Inside ASI-AP

Yesterday I hosted the second of our monthly "MD's Boardroom Luncheon" function in our Melbourne boardroom. The purpose of these luncheons is to get our customers together, over lunch, in our boardroom, for some networking and information sharing.

This function however has 3 differentiators from our regular functions - firstly, the attendees are selected by their functional titles. Last month we had CFO's and Financial Controllers; this month we had CEO's and GM's. Secondly, it is a classly lunch - 2 courses, sit down, waiters, wine, and excellent food. And finally, I am the host and the speaker.

Our CEO audience yesterday was great. CEO's are automatically good networkers and good people persons, so the discussion at the luncheon tables was relevant and informative. Plus we had some CEO's of some customers that we just never get to talk to, or hadn't talked to for many years.

I used the same theme as last month on asking our guests "what keeps you awake at night?". Of course, related to iMIS and their business systems generally. I will be using that feedback to attempt to maintain an ongoing dialougue, electronically, to see if we can collectively solve some of those things that keep people awake.

After lunch, I spoke on iMIS 15 and what it means from the CEO perspective. A transcript of my speech is copied in below. I spoke mainly on customer for life and how we promise to do two things to make that promise - keep them upgraded (with technology and best practice business process), and give them great support.

It was interesting that I reflected on my speech late in the afternoon, actually after reviewing the first round of customer survey results, and realised that we really are getting the message across re: upgrades - and that we need to keep doing that, especially to the CEO's. But in my speech I mentioned nothing about giving great support, and what that means. So I need to make sure I talk about both promises more evenly in future - keeping customers upgraded AND giving great support.

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Luncheon speech for CEO/EXEC contacts MD Boardroom Lunch 5 June 2007

Good afternoon and welcome. It is my great pleasure to host our boardroom luncheon today, a new monthly event on the ASI calendar.

We have 2 objectives today. Firstly, networking. Networking – ohhh, I hear some of you sigh - not another networking event, our calendar is already full of them! Well that may be true, but today is a little different. Firstly, all of you in the room work for non-profit organizations. Sure, there are a number of non-profit industry associations – like AuSAE, Associations Forum – that run industry events. As an aside, you may be surprised to learn that the iMIS community is larger than all of those organizations. So in effect we have our own little industry association right here, with iMIS in common. But we need to go a step further. The second thing all of you have in common is that you are either CEO’s or executive managers. And for that reason, I know you have common challenges that you face in your jobs. Finally, most of your organizations are non-competitive, which means peer networking, sharing problems and solutions, is very real. Comparing fee structures, member rentention rates, growth rates, member to staff ratios – is something that most of you can easily talk about at your table.

The second objective is to provide you with the latest information on iMIS 15. Which I will be doing after lunch.

So – let’s get started. You have 2 tasks to complete before we serve lunch. The first is to look at your profile form in front of you. We would like to share your contact details with the rest of the group here today, but to do that we need your permission. So please check your details are correct, cross off anything you do not want us to publish, and if you are OK to share just with this group here today, tick the box.

At the bottom of the same profile form you will see space to write 3 things that keep you awake at night. Keep you awake at night? Huh? Why would you want to tell me that? Well, let me be a little more specific. If you are an iMIS customer, I want you to be specific about 3 things that keep you awake at night related to iMIS and your software systems, including your websites. If you do not use iMIS, then consider whatever system you use to manage your members and finances, and what keeps you awake at night with those systems. The what keeps you awake at night list will not be published, it is just for my reading. But we will quickly collate your answers while you are eating lunch, and I am guessing that many of you will have challenges in common, and between us, after we leave today, as a group we can start to try and work on getting you a decent nights sleep.

Your second task is introductions. Here’s how we are going to do this – you need to nominate someone at your table to be the ‘introducer’ – and it can’t be one of the ASI staff. Each of you need to introduce yourself to one another at your table, and then the introducer will stand up and briefly introduce your table to the room.

So take 10 minutes now to check your profile form, write down 3 things that keep you awake at night, and nominate your table introducer and introduce yourself to your table.

