I recently had the opportunity to attend iBEF, the iMIS Business Excellence Forum. iBEF is hosted by ASI, the makers of iMIS. As the website says, the “program is designed to help iMIS clients maximize their investment in iMIS by improving overall organizational productivity, increasing revenue, and/or reducing expenses.”
As Nathan Slovin of ASI explained it, the iBEF concept arose out of the need to address database issues from a non-technical perspective. That is, to go beyond just how to do things within iMIS and to focus more on how the database and the data can be used to focus on the organization’s mission.
Not surprisingly, this particular iBEF meeting was focused on member engagement. There was quite a bit of discussion among the association participants about how to get started, what to measure, and so on. It was a good and important discussion. (You can read my thoughts on engagement here.)
If you’re an iMIS client, attending an iBEF meeting is something you should include in your annual planning. There is a lot of value to discussing with other iMIS clients how they use their database and the kinds of challenges they are currently facing.
I’m not aware of any other AMS vendors who regularly conduct these types of programs with clients and customers, but if there are, I’d love to know about them.