Inside ASI-AP

Media Release: ASI To Offer Non-Profits SOA Web Services
- New Web-Based Interface Enables Customers and Partners to Integrate Third-Party Applications into iMIS -

Melbourne, 11th August 2010 Advanced Solutions International (ASI), the largest, privately-owned global provider of web-based software for member and donor-based non-profits, today announced the availability of iMIS 15.1.3. The latest evolution of iMIS features a Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) Web Services Application Programming Interface (API).

This new universal, web-based API allows customers and partners to easily integrate third-party applications into iMIS, regardless of technology or application platform, without affecting the product upgrade path. Developer documentation for iMIS SOA Web Services is available in the SDK Center of the iMIS Developer’s Community.

The Associations Forum National Conference 2010 was held at Crown Conference Centre in Melbourne this week. More than 400 attended the two days which was packed with great sessions. ASI was among 40 exhibitors at the conference. We had a great spot in the exhibit space & experienced good traffic. Click through to fill article to view photos from the exhibitor area.

The iMIS training class schedule has been updated for Oct - Dec 2009. There is a swag of At Your Desk and face to face classes scheduled.

At Your Desk (AYD) classes represent great value for money (only $165 - Australian dollars). The two hour courses cover a range of topics - including new courses in Customer Management. There are also AYD courses in Events, Billing-Dues, Orders, IQA, Business object Designer and AR/Cash.

Face to face classes have been scheduled for Melbourne including Web Content Management, iBO .NET and Task Centre.

Go to www.advsol.com/ap/learning for all the details.

Meeting at the EMA Central offices in Wellington, right after the iBEF Exec Forum - Bob Alves and Paul Ramsbottom from ASI

Paul Winter (CEO) and David Brandon (Corp Svcs Mgr) from EMA Central

"better business practices"

Lack of web functionality in iMIS and Coresoft compared to what they already had with Pivotal – this surprised them

Still using Pivotal for lookup - really??

"Disappointed" about what can be done on the web - compared to Pivotal

Justification for iMIS
1. give members the ability to manage their own communication streams
2. straight thru processing from the web into iMIS

Bob Alves and Paul Ramsbottom in Auckland, 2 Sep 2009

I sat in on the iMIS 15.1 customer briefing in Melbourne last Thursday, which was the first one of these I have been to this year. Marla has already posted photos and Colin also posted about the customer briefing series.

We had the biggest attendance so far for the Melbourne seminar which was held in our boardroom, with 60 guests registered. We hired in some additional seats and the seating was more comfortable than I was expecting.

Colin spoke well to a fairly long presentation of 50+ slides (PDF version here iMIS Customer Briefing Melbourne July 09.pdf) but I really feel we have some work to do in improving the way we explain the benefits of the 15.1 upgrade. The presentation was good in explaining what new things are on offer with 15.1 including some of the current promotions, but what was lacking was explaining the benefits to the customer.

ASI Customer Sales staff are hitting the road in June to host a series of face to face Customer Briefings that will coincide with the release of iMIS 15.1.

Perth - Thursday 4 June
Wellington - Thursday 11 June
Melbourne, Brisbane & Sydney dates to be confirmed

The briefings will offer customers the opportunity to catch up with the local iMIS Community and meet with ASI staff.

Presented will be valuable information on:
• New features of iMIS 15.1 - the latest release of iMIS
• The iMIS Get Smart initiative - a roadmap for navigating the economic downturn
• Recession-Buster discounts available to iMIS customers.

iMIS Webcasts will be back in 2009. We're offering a range of webcasts suitable for customers currently using iMIS as well as prospective iMIS customers. Apart from our Intro to iMIS overview we will focus also on Friendraising, Social Networking, Marketing Suite in the first few months of 2009. Details and to register at www.advsol.com/ap/webcasts.

We're pleased to announce the 2009 iMIS Training schedule is now available. All the details on the courses, scheduled dates and registration details are at www.advsol.com/ap/learning.

On offer is a BIGGER and BETTER range of courses with more AT YOUR DESK courses. There are courses scheduled EVERY MONTH of 2009!

iMIS TaskCentre training kicks proceedings off in late January.

www.advsol.com/ap/learning

ASI AP is hosting two upcoming webcasts on Social Networking for iMIS. Chris Dworin from GoLightly, Inc will present the sessions.

An exciting new addition to the iMIS software solution, Social Networking for iMIS is a fully integrated, online community platform that puts the latest online networking and communication tools directly into the hands of your members, such as Blogs, Shared Libraries and Profiles.

With these social networking tools, your constituents can build vibrant online communities where they can share information, job hunt, gain recognition for their expertise, form valuable relationships, and tap into to collective wisdom of others in their field.

I hosted our final boardroom lunch of the year this week - 29th October - and we had an invited audience of membership department executives.

Last year we used the theme of "what keeps you awake at night" as a means of getting feedback and prompting discussion. This year I have adopted a new theme based on the business drivers of high-performance non-profits and the iMIS Business Excellence Framework (iBEF). The focus for this presentation was on process management rather than functional management using the "join now" process as the example. See more in the copy of the speech below.

ASI AP will be hosting a series of iMIS seminars for prospective iMIS clients during November.

Details are:

iMIS Seminar for Fundraising Organisations
Wednesday 19 November
9 am - 10.30 am
The Grace Hotel Sydney
77 York Street, Sydney

Thursday 20 November
9 am - 10.30 am
ASI offices
Level 22, 459 Collins Street, Melbourne

iMIS Seminar for Associations
Wednesday 19 November
12 noon - 1.30 pm (includes a light lunch)
The Grace Hotel Sydney
77 York Street, Sydney

Thursday 20 November
12 noon - 1.30 pm (includes a light lunch)
ASI offices
Level 22, 459 Collins Street, Melbourne

I hosted our fourth boardroom lunch of the year this week - 1st October - and we had an invited audience of CEO's and senior executives.

Last year we used the theme of "what keeps you awake at night" as a means of getting feedback and prompting discussion. This year I have adopted a new theme based on the 7 business drivers of high-performance non-profits and the iMIS Business Excellence Framework (iBEF). The focus for this presentation was on process management rather than functional management using the "join now" process as the example. See more in the copy of the speech below.

The Age recently published a great article about ASI client National Breast Cancer Foundation and their selection of iMIS to support their work.

Go to http://www.theage.com.au/news/case-studies--profiles/pink-ribbon-connect... to read the full article.

Two big website launches this week for iMIS 15 .Net Content Manager. I already posted about the AFI website launch, and then just 3 days later the Global Illumination website www.globalillumination.org.au - went live for the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF www.nbcf.org.au).

This website was launched hot on the heels of the Pink Ribbon Breakfast website that I posted about here and rounded out a big couple of weeks for our teams.