Wes’s Wednesday Wisdom

Daylight savings and business rules This past Sunday, most of the US observed Daylight Savings Time and moved our clocks one hour ahead. Daylight Savings Time (DST) is a case-study in how bad business rules never go away. Consider: DST was implemented first during WWI and then implemented as federal law in 1966. A classic case […]

It’s always about priorities No matter the size or type of technology project, you will always be faced with choosing priorities. What gets done first, what gets done second, what will be saved for Phase 2 (or “phase later” as I like to call it). Every project requires you to determine your priorities. So how

Only one can be best One of my (many) pet peeves with software vendor marketing is when an AMS company claims “We’re the number one AMS product in the market” or “We’re the top provider of membership software!” Since only ONE company can be “number one,” by definition, all but one of these companies are lying. And

Seek to simplify When I work with my clients on system selection or implementation, one of the things I love to praise them for is simple business rules. When they tell me things like “Our registration is simple; member or non-member, early-bird pricing, that’s it,” I can barely contain my glee! Too often we’re our

Some problems are not problems “A problem with no solution is not a problem, it’s a fact of life.” This quote, or some form of it, has been attributed to the political philosopher James Burnham. It dawned on me that I encounter this issue frequently with my clients. Because in data management, there many examples

UI Matters! Almost since I began consulting over 20 years, I’ve noted how important the user interface (UI) of a system is, in terms of user adoption and ease-of-use. On the staff side, the UI matters because the more “pleasant” a user interface is, the more likely staff is to actually use the system. (I define

Be careful with absolutes When I speak with clients I try to be careful about speaking in absolutes. I’ll catch myself saying things like “The only way you can do that…” or “All associations have this challenge…” The proper way to say this is along the lines of “One of the best ways you can

New Year’s Resolutions Why do New Year’s Resolutions fail? Research suggests that part of the challenge is that the actual resolutions are too large/complex/difficult to achieve (e.g., I will lose 30 pounds by June 1st). And when we inevitably fail to reach the goal, we give up, telling ourselves “Well, I guess I just can’t do

Why Process is So Important One of my favorite business authors is James Clear, who writes all about habit creation and management. The more I read, the more convinced I am that data management relies heavily on habits. Here’s a quote from Clear: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level

The Significant Change of SaaS Software One of the most significant technological changes in the AMS world is the advent of software-as-a-service (SaaS). While SaaS brings many significant changes compared to the old “buy the software” model, the two most significant are pricing and updates: In the old days (now almost gone) you bought the