of your AMS. Internal resistance can be a major technology challenge in associations, so securing buy-in will pay dividends down the road.

AMS and CRM: Creating a Complete Association Toolkit

Having an AMS system without a CRM, or vice-versa, means your association will lack crucial data points that provide your staff with a clear picture of who your members are, what they do, and what they expect in their association experience.

For example, a blog post from HighRoad Solutions indicated that your staff can use AMS data in conjunction with a CRM to better identify leads and streamline marketing automation. Additionally, product offerings can be improved based on web engagement metrics stored in a CRM.

Consider how you could use this dual AMS-CRM strategy in the member onboarding process.

When someone signs up, they usually need assistance getting to know the products and services that come with their membership. Bombarding them with information on the first day is counterproductive. Instead, you can use your CRM to automate the process of sending them introductory emails at regular intervals over the first few weeks, providing digestible amounts of information about how to get started in the community.

An AMS solution with CRM capabilities will give you access to the right tools to handle core tasks and provide the add-on components and configurations with third-party applications that you need.

In other words, these solutions allow your team to easily fill any gaps in your current technology stack and intelligently tackle every facet of your association’s operations.

The Protech Approach: CRM-Based AMS for Associations

The Protech team understands the individual importance of these systems and how they both come together to simplify the often difficult and complicated task of association management. That’s exactly why we’ve created an AMS system built around CRM principles, strategies, and tools.

With our CRM-based AMS, you no longer have to compare these two systems and weigh their strengths and weaknesses. Instead, Protech offers a robust suite of integrated tools, including event, professional development, and membership management, so your team can comprehensively understand your association in a single centralized system.

Built on Microsoft’s most powerful technology, Protech’s robust AMS is built to help any association at any level of development reach its fullest potential.

Want to learn more about Protech’s advanced CRM-based AMS? Request a demo of our simple, flexible, and robust association management solution.

Additional Resources

As you begin your technology search, you’ll likely run into more questions—keep learning! By gathering all the information you need to make informed decisions for your association, you’ll set your team up for long-term success.

If you’d like to learn more, we’ve gathered a few additional sources that can help:

• One-Stop Buyer’s Guide to Membership Management Software
• Association Software 101: How to Find the Best AMS Platform
• How to Set Up Your Membership Directory + Key Elements by Fonteva