Determining What Technology Will Support your Chamber's Mission

It was stated in a technology session I attended the other day that we've had more technology in the last five years then in the previous 50 years.

I've been around long enough to know the difference between an "off the shelf" versus a "proprietary" version of an association management system.

I'm a fan of "off the shelf" as a solution.

Let me explain!

In my experience, the more you try to make your system a proprietary system, the more money you'll spend and the longer it will take to get the system up and running.  In addition, it will probably take longer to make future updates/changes.

Let's file this under the less is more way of thinking.

We all want a system that works all day, every day.  Think electricity!  You hit that switch and it works.

Isn't that what you want with your association management system?

Besides, technology is changing so fast, let your technology partner do the upgrades, based on their clients' feedback, from all sizes of chambers and then you can make the appropriate upgrades in a timely fashion.

Again, proprietary systems will need special programming (think more money, time delays).

It's nice to know that your technology partner will just automatically make the upgrades.

Think how Microsoft works on your computers.  Same philosophy applies, they're getting feedback from customers across the world and they send periodic updates automatically to your computer to optimize its function.

In my opinion, "off the shelf" is definitely the way to go!

For a great blog for ongoing information on database management please visit Wes Trochlil’s blog HERE.