2012 may volume 1, issue 3 asins der...the 2012-13 afg board. also on may’s schedule, larry 27-30...
TRANSCRIPT
The recent passing of Pris-
on Fellowship’s founder,
Charles “Chuck” Colson,
rekindled stories of ASI’s
near business loss of the
mission he began. And
while Chuck had not been
part of the mission for many
years, he was its endower
up until the time of his
death on 21 April 2012.
For more on this colorful
character—one of the Wa-
tergate Seven before find-
ing redemption upon his
federal imprisonment—
please see NY Times.
For ASI, the story of a near
loss of Prison Fellowship
began in 2006, followed by
herculean efforts to get the
relationship back on the
forward moving track it is
on today. Instrumental in
the turnaround AiSP, Bob
Lane, and a cast of ASI staff.
The following Q&A with
Bob was conducted by
ASInsider via phone the
week following Chuck
Colson’s death.
ASInsider: One of our iMIS
clients is in the news, Pris-
on Fellowship, due to the
passing of its founder,
Chuck Colson.
BL: I’ve stayed at Colson
Lodge...lots of pictures of
him there. He was well-
respected.
Prison Fellowship: Anatomy of a Saved Client Relationship
Multitasking and Today’s Technology Beginning 1 May of this
year, popular tech blogger
Paul Miller (The Verge)
vowed to give up the Inter-
net for one year. In his fare-
well piece published on
CNN, Miller spoke to lost
time and relationships fall-
ing to the sidelines in a
world where our lives are
increasingly distracted by
high-tech gadgets and tools.
Miller stressed that his deci-
sion was “Not an indictment
of technology—but a simple
experiment.”
Miller is not the first to raise
questions about life, technolo-
gy-multitasking, and technolo-
gy’s impact, overall, on cogni-
tion, relation-
ships, socie-
ty, and emo-
tions. Author
Tony
Schwartz, on
Special points of
interest:
ASI (U.S.) Horses Around!
ASI Gold Sponsor at AFG
National Conference
Girl Guides Gift to a Prin-
cess 65 years ago
15.2.1 Upgrade Path
ASInsider
A D V A N C E D S O L U T I O N S I N T E R N A T I O N A L
Volume 1, Issue 3
2012 May
Global Updates 2-3
The Platform 3
Conferences & Events 3
Social Media Shoutout! 4
Sales & Marketing
Times
4
Spotlight 6-7
You Used to Work
Where?
7
Blue Chair Review 8
Regular Features
The staff newsletter of ASI.
Start your engines...
The 2012 Formula 1™ United
States Grand Prix is expected
to draw 200,000 visitors to
Austin for the 18 November
race and events! (continued on pg. 9)
Bob Lane, Lane Services,
LLC
“You can rebuild a
relationship that
has soured. Just be
there for them [the
client]. Don’t close
doors—and keep
people engaged
and interested. ”
-Bob Lane
Charles “Chuck” Colson,
1931-2012
(continued on pg. 9)
photo: tumblr.
Canada
also runs a
three day
conference
in Toronto
in June of
each year,
which typi-
cally sees attendance in excess of 120
individuals.
(continued on pg. 10)
ant with a reseller—back as a custom-
er—and most recently as an Author-
ized iMIS Consultant. Having worked
on both sides of the table gives Debo-
rah a unique perspective on the needs
and interests of both clients and part-
ners.
NiUG Canada has grown over the
years and now has sub-chapters locat-
ed in Toronto, ON; Ottawa, ON; Van-
couver, BC; and most recently Edmon-
ton, AB. Meetings are held three
times a year in most locations, and
usually have a strong turn-out. NiUG
(Contributing writer: Colin Bryant,
Global Manager, Customer Sales)
ASI Asia-Pacific iBEF CEO Update
Lunches
During the last month we presented
two CEO & Executive Updates to cus-
tomers in Melbourne and Sydney. This
was a different approach to our iBEF
full day conferences in 2011, with a
shortened 2.5 hour (over lunch) meet-
ing... and we had great attendance in
both cities.
Paul pre-
sented the
new iMIS
overview
Power-
Point fo-
cusing on
why the
new full-cycle value cycle (recruit-
engage-measure-grow) is so im-
portant, and how it differs to our pre-
vious value cycle in closing the loop –
linking iMIS measures to strategy exe-
cution (the growth part).