[10 minute break]

Welcome back. If you can have your profile forms ready for collection now, Marla will come around and collect those from you. And lets hear from table 1.
Then table 2.
Then table 3.
Thank you.
If you are looking for things to talk about at your table over lunch, I’d like to draw your attention to this card: “7 Business Drivers of High Performance Non-Profits”. Pick 1 or 2 drivers from the list to discuss over lunch. Let’s eat.

[Lunch and desert served]

[Main presentation]

Welcome back, I trust you enjoyed lunch and your conversation with your peers.

Firstly, I want to come back to the profile form and the things keeping you awake at night. Marla has compiled these while we were eating lunch, and we will now hand out the list of attendees and your contact details. If you take a minute to look at the list, and see a name of someone you would like to meet but they are not at your table, please mention it to one of the ASI team and we will make sure you get introduced before we leave today.

As for keeping you awake at night, the 2 most common answers were:

1. Data management

2. Management of organization growth

I am not going to take time out now to discuss solutions to these challenges, but would like to suggest instead that I do so over the coming weeks via email, and would encourage you to participate in that discussion, particularly if you have already had the challenge and solved it at your own organization.

Let’s move on now to our second objective of the luncheon – an update on iMIS 15.

Before I do, however, I just wanted to give a brief overview of ASI and iMIS generally. I know many of you came into the organization and iMIS was already implemented. For many of your organizations, iMIS has been in use for 10 years or more.

This is important, because ASI believes in customer for life. We believe once you buy iMIS you will never have to buy another system. I would like to take a minute to recognize the customers in the room that have been using iMIS for 10 years or more –
Australian Principals Federation - Angela
CPA Australia - Jeremy
Gymnastics Australia - Jane
Master Locksmiths Association of Australia - Allan

Customer for life – that is a big commitment to make. And for us to make that promise, we have to do 2 things. We have to keep iMIS upgraded with both current technology and with current business practices. And secondly we have to give great support.

Unfortunately for us, when you first buy iMIS, customer for life is a pretty hard message for us to get across. You generally buy iMIS to solve some business problems. Common examples of business problems include high maintenance costs of supporting a custom built system, a members record spread across multiple systems multiple times, or the inability to understand all the products and services a member uses from your organization.

For many of you, the actual reasons for buying iMIS may be lost with previous management. But that doesn’t really matter, because iMIS needs to keep solving your business problems, today and into the future. So we have to keep you up to date. Customer for life.

For example, many of you in this room are now online businesses. 10 years ago a few, if any of you, used the internet. Today, I know organizations here like CPA Australia collected over $60 million dollars online last year. Jane from Gymnastics Australia has rolled out a club support program via the web that just would not have been possible to do last decade. So your business is changing. And iMIS needs to both support that, and we also have to drive it.

Which is a great introduction to iMIS 15. iMIS 15 is the next upgrade of iMIS from iMIS 10. Why the numbering? Actually this is ASI’s 15th year in business. iMIS 10 was released in our 10th year, and iMIS 15 in our 15th year.

Importantly, iMIS 15 is an upgrade. It will come shipped to you on a CD that you can use to upgrade from your iMIS 10.6 system. It is like an upgrade to Windows or to Office.

So what’s new in iMIS 15? Firstly, let me talk about the technology. I said to keep you as a customer for life, we need to keep you up to date with technology. iMIS 15 is doing that. A large part of iMIS 15 is written in Microsoft’s .NET technology and almost all of the non-processing aspects is now browser based. Which means the average user can use just a web browser to look up contact information and run queries. What does that really mean for you? What business problem does that solve? It means easier and quicker access to member contact and activity data stored in iMIS, for any of your staff, volunteers, committee members, even members, directly from your website. No need to install software or give extensive training. And importantly no need for each person to keep their own little Outlook contact lists or spreadsheets of member information. This business problem is solved by technology –the web. So yes – iMIS is right up to date with technology.

