As NACS began searching for the right solution to move forward with, it became clear early in their search that finding a cloud-based platform was a top priority. They were intrigued with Salesforce and liked that Fonteva had built its Association Software Platform on this industry-leading CRM. NACS responded to Fonteva’s roadmap, its Communities, and its ecosystem of third-party partners and integrations.

One of the goals for the new system was to reduce the reliance on IT staff and empower end users to do more. Previously, almost anything that needed to be done with reports, orders, etc. became an IT request. Now with Fonteva, NACS team members are taking on more responsibilities which were previously handled by the IT staff. This shift is freeing the IT team from an emphasis on day-to-day tasks and enabling them to focus on becoming more of a strategic leader within the association.

Rather than requesting the creation of new reports, according to Bell, now staff ask for assistance with modifying existing reports. This kind of support takes just a few minutes of guidance from an IT team member. Additionally, one team member has created “clean up” reports to help validate data or identify data that needs to be looked at more closely. As a result, NACS has more reliable data. The email system at NACS was never integrated with the previous AMS. Bell reported that with Fonteva this was an integration that took ten minutes to set up. Data from emails including open rates, click throughs, etc. now go directly into contact records, which has prompted internal discussions about how to approach member communications through email differently.

NACS streamlined registrations for its largest event through the use of Fonteva and single sign-on with a virtual event platform, cutting down on registrants’ frustrations and the need for additional support. Bell referred to this process as seamless and indicated that this could not have been accomplished with their previous system.