Our second presentation was the new
iMIS Product Development Outlook
(PDO). In
presenting
the PDO we
finished with
a session on:
"What does
iMIS 15.2 mean to you as a senior ex-
ecutive?" To put the power of 15.2.1 in
the hands of executives, we handed
out iPads and let everyone loose.
the largest, privately-owned global
provider of
software for
member and
donor-based
not-for-profits,
today an-
nounced that
(From the Editor: Due to scheduling,
no ASI Europe updates by press time.
Reprinting, in part, ASI’s announce-
ment on iFINITY—formerly Fisher
Technology—joining the iXtend Part-
ner Program.)
(May 8, 2012 — Alexandria, VA) Ad-
vanced Solutions International (ASI),
iFINITY (previously Fisher Technolo-
gy) has joined the iXtend Develop-
ment Partner Program, and their forms
automation software product, Web-
FormZ for iMIS, has been granted Sil-
ver-level status as an iMIS add-on ap-
plication.
(continued on pg. 10)
Canada Happenings from Andy Sherwin Country Manager, ASI Canada
Asia-Pacific Updates by Paul Ramsbottom Managing Dir., ASI Asia-Pacific
Europe News with Niroo Rad CEO & Managing Dir., ASI Europe
ASI Canada is fortunate to have both a
strong user group community as well
as a strong Authorized Partner com-
munity. On the client side, NiUG Can-
ada was officially launched as a formal
chapter of NiUG International several
year ago, after operating as an infor-
mal, independent Canadian based
users group for more than a decade.
The President of NiUG Canada is Deb-
orah Hannah, who has been involved
in the iMIS world since the mid-1990s.
Deborah first began working with
iMIS as a customer—then as a consult-
Page 2 ASInsider
Melbourne
(continued on pg. 10)
The 15.2.1 release announcement also
includes a link for downloading iMIS
15.2.1.
For additional information, please
contact Technical Support.
mation on expanded features such as:
New Mobile Website
Expanded Self Service
Capability
VAT Enhancements
PayPal Integration
NRDS Integration
Over the last
several years
the production
teams at ASI
have been fo-
cused on under-
standing and
implementing the Agile methodology.
We’ve had to change everything from
the way we work, to the tools we work
with, to the environment that we work
on and more. And while we have sur-
passed expectations in implementing
and succeeding with the methodolo-
gy, what does that mean for the rest of
ASI? The production teams make a
great product – but is it the right
product? Can we sell it? Can our cus-
tomers use it to improve their every-
day work experiences with iMIS? In
trying to understand how production
can better contribute to the company,
we’ve embarked on a few new pro-
grams and an overall attitude change;
our aim is to understand and directly
impact the goals and success of ASI as
a whole. In order to do so, production
created the following programs as a
way to more fully understand our cus-
tomers and contribute to their suc-
cess:
Partner Outreach: Mark Breland
Falivena and Jeff Webb (U.S.) will be
representing ASI
in booth #118 at
ASAE MM&C Con-
ference in Wash-
ington, D.C., 23-24
May.
In Canada, two late
-May events will
have ASI booths:
On 3 May, ASI was the gold sponsor at
the Association Foundation Group’s
(AFG) annual conference; according
to their website, AFG is the “only or-
ganization [in the U.S.] dedicated to
the association foundation profession-
al.” In addition to being gold sponsor
of the conference, ASI also sponsored
the Lunch, Keynote, and Presentation of
the 2012-13 AFG Board.
Also on May’s schedule, Larry
27-30 May: Canadian Association for
University Continuing Education An-
nual Conference
30 May– 2 June: Canadian Association
of Continuing Health Education Annu-
al Conference.
For Europe, ASI will be at the 17 May
MemCom 2012 Conference at the In-
stitute of Directors (IOD) in London.
The Platform: Release Update: iMIS 15.2.1 Upgrade Path
Conference & Event News: ASI Gold Sponsor at AFG 2012 National Conference
On 4 May, ASI updated the iMIS 15.2.1
release announcement to: When up-
grading to iMIS 15.2.1, customers
should upgrade from version
15.1.3.6699 or higher for best results.
For the complete announcement,
please direct applicable clients to visit
here.
In addition to the upgrade clarifica-
tion, the announcement includes infor-
Page 3
Words from the U.S.: Donna Benz, V.P., Operations (U.S.), in his new role as Senior Product
Engineering Executive, joined John Ben-
da (U.S.) in 2011 on visits to several
partners. They came back with a wealth
of information and several items we
were able to quickly act upon. As an
example, Mark and David Riffle (U.S.)
hosted a Chairman’s Circle Breakfast
with the goal of prioritizing concerns
and developing action items from Part-
ner Outreach feed-
back. With that feed-
back, we have creat-
ed and updated SOA
documentation.
