I had the honor of speaking at the opening general session for NiUG International’s Discovery Conference last week in Baltimore, MD. I really enjoyed the presentation and thought it was well-received.
I also had a chance to sit in on a “What’s New in iMIS 15.1” presented by Shaun Surette of ASI. Shaun outlined some new features that I felt were worth mentioning here:
- “Public view” emails (those emails sent automatically by the system to customers and members are now customizable by function. For example, emails can be tailored for new accounts, order confirmation, donations, and so on. This is a big step forward because “generic” email confirmations tend to confuse customers. Customized emails will be much better received.
- Online donations can now be accepted “authenticated or not authenticated.” I understood this to mean that one could make a donation without having to already be in the iMIS database (or having to create a database record first). This is a HUGE improvement over how many systems currently operate and should prove to be helpful in lifting donation response rates. Frankly I think it might be worth consideration by AMS vendors to move a lot of other functions to non-authenticated, just to increase sales.
- The “vision” of iMIS 15.1 is to provide more control over the user experience. What this means is ASI is working toward providing more tools to make the staff experience and the customer experience easier and better. This is also a great leap forward, as user interface is a huge determinant in user adoption. (See here for more on that.)
Long ago when iMIS 15 was first released, I was pretty critical of it. I’m glad to see the improvements that ASI is making.
Full disclosure: EDM is an independent third-party consulting firm. This means we have no financial relationship with any of the vendors mentioned in this blog. We provide unbiased opinions on what we see.