Blog: Wes’s thoughts, articles, and insights

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My most recent posts

Why bother with a consultant when I have AI?

By Wes Trochlil | October 14, 2026

Why bother with a consultant when I have AI? As AI becomes increasingly powerful, the value of using an AMS selection consultant (and many other types of consultants!) starts to come into question. After all, with very well-constructed prompts and responses, an association could develop a very solid needs analysis and RFP that could be used to […]

Guardrails can be helpful!

By Wes Trochlil | October 7, 2026

Guardrails can be helpful! When selecting a new AMS, I find my clients are often very tempted by custom software or “platform” systems (e.g., built on Salesforce or MS Dynamics) because these systems are infinitely configurable. After all, if I can make the system do anything I want, that’s a good thing, right? Well, maybe. In […]

“If you knew this information, what might you do differently?”

By Wes Trochlil | September 30, 2026

“If you knew this information, what might you do differently?” I had a conversation with a client recently about developing KPIs, reports, and queries from their forthcoming data warehouse. My client said: “We have a ton of requests for KPIs and reports. How do we determine which to focus on first?” My response: “When someone requests a dashboard […]

Showing is not teaching

By Wes Trochlil | September 23, 2026

Showing is not teaching In my experience, when new staff members are taught how to use their AMS (or LMS, CMS, FMS, etc.) they aren’t really taught how to use the system, they are shown how to use it. So what’s the difference? In a nutshell, showing only covers the “how” and “what.” But teaching […]

Data management is improvisation

By Wes Trochlil | September 16, 2026

Data management is improvisation I was listening to a podcast recently featuring TV writer Rob Long. During the podcast he said (I’m paraphrasing) that, in order to be successful, one needs to learn to improvise, because nothing in life ever goes as planned. One of my favorite sayings is, “If you want to make God […]

Older Posts

Whether it's your fault or not…

August 23, 2016

Always start the conversation by asking “How can I help you with this?” This can be for anything in life, but I […]

What are the most common benefits from implementing a new AMS?

August 8, 2016

On occasion when working with a client during the selection of a new AMS, my client will say something like […]

Retail sets the expectations of your members and customers

August 5, 2016

In my capacity as a consultant to associations, one of the things I do is pay attention to how retail […]

Some things you'll just have to do yourself (i.e., you can't expect your vendor to do it)

August 3, 2016

One of the more common complaints I hear from my clients is that the vendor doesn’t provide enough information about certain […]

Are your vendors backing up your data?

July 27, 2016

One of my favorite aphorisms in data management is “There are those who backup, and those who will.” Once you’ve […]

Which of these resources is most important?

July 25, 2016

I spoke at AAMSE’s annual conference last week, and prior to my session, I got to see Jeffrey Hausfeld of the […]

New Article Posted – 80% is Good Enough

July 20, 2016

In order to be successful with your AMS selection, there are two key points to keep in mind:  No system can […]

Private Equity firm invests in ASI, makers of iMIS

July 14, 2016

The latest in a string of private equity investments in the AMS space was announced earlier this week, as Bregal […]

Focus on the fundamentals

June 30, 2016

I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating. Before you can go to advanced work like marketing segmentation and […]

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