(continued on pg. 11)
Shearne Ramage &
Martin Angelin
(AP), Third Sector
Expo 2012, 16-17
April, Melbourne.
I had my first opportunity to use
the new positioning paradigm
in a new prospect call yester-
day; the stakes were high, the
prospect is a 100M labour union.
Things were differ-
ent immediately. I
thought I was
speaking to an ex-
ecutive team member who makes strate-
gic decisions, but instead I was talking to
a middle manager—really what she was
doing was being a high level gatekeeper
for the CFO (who is also a board mem-
ber). That is the guy I really wanted!
When she started down the existing sys-
tems road & their challenges, I used the
techniques that we learned to interrupt
and say that while this was very important,
it was also premature. My first conversa-
tion needed to be with the CFO to talk
about their strategy & mutually determine
whether or not we are even an option for
what they want to accomplish. That made
her stop and say that my approach was
"refreshing." At that point, she said that
she would relay my request to the CFO
(whom she named) and said that in her
opinion, she agreed that I should meet
with him as the next step. Then, she actu-
ally APOLOGIZED to me for being on this
call, and said that it must be difficult for
ME at MY LEVEL to have to talk with mid-
dle managers like her first. Please re-
member that this individual and I had
never met and so it’s not my exceedingly
good looks and charm that won her over!
I shifted and asked her some background
questions "so that I would be better pre-
pared to talk with George" and found out
that they have budget starting July 1
(their new fiscal year), that they are fac-
ing huge costs in 2013 when they have to
change Oracle databases to v12. From
this series of questions, I now know a lot
of minefields, and can have a frank con-
versation with the CFO. I am in such a
better place with this prospect than I ever
would have been before at this very early
stage, and I can move forward making
reaching that Go - No Go decision
point much faster and if this falls away,
move to the next one (or as Paul
DiModica says - sell that next pair of
shoes and turn inventory over).
So, thanks to Niroo who made me re-
think my entire approach. I stood
straight, got in a quiet environment,
and did all the little things that we all
know how to do (to prepare for the
call). I told many of you that it was the
introduction of ASI and myself that
didn't flow well for me in training.
Well, thanks to Paul Ramsbottom who
had me rehearse and practice the in-
troduction again, again, and again (8
times in all) until at last I finally "got it"
right. On this first use, I had turned
that weakness into the strength of the
call. All of us struggled with parts of
the role play-except for that savant-
like Steve Cook guy— and I can say
that I made progress and so can all of
you; I won’t return to the old ways.
Customers are invited to attend the
Webcast, being offered at two differ-
ent times, and may register for either
at:
Thurs 17 May 10:00 AM (EDT, U.S.)
Thurs 17 May 2:00 PM (EDT, U.S.)
PROSPECTS: White Paper: 90 Days
to Smart Software Selection: How to
Save Time & Money by Avoiding
Costly Mistakes that prospects can
download from a landing page. Pro-
spects may download the North Amer-
ica version of the landing page here:
NA Version.
Also promoted to Prospects for the
month of May, the Webcasts: iMIS
ASI Sales & Marketing offer the follow-
ing promotions for the month of May
to Customers and Prospects:
CUSTOMERS: Webcast: Maximizing
Your iMIS Investment with the Soft-
ware Update Plan (SUP).
Solution Tour for Associations:
Wed 23 May
Mastering the Software Selection
Process:
Thurs 24 May
Thank you
to Debbie
Willis
(U.S.), Sales
& Market-
ing, for con-
tributing to
this article.
Social Media Shoutout! Paul Corbeil (U.S.), Yammer from 27 March
Sales & Marketing Times: May Customer and Prospect Promotions
Page 4 ASInsider
On 19 April, several
ASI (U.S.) staff mem-
bers donated a day
of service to Minis
and Friends, a won-
derful group whose
mission is… “To
provide the chil-
dren, youth, and elder adults in our
[Austin] community with a unique
equine experience…(and) bring
hope and healing into their lives.”
ASI staffers trained and bathed the
minis, painted stalls, repaired trac-
tors, and “adapted” puppies to the
world. Special thanks: Henry Huey,
award winning pho-
tographer, for all of the
fantastic photos!
cake. Learning of the need, Girl
Guides arranged for the much-needed
ingredients to be shipped to bakers in
England as a wed-
ding gift for the
couple. Following
the 20 November
nuptials, the newly-
weds had a single
tier returned to
Australia as a thank you.
