What is an AMS? + Top Association Management System Features

Learn what an AMS is and how your association can benefit from using one.

Say your association is planning its first annual conference, relying mostly on an outdated AMS with limited features. However, you begin to encounter some obstacles along the way.

Participants are confused about where and how to register, which means staff members have to spend hours assisting them. Transactions from exhibitors, sponsors, and attendees become complicated, and staff members struggle to accurately track financial data from the conference. During the event, volunteers don’t know what their responsibilities are. After the conference wraps up, your association isn’t sure if it was a success or how to improve for next year.

So, what could this organization do differently to ensure future events run more smoothly? Investing in a more comprehensive association management system (AMS) will streamline day-to-day tasks, membership management, and even event planning.

In this guide, we’ll cover the basics of association management software and a few concrete ways your organization can use it to give members the best experience possible. We’ll answer questions like:

At this point, you might feel ready to select and implement an AMS at your organization. But to choose the best software for your association’s unique needs, it’s important to understand the basics. Let’s get started by defining “AMS” and exploring a few of its use cases.

Contact Protech to learn more about association management systems.

What is an AMS?

An AMS, which stands for association management software or system, is software that is designed to assist associations with every part of managing members, meetings and events, continuing education, finances, and data analytics.

There are many ways your organization can incorporate an AMS into its daily operations to improve member experiences. If you choose an AMS with a virtual member portal, for example, your members can create custom profiles, access or update their information at any time, engage in online communities, and make payments and renewals on their own.

This is just one example of how an AMS can give members more positive experiences and save your staff time on administrative tasks. Keep in mind that an AMS with a complete list of features can benefit every other part of your association, from communications to financial records.

What are the benefits of using an AMS System?

While small associations might be able to rely on smaller association management systems to manage their organizations, it’s critical to scale your operations as membership grows. A comprehensive AMS allows your association to grow alongside its roster to continue providing enriching interactions and opportunities to your members.

An AMS like this can also yield:

  • Optimized staffing. Think about everything your staff members need to do to keep your organization running smoothly—how many of those activities could be automated? An AMS can give staff members more time for value-generating activities by streamlining routine tasks (like data entry or sending renewal reminders).
  • Increased security. Throughout their membership experiences, your association gathers a lot of data about its members. From membership applications alone, you collect information like members’ full names, email addresses, and payment information. When stored in secure, trusted technology like an AMS, your members can have confidence that you’re protecting their data.
  • Data-backed decision-making. Reporting and analytics features accurately track data (in real time) so your organization can spot trends and make operations more efficient. You can even use this data to identify which strategies are helping you move toward your goals and which aren’t having much of an impact. For example, if you try a different outreach method and see an increase in new members, you could conclude that the strategy is effective (and keep using it!).

Keep in mind that to get the most benefit out of your AMS, you need to choose a solution that integrates with the technology you’re already using. Because Protech’s solution is partnered with Microsoft Dynamics 365, information can flow seamlessly between your AMS and any Microsoft app you use to manage your association. This reduces the need to move back and forth between multiple programs.

We cover the costs, preventative measures, and advice for staying clear of cyber attacks in this resource.

How can your association utilize an AMS?

There are some key features that every AMS system should have so associations can effectively manage various aspects of their organizations. If you’ve ever browsed a product page for a piece of software, you’re probably familiar with lists of these features and capabilities.

While it’s important to understand what offerings a prospective AMS has, just reading over these descriptions of features can make it challenging to conceptualize how that solution will fit into the daily tasks your association has to tackle. Here is a quick breakdown of four major features your AMS should have along with an example of how an association can use them:

1. Membership Management

As an employee or leader of an association, you’re familiar with the comprehensive facets of managing your members. You must communicate regularly to keep members informed on association activities, foster community and engagement, provide support, and manage dues and renewals. Depending on the size of your organization, it can feel impossible to perform all of these tasks as often as you need to.

An AMS with membership management capabilities has tools to keep members happy, engaged, and excited about renewing. The best part is that you won’t need to hire additional staff members or ask current employees to take on additional responsibilities.

Your solution should offer the following membership management tools:

  • A membership portal that is compatible with desktop and mobile devices
  • 24/7 access to member profiles, learning materials, and other resources
  • Mobile app options for on-the-go members
  • Access to payment information
  • Simple renewal processes
  • Self-serve e-commerce site for merchandise or event registration

It’s easy to see how these features, which increase what your members can do independently from your staff, can lead to better member experiences. Let’s also take a look at an example of how your internal team could use some of these features.

