At the recent ASAE Technology Section Council meeting, Heidi Byerly of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) made the following comment (and I paraphrase): “The future of the CIO (chief information officer) is to become the chief process officer (CPO).” I think that’s brilliant. It is time for the chief information position to move […]
It may be a cliche, but one of the most critical elements to the long-term success of your database is a high level of trust between you and your software vendor. You have to view your vendor as a partner in your success (and you a partner to their success). You can’t view the relationship
Trust is critical to success Read More »
There was a discussion on a users group listserver a few days ago about the pros and cons of centralized vs. decentralized data entry. The question was, should all staff be able to enter and correct data in the database, or should that function be restricted to just a few? Several people weighed in, and
Centralized vs. decentralized data entry Read More »
One of the most significant changes to occur over the past couple of years in database management is the idea that the database must be more customer-friendly. Prior to Al Gore inventing the internet, when associations considered which database they might use, the only audience to consider was staff. That is, how would staff interact
Changing from a staff-centric to customer-centric view Read More »
By show of hands, how many of you have an “IT” person on your senior management team? Is the most senior IT person in your organization part of the executive management team, or do they report to someone else who is on the executive management team? What I see far too often is organizations will
Get your IT people on the team Read More »
When I work with my clients on the implementation of a new database, there is a tendency to focus on everything that is not working. That’s human nature, of course. We want to fix it if it is broken. Unfortunately, all of this focus on the “broken” tends to lead people to believe that the
Check your metrics Read More »
I recently traded emails with an association colleague of mine, an executive director of a small association, asking him how his search for a new AMS was going. (He is not a client, but chose to do this on his own.) He has called the process “a train wreck.” Here are just some of his
When you compromise, no one is happy Read More »
If you are an association staffer or executive, I’d appreciate it if you could answer my one question survey. It will take only a minute or two to reply. Last year at this time over 100 of your association colleagues responded to this survey, and the results were fascinating. You can read about that here:
Take my one question survey Read More »
Yes, you read that right. When selling anything online, whether it’s membership joins, renewals, event registration, or product sales, you should collect as LITTLE information as possible. What I mean by this is that your sales process should be as simple as possible and present as few hurdles as possible to making the sale. Too
Collect as little data as possible (when selling) Read More »
I’m often asked by my clients, when pulling data, if they should use a report or a query. The answer, of course, is it depends on the final use of the information that is output. A simple rule of thumb is that if you need to present the data externally (e.g., a membership listing, an
Reports are Better than Queries Read More »