In 1947, with food
still rationed in post-
WWII Britain, Girl
Guides Australia—
national body of
modern-day iMIS 15
customer Girl
Guides Victoria—
donated the ingredients needed to
create Princess Elizabeth and Lieuten-
ant Philip Mountbatten’s wedding
As for iMIS, Girl Guides Victoria are close
to launching their WCM
15.2 site—with plenty of
new features. Shearne
Ramage (Melbourne), ASI
sales exec to Girl Guides
Victoria, told the ASInsid-
er that launch of the new
site is set for mid-May: Girl Guides Victo-
ria.
(photos courtesy of BBC News Magazine)
Community Service: U.S. Staff Horse Around...and make a difference
Girl Guides Australia: A Sweet Link to British Royalty
Page 5 ASInsider
Shana Moore, U.S. Accounting Supervisor, 10 Years ASI
Do you ever ask yourself how you
got here? I do, all the time. It doesn’t
matter what the situation is I always
like to ask myself that question.
What was the one thing that set me
on this
course?
How I
ended up
at ASI is
a good
example
of this,
but a
little
compli-
cated. In
2001 I
was liv-
ing in
Houston
planning my wedding and my fu-
ture. Brian (now my husband) and I
wanted something a little different—
and so we opted for a May wedding
in Las Vegas. After all, marriage is
the ultimate gamble. We thought it
would be easy... but we were naive.
It’s only easy if you get married at
the drive-thru or have “Elvis” per-
form the ceremony. If it’s a tradi-
tional ceremony with fifty guests it’s
just as difficult as having it close to
home. Where are Bradley Cooper
and Zach Galifianakis when you
need them?
To top it all off, within weeks of the
ceremony, Brian was told his posi-
tion was being transitioned from
Houston to Austin and we had thirty
days to move. After a couple of
house hunting trips—and a few
“bridezilla” moments—we were
married in Vegas. The day after we
got back from Vegas the movers
picked us up and relocated us to
Austin. My employer at the time
allowed me to transfer to Austin, but
I was looking for a change. After
several months of adjusting to our
new life I decided to get out of tech-
nical services and back into account-
ing.
In April of 2002 I came across a post-
ing for an accounts payable position
at ASI. During the hiring process I
was interviewed by Vickie Strong
and Amber Ackerman. After the ini-
tial interview it was clear to me that
ASI was a place full of challenges
and fun, while incorporating a fami-
ly-friendly working atmosphere.
This was attractive. After a second
and third interview, I was offered the
job and accepted.
On April 22, 2002, I proudly became
a part of ASI! Since that time ASI has
allowed me to expand my skills in
other areas of accounting. “Helping
people achieve great things” is some-
thing that ASI doesn’t just do exter-
nally for iMIS clients, but internally,
too. In looking back, it has been a
great ten years working in a values-
driven environment that seeks the
betterment of the non-profit industry
and its own people. A big part of
the enjoyment I receive at ASI is di-
rectly related to my awesome col-
leagues in accounting. Over the
years the accounting department has
evolved with the help of acquisi-
tions. Despite all the changes the
team encounters, we have proven
that we can adapt well and still have
fun. It really is a great place to work!
Well, if you made it through the first
section you know that this May I’ll
celebrate my 11th year of marriage.
Time flies by when you are having
fun! At the end of last year I was
wrapping up my BBA from St. Ed-
ward’s University when Brian and I
got the idea to take advantage of
working remote. We loved Austin
but decided to
relocate back
home to be
closer to fami-
ly. In March
of this year
we sold our
home in Lean-
der (after only
17 days on the
market) and
moved to
Spring, Texas (a
Houston sub-
urb). And like everything else we
do... there were bumps along the
way. The biggest was Mother Na-
ture’s decision to ease the Texas
drought the week of the move. With
a little help from our families—and
our pal vino—we moved in just fine.
Page 6 ASInsider
Page 7
After all, isn’t that what family is
for?! Since returning back home
we’ve enjoyed seeing more of our
parents and siblings—especially the
little nieces and nephews.
Moving back has given me more
time for hobbies. I had been going to
night school since 2007 and so the
only hobby I had time for was sleep.
But now it’s back to exploring the
outdoors again and it doesn’t matter
to me what that involves. It could be
camping, hiking, fishing, gardening,
or even yard
work! I don’t
care as long as I
am outside soak-
ing up the sun!
Our most recent
camping trip, alt-
hough a short one, put us at the Oak
Thicket Park on Fayetteville Lake.
The park is very well maintained
and is known for its trophy bass fish-
ing. If you visit, bring a boat...it’s a
must! Fayetteville Lake is also a few
minutes away from Round Top.
