Association Technology: Leveraging Your Investment for Improved Performance

When an association invests in new software, and to some degree hardware as well, it is important to re-examine and adjust processes.

That examination should include these steps:

• Determine the capabilities of the new software/hardware.

• Review existing processes in the context of the new software/hardware.

• Determine which processes and policies are now redundant as a result of increased capabilities.

• Identify what new activities can be added because of the capabilities of the new software/hardware.

• Determine what processes should be revised to better match the new capabilities.

• Document the potential changes and related impacts, along with resources and timing required to make it happen.

What is the worst possible practice is to simply automate exactly what you are doing now!

The practices described in this area are described as Better Practices for a very good reason. We have a great deal of difficulty with the term best practices used in any other context than to refer to the results of benchmarking exercises involving real and relevant organizations with tangible results.  We offer Better Practices related to areas where we feel that change is needed in associations. Better Practices are intended to provoke thought, and to encourage organizations to think about what they are doing and how they are doing it.  

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