Wes’s Wednesday Wisdom

Beware the automated “How did we do?” trap! One of the downsides of technology is that automation can be so easy that we wind up annoying our members and customers rather than helping them. Case in point: I recently purchased tickets for a Broadway show via StubHub. The day after attending the show, I got […]

Hindsight is 20/20 I’m currently working with a client that is moving from their legacy AMS to a new system. Their legacy system is a completely custom build that has been used for nearly 30 years. As a result, the system contains a very large amount of data and data fields that the association no longer

Cheaper now; costlier later. Most of my clients are very cost-conscious, understandably. After all, who among us has an unlimited budget? But over the years, I’ve run into many situations that I would describe as “Cheaper now, costlier later.” Here are just a few examples: Developing software internally rather than purchasing off-the-shelf software or using

The unified shopping cart: Dreams vs. reality One of the more common requests I hear from my clients is “We want a unified online shopping experience. We want our members to be able to renew their membership, register for an event, buy a booth, buy sponsorship items, buy products, buy anything, all in the same e-commerce

Don’t forget to celebrate! Truth be told, I’m not a big celebrator. (Maybe it’s because I grew up with eight siblings and birthdays were so common!) But we really should celebrate wins when we can, especially if they are big wins, like the go-live of a new AMS, a new website, or some other major

Three thoughts on duplicate records Duplicate records are a reality in any database of any size, so as database managers, we always have to deal with them (or should deal with them!). So here are three thoughts on managing duplicate records: Duplicate records will always exist. Always. Unless you’re managing only a tiny number of records, you

Please don’t do this… I’ve noticed a trend among online retailers that I want to warn associations away from. That trend is emailing me incessantly (as in, daily) shortly after I purchase something from the retailer. We’re coming upon Christmas so I’ve made purchases from retailers that I don’t usually shop with (think clothing and housewares for

AI is perpetually patient My friend and colleague Noel Shatananda of fusionSpan was providing me some tips about using AI. During that discussion, he pointed out that one of the keys to using AI tools like ChatGPT successfully is to continue to ask it questions to refine its work. As he put it, “AI is perpetually patient.”

User adoption is (almost) all that matters… I was speaking with an association recently about their needs for a new AMS. They had already tried and failed with two systems, and they were wondering if I could be helpful in getting them into yet another AMS, this time successfully! In the course of the conversation, it

When “overcommunicating” becomes overwhelming There is a common belief in project management and general business management that overcommunicating is better than undercommunicating. And that can be true in marketing, as well. In my experience, it’s not unusual for members to actually know very little about what their association does, beyond the meetings they’ve actually participated in. So in