Benefits of Open Technology in a Membership Database

One of the first things one learns in business is that it is hard to be all things to all people.  We learn the term “core competency” which according to businessdictionary.com is defined as a “Cluster of extraordinary abilities or related ‘excellences’.” Then we focus in on what we are best it – and partner with others to develop complementary skill sets and services to round out what it is we do.

In her new book Open Leadership, Charlene Li points out how even seemingly closed companies expand their services and market share by sticking to their core competencies and then opening up pieces of their systems to allow for expansion.  One of the best examples is Apple, which many would agree is walled, ivory tower of open communications.  However, through their iTunes App Store they have opened their universe and technology to thousands of independent developers who have delivered hundreds of thousands of applications – clearly extending the capabilities of a specialized piece of hardware.

So with this filter and understanding, it’s refreshing to read the press release earlier this month about Agilutions’ work to develop a customized credentialing solution for the American-Speech-Hearing-Language Association (ASHA).

Agilutions took a close look at ASHA’s certification process to engineer a solution that included not only process improvements but also new technologies.  Because of the open nature of netFORUM Toolkit (part of netFORUM Enterprise), Agilutions was able to take their particular expertise – credentialing and process improvements – and build on top of Avectra’s core competency of the association membership database.  The result is an improvement that has dramatically improved the processing time of applications by Avectra.

In fact a few months ago during a conversation with Mike Guerrieri, one of the things that he pointed that one of the things he likes most about netFORUM Enterprise is the system’s flexibility.  The ASHA case study on the Avectra website points out the following: 

“We bought something that is growing and continuing to evolve with new features,” said Guerrieri. As sudden business opportunities or challenges have arisen, netFORUM Enterprise’s extensibility has equipped Guerrieri’s team to respond quickly.

Sounds like open technology to me.

I recently had a conversation with a VP of Marketing at another association who is experiencing the exact opposite situation.  They want to add a CMS and other basic technologies.  However, in order to perform what should be simple tasks they need build workarounds in the data fields of their AMS and get two outside vendors to do specialized customizations – which ultimately costs extra and may “break” the underlying structure of the core database.  This is an example of a legacy, closed database that isn’t able to talk with current technologies.

The lesson is that there are many available technologies and some try to be all things to all situations/departments/applications.

However, what this work by Agilutions and ASHA points out is that it is important to look for technologies that know what they do well – and when they don’t do something specific (or don’t do it well) have the ability to be extended or integrated by 3^rd parties to do it better.

As you look at the membership database that is running your association, ask the following questions:

• Is there an easy way to integrate this with other systems?
• Is there an opportunity to work with a certified partner who can develop what you need or extend your system?
• What would you say are the core strengths of the system? If you need something that doesn’t fall within that checklist, can you modify your internal processes to work with what they have?

The days of “walled-off” software are over.  Systems need to be able to talk to each other, partner and be extended to meet the users needs.   And when they can’t do that, it is time to evaluate existing systems and invest in new ones that offer an open platform to extend beyond the core competency.