How can your association leverage this?

Let’s say your association is small (but growing), and you don’t have a comprehensive AMS yet. When it’s time for members to renew their membership, your team has to manually send them renewal reminder emails. Over time, you notice that some of these renewals fall through the cracks—perhaps because your organization forgot to send another reminder or the member didn’t have enough time to pay dues before their membership expired.

With an AMS, you can automate renewal reminders, ensuring all members have plenty of time to pay dues before the deadline. These reminders can include a link directing members to your self-service renewal form so they can quickly renew and pay.

2. Revenue Development

With these features, your organization can implement and manage additional revenue streams like fundraising and e-commerce.

Your AMS automates these processes so your staff plays a more limited role in tasks like accepting donations or payments for merchandise. You can even list tickets to conferences and exclusive webinars on the e-commerce page so members can purchase them at any time. Make sure the software can offer special promotions or discounts and calculate any taxes or fees on purchases as well.

When it comes to fundraising, your AMS system could boost results by:

  • Creating donor profiles to track engagement
  • Accepting different types of contributions, including recurring gifts and in-kind donations
  • Having the option to process invoices either manually or automatically

While these features can save your staff countless hours managing donations, they also ensure your association is providing a transparent donor experience. Over time, you’ll build a trusting relationship with donors, helping you garner more support for future fundraisers.

How can your association leverage this?

Your association knows that the best way to protect its financial health is to diversify revenue streams beyond dues payments. Even though your staff members may not have professional fundraising expertise, your AMS has what you need to launch a digital fundraising campaign. You can set up a donation page, promote the fundraiser on social media and through email marketing, and share links to your donation page.

Once the fundraiser launches, your supporters will be impressed at how easy it is to donate, and they will receive donation receipts soon after making contributions. Your association’s fundraiser was a success, and you didn’t need to purchase additional fundraising software or add to staff members’ workloads.

3. Event Planning

Events can offer many benefits to both your association and its members. Conferences allow for networking opportunities and keep members up-to-date on breakthroughs in your field. Workshops and training sessions further members’ education and develop their professional skills. Associations can even set up more casual social events to foster community among members.

On the flip side, events can be difficult to plan. They involve many moving pieces from setting up a seamless registration process to securing sponsorships. To make the planning process easier, look for an AMS with the following event planning tools:

  • Meeting setup
  • Online registration
  • Data collection and tracking

Additionally, make sure your software allows you to manage the many transactions you’ll receive from exhibitors and attendees, like payments for booths and event badges.

How can your association leverage this?

Your association is planning its annual conference, now with the help of an AMS. You’ve streamlined registration, secured event sponsors, and collected all of the necessary payments from exhibitors and attendees. Once the event wraps up, you’re left with a wealth of data.

Using this data, you determine that a sizable percentage of attendees were first-time, non-member participants. Using the email addresses they entered into your registration form, your organization sends out emails thanking them for attending and encouraging them to stay in touch by directing them to additional resources like webinars or upcoming events. As a result, your association convinces these attendees to stay involved with your organization and eventually motivates them to join.

Follow this path to collect important member data that will help you make the most of your next event.

4. Reporting and Analytics

In addition to events, there are other areas your organization can improve by collecting and analyzing data.

Being able to analyze your association’s data at any time (and ensure that data is updated and accurate) can be a game changer, enabling you to reach ambitious goals. These features track your organization’s progress toward its goals and analyze the efficacy of new strategies. Alongside these performance metrics, your organization can track its financial data to ensure you’re spending within your budget, meeting fundraising goals, and more.

Your AMS’s reporting features maximize your revenue and give you the information you need to make informed decisions through features like:

  • Custom dashboards
  • Interactive reports that give you a bird’s eye view of your association
  • Business intelligence (BI) technology, so staff can quickly visualize data and identify actionable insights
  • Integrations that allow you to analyze data without leaving your AMS

When it comes to growing your association and continuing to meet (and exceed) member expectations, it’s critical to understand the ways your association could improve and how to improve. Data analytics uncover these insights so you can start putting them into action.

How can your association leverage this?

Say that at the beginning of the new year, your association made a goal to increase membership by 10%. However, summer is approaching and you aren’t quite sure how close you are to the goal.

