Finding “Perfection” in Your Association Management Service

Identify your top priorities in order to find the right AMS for your association.

Wouldn’t you love for everything just to run perfectly? It’s easy to imagine your association’s seamless operating system… run by flawless employees… for thoroughly satisfied members. Paints a nice picture, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, we all know perfection doesn’t exist.  

However, we can still work towards it. As Vince Lombardi said, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” It’s about finding what will work best — rather than what will work perfectly.

When it comes to finding an association management service, look for one that best fits your organization. By starting out with the right AMS building blocks, you can make more effective improvements over the months and years to come.

Identify Your Top Priority For Your  Association Management Service

According to data compiled by Bear Analytics, the four most important criteria for an AMS are customization, reliability, ease of use, and customer service.

Most management services meet all four of these criteria, but they do so with varied methods and results. To find the CME management service closest to perfection, you need to decide what criterion takes priority.

• Customization. If customization is most important to you, you want your AMS to be versatile. You may forfeit some usability points, but you will gain the extraordinary options needed to build a custom management system.
• Reliability. If your top priority is reliability, seek out management services with excellent hosting architecture and quick server response time. You should also look for quality technical support. Should anything go wrong, you’ll want it fixed quickly.
• Ease of Use. Perhaps you don’t have the resources to manage a complicated system. Or, maybe your association’s needs are straightforward. Either way, you just want the basics. Your most important criterion is simplicity and usability.
• Customer Service. The vendor/client relationship is crucial. Customer service stands out as the most common cause of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. If you have limited management resources, then excellent customer service should be your top priority. Before choosing your AMS, engage with the vendor representatives to ensure you will have the necessary support.

To “catch excellence,” you must first know what perfection would look like for your organization. Take some time to consider your association’s needs, and then put these criteria into order of importance. With this self-knowledge, you will more easily find the association management system best suited to you.

EthosCE is the industry-leading, SCORM-compliant learning management system designed to automate and modernize the delivery of continuing education in the health professions. We work closely with leading medical association, academic centers, and health system to optimize their technology infrastructure and create an easy-to-use and intuitive environment for learners and CME administrators alike. For more information about our EthosCE, please contact us at 267-234-7401.