We also have to keep you updated with best practice process if you are to keep iMIS for life. iMIS 15 delivers many new functions here as well. Speaking generally, many of our association customers now employ commissioned sales staff and manage a sales team – and they need sales force automation functions to support this. In iMIS, this module is called Process Manager and it has been significantly enhanced in iMIS 15 to help you manage all processes like member acquisition programs, member renewal and retention programs, corporate sponsor sales, and event and product sales. Targeted customer offerings is another fairly recent trend for our customers – sophisticated segmentation tools like RFM Analytics and Marketing Campaign management are newly enhanced modules for iMIS 15. Many of you will be members of AICD – the Australian Institute of Company Directors. They are iMIS customers, Sydney based so not able to attend today, but soon will you see some changes to their membership application and renewal forms. They have introduced 4 segments based on behavioral factors; they are currently going back through all existing members and applying them to 1 of the 4 segments, but it is not just about segmenting the members, they are also reviewing every product and service they offer to ensure that each is aligned with one of the 4 segments. As to how they are allocating members to segments – actually the members do it themselves by answering 7 questions. So later this year, look out for your Company Directors renewal form, and look at the 7 questions. And think segmentation and targeted customer offerings. And think iMIS 15.

Our Informz email marketing platform is also continually being upgraded. This year online election voting and SMS texting has been added. Are you worried that your communications department is sending members too many emails? With Informz, you can set the maximum number of emails a member will receive each month, and also the number of days between each email. If you are not aware of Informz and the flexibility of true, integrated email marketing platform, make a note to talk to us this year about Informz.

Other best practices in iMIS 15 include online communities for online collaboration, an updated intelligent query tool for getting to your member data quicker and easier, and an enhanced data warehousing and business analytics engine to let you monitor trends in your organization over time.

Let me come back to customer for life. For us to deliver on that, we need to keep you up to date with technology and keep you up to date, or drive you along, with industry best practices.

Trouble is, for the CEO, like you, is how the hell do you keep up with it all. How do you even know what you don’t know about iMIS? And what it can do to help you drive your organization forward.

Well, I am glad you came today. Because that is a problem that has been on my mind for over a year now.

The simple answer is that ASI wants to start talking with you about business problems, solving business problems, and not just software modules.

Which is why I asked you before lunch to write down the things that keep you awake at night. Chances are they are related to your current business problems. But the real power is the combination of your business problems and the community of people we have in the room today – a collaborative community and a combined set of business problems. Problems you may have already faced and solved, or problems you may not have come across yet. This is already working.

Last year, at a function of our top 10 customers, the largest associations in the country, we asked the same question ‘what keeps you awake at night’. The answers to those questions, along with extensive industry research, has resulted in the card in front of you today. The “7 Business Drivers of High Performance Non-Profits”.

iMIS 15 supports all 7 business drivers listed on the card. Your job is to continually communicate to your teams that iMIS is the most important information tool in your organization. And that iMIS 15 addresses nearly all of your operational challenges in ONE system.

You need to ask the question – why isn’t this in iMIS?

Plus, ASI is here to help you – you, specifically – like never before. We are designing new services to work with you on 3 year strategies, on the 7 business drivers, on annual operational plans, and on training your team. We will be rolling those out over the next 12 months and we are going to ask to see you. So when me or one of my team ask to spend a few hours with you talking about business challenges, I would really like you to give us that time.

iMIS 15 - is the next step in the journey of customer for life. We promise to keep you upgraded with technology and with current best practice. And we promise to give you great support. Anytime we do not do that you need to please let me know. My email, my direct phone number and mobile are on the handout sheet.

That brings us to the end of my presentation. A couple of key date reminders before we leave. If you or one of your team want to see a demo of iMIS 15 you need to register to attend one of our free weekly webcasts – goto our website to signup. I am also very pleased to announce that the NiUG iMIS user group – a true independent user group - is now formally established in Australia and their first iMIS Information day was held 2 weeks ago down at AIM – over 50 people were in attendance – if you are not already a member of NiUG it is $135 well spent. Contact the chairman - Rod Dalglish at the Bus Association of Victoria.

In closing, I just want to come back to the objectives for today. Firstly networking. I trust that the lunch environment, the exclusive CEO/executive manager only invitations, the table layouts, the questions on what keeps you awake at night, helped you meet your peers today. I welcome your feedback.

Secondly, an update on iMIS 15, the next upgrade to iMIS to keep you as a customer for life. And a new opportunity for us to talk to you about business challenges and the things that keep you awake at night.

Myself and the other ASI team members are available here until around 2.30 if any of you have questions or would like to speak with us individually.

Otherwise - that is the end of our proceedings today, and the luncheon is now closed. Thank you for joining me.

[End]