An Association Management System (AMS) used to be the gold-standard technology for the association universe. They often touted themselves as that “all-in-one” solution for membership, events and billing.
For the associations that were forward thinking, they were often restricted to these managed products with limited flexibility and innovation. The promise of that dream one-stop-shop is met with a reality of over cumbersome systems, manual work, and a lack of ability to harness the greatest in Artificial Intelligence capabilities coming to market.
At Plative, we’ve noticed a massive shift. Associations are moving away from a heavy overlay app and returning to an Out-Of-The-Box Salesforce architecture.
Why? So they can have control and so they can unlock AI.
Meet Your New Staff: AI Agents
Moving to an Out-Of-The-Box, clean, Salesforce allows you to thoughtfully deploy Agentforce AI.
Wondering what value could be unlocked for you and your members?
Based on our work with leading member services organizations like the Real Estate Board of New York and the American Association For Physician Leadership, here is what a future AI roadmap could look like.
If you’d like to start even simpler, many associations can begin their AI Journey with a Lead Agent:
- Challenge: As we know, most associations are ‘leaky buckets.’ They have prospective members hitting their website at 8 PM asking simple questions: ‘Is this certification valid in California?’ or ‘How much are dues?’ If a human has to answer that via email, it takes 48 hours. Ever heard of speed to lead?… The longer you wait on acting on a lead for your organization the more likely it is that that lead never converts. In short, time is of the essence and the challenge here is that by the time the association responds to the inquiry through traditional methods, the prospect could be cold.
- Solution: Implement an AgentForce Sales Agent that qualifies, responds and nurtures these leads 24/7 and creates them directly in the CRM. This isn’t just support; this is revenue generation and AI action that can help grow your member base.
The Data Analyst In Your Pocket: Tableau Next
One of the most exciting opportunities of this architecture is the ability for executives to access data. In the legacy AMS world, getting a simple membership report would often take days. To move one step towards the future, why not implement an AI reporting solution like Tableau Next.
In a clean Salesforce environment, analytics can become conversational. Imagine simply typing into a dashboard:
- “Show membership trend over the last year”
- “Show member growth for Corporate Tiers only.”
- “Show me a membership summary for (x)”
Instead of a static spreadsheet, the AI returns a dynamic visualization of the data. This empowers decision makers the ability to find their own answers without manually building reports or asking IT.
Deciding Where To Start?
Whether you are migrating off a legacy AMS like Nimble or Fonteva, or wanting to take the next step in your current environment, one thing is for sure: you need a solid plan. At Plative, we specialize in this specific transformation. We have helped major associations migrate from legacy AMS platforms to native Salesforce ecosystems, unlocking Agentforce and AI capabilities to drive member engagement. Get in touch, we’d love to help.