To limit this confusion, you build a custom dashboard in your AMS that automatically tracks and updates metrics like new members joined, renewals made, and members who chose not to renew. Throughout the year, your association can quickly see how many members join and leave each month, and you develop strategies that boost the retention of current members. You can also revamp your association’s existing outreach strategies to make contact with more prospective members each month.

When the year wraps up, you find that your association met its goal, boosted retention, and massively improved its outreach methods.

Which AMS system should your organization use?

Now that you know the basics of association management software, it’s time to start looking for your ideal solution. Choose your AMS based on your budget, top priorities, the tools already in your tech stack, and any other preferences (e.g., you need built-in marketing tools).

To get you started, here are our top picks:

Protech: Best for associations using Microsoft Dynamics 365

Protech allows you to blend the power of Microsoft Dynamics 365 with comprehensive association management tools. Our AMS is built specifically for Dynamics 365 and is certified for the Microsoft AppSource. This gives you access to Microsoft’s other applications, connectors to third-party platforms, and regular updates that extend your association management capabilities.

Screenshot of Protech’s AMS website homepage.

Our feature-rich AMS provides you with the tools you need to support your mission and better serve members, including:

  • Membership management: Allow members to access and edit their member profiles at any time through a single sign-on. Foster a sense of community online, engage members with our mobile app, and simplify multi-chapter management.
  • Event planning: Streamline meeting setup and event registration to save your staff and members time. Keep track of exhibitors and manage transactions for booths, badges, and more.
  • Education and professional development: Make it easy for members to track and share certifications and continuing education goals. Evaluate members’ interest in certain topics to provide more personalized experiences and offerings.
  • Fundraising: Manage donor relationships with donor profiles and interaction tracking. Easily accept donations of any kind—from recurring gifts to in-kind donations—without giving staff more work.
  • E-commerce: Nurture your non-dues revenue streams by offering a convenient way for members to shop from your association online. Make the process completely automated and self-served. Plus, you can offer discounts and calculate additional costs (i.e., taxes and shipping).
  • Financial management: Leverage Protech Payments, our secure payment platform that merges your financial and membership data on one unified platform. Track and report your association’s finances, accept the payment methods that are most convenient to your members (e.g., digital wallet or even multicurrency transactions), and automate manual accounting processes by integrating financial management software like QuickBooks.
  • Marketing: Send individual, segmented, or mass marketing emails directly from Dynamics 365. Track key performance indicators such as open and click-through rates to determine campaign success.
  • Member data & analytics: Create custom reports and dashboards to easily visualize your data. Leverage Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI) to quickly gain actionable insights to improve your results.

To learn more about Protech’s AMS and see our powerful tools in action, reach out to our team for a demo.

Fonteva: Best for organizations using Salesforce

Fonteva is the best AMS option for larger associations that use Salesforce, the world’s top CRM. It is completely native to Salesforce, integrating seamlessly with the Salesforce CRM, apps featured in the AppExchange, and tools included in the Salesforce ecosystem (e.g., Experience Cloud).

Screenshot of Fonteva’s website homepage.

Fonteva boasts plenty of features that promote member engagement, simplify event planning, and more. Just a few of these capabilities allow you to:

  • Create collaborative online communities branded to your association.
  • Manage events in any format with features including a mobile events app, agenda builder, responsive event microsites, and more.
  • Build searchable member directories that members can update themselves.
  • Visualize key data points using custom dashboards and data analytics.
  • Set specific goals and track customized metrics.
  • Gain predictive insights powered by Salesforce’s AI tool, the Einstein 1 Platform.

Fonteva also offers an integrated payment processing system to help your association track and manage its finances. Being fully 3DS2 compliant, this system is focused on providing secure, streamlined payment experiences to your members while offering deeper insights to your association. Plus, make the process convenient by accepting digital wallet transactions, handling multicurrency transactions, and more.

Fonteva also offers a comprehensive event management solution designed to manage events in any format, with features including a mobile events app, an agenda builder, responsive event microsites, and more.

Reach out to the Fonteva team to schedule a demo!

Wrapping Up

The right AMS can transform your association’s operations, making it possible to achieve ambitious goals and give your members the best experience possible. To conduct further research into potential AMS providers for your association and find a solution that’s tailored to your specific needs, check out our guide on 20+ AMS providers and these two other additional resources:

Reach out to Protech to explore the ins and outs of association management software.