Round Top is a small, quaint town
where twice a year it turns into an
antique hunter’s paradise. For me,
the great thing
about the place is
it is the half-way
mark for the BP
MS150. My fa-
ther-in-law
[pictured] rides
his bike each year
to help raise money for multiple scle-
rosis. There is no way I could get
Brian to ride a bike from Houston to
Austin, and so we support my father
-in-law by providing shelter. We are
very proud of him for participating
each year.
This summer
we hope to
take many
more camp-
ing trips.
Now that we
are once
again living
in the “concrete jungle” (aka Hou-
ston) it is a must. Who knows?
Maybe a trip to the Rocky or Smoky
Mountains is in order. I am fascinat-
ed with nature and early Indian his-
tory. It looks like the Smoky Moun-
tains [National Park] has good places
to visit... I wonder if any of them are
near wineries?? If you know of a
good
place,
my
exten-
sion is
3268.
ASI Staff Before They Were ASI Staff!
This month: Ruben Ochoa (U.S.)
Residential
My first job out of high school
was at an apartment complex
working as a porter. Duties
included picking up trash, re-
placing light bulbs on outside
fixtures, cleaning the pool, and
making vacant apartments
ready for the next tenant. One
of the more interesting stories
during my time there was re-
ports of a horrible smell in an
apartment. The maintenance
man and I set about finding the
cause. The smell was nar-
rowed down to the bathroom
and after cutting a hole in
the wall, it was discovered
that during construction of
the building, a skunk had
crawled into it and fallen
down between two panels of
sheetrock and died. There's
nothing worse than a dead
skunk.
Retail
During college I worked in
retail at the department
store Dillard's, where I cov-
ered multiple areas includ-
ing men's clothing,
housewares, customer ser-
vice, and home electronics.
Electronics was my favorite
department as I was able to
see first-hand all the latest
gadgets. (This was when
VCR was king of video and
audio CD players were just
coming out.) One of my big-
gest sales was a 35”
Mitsubishi television for
which the customer paid
$3,500 cash. At the time, it
seemed like he kept hand-
ing me hundred dollar bill
after hundred dollar bill...
Customer Service was another
area that I was assigned to—
which included gift wrapping.
Also located in this area was
the bookkeeping department
where two sweet, elderly la-
dies had
been
working
for many
years.
(continued on pg. 8)
Ruben and a co-
worker at Dillard’s.
time it was the number two long dis-
tance provider— behind AT&T). Cus-
tomer Service was where I started and
learned all the different calling plans
they had to offer; including their well-
known 'Friends and Family' plan.
My phone duties included setting up
new long distance service, answering
billing inquiries, suggesting ways to
Often, after being handed some
skimpy lingerie to gift wrap, I would
have fun making the ladies chuckle by
saying out loud, "WOW! Look at how
little this thing is!!! I've seen more
cotton in a bottle of aspirin!"
Communications
MCI Telecommunications was another
company that I worked for (during the
help customers save on their long
distance, and handling problems in
regard to long distance. One custom-
er was so thankful for my help in sav-
ing her money, that she took time out
to write me a thank you note. I was so
impressed by her act of kindness that
I've kept the note all these years.
You Used to Work Where? (continued from page 7)
Page 8 ASInsider
This month, “Downton Abbey,” the
ITV (U.K.) and PBS (U.S.) Series.
Reviewed by: Anonymous
III ttt wasn’t intention-al. No one told me
about “Downton Abbey”
and I never set out to
watch the period drama
(early 1900s) with all
of its bawdiness...and
occasional attempts at
historical accuracy.
As I remember it, I
had just finished sup-
per and was having a
cup of coffee to ward
off the late-winter
chill. Little did I
know, but an innocent
click of the remote
would enter me into
the world of a de-
ceased Turkish prince
found in the bedroom
of a young, unmarried,
daughter! But not just
any daughter. But the
daughter of an Ameri-
can heiress living in
the English country-
side with her husband,
the Earl of Grantham,
their two other daugh-
ters, and a vexing
mother-in-law. Throw
in the sinking Titanic
tossing the heir-
apparent out to sea...
and you’ve got Downton
Abbey!
B ut who can worry about all of that
when there will be a
war to be fight (WWI),
the Spanish Flu to die
from, dresses to be
laced, shoes to shine,
tempers to flare, af-
fairs to be had, a
nasty American newspa-
perman to sneer at,
and yet another daugh-
ter with a forbidden
yearning...this time
for her handsome
chauffer. All of this
topped off with a lev-
el of spying and
eavesdropping that
would put today’s JIC
(U.K.) and CIA (U.S.)
to shame.
A nd let’s not forget the staff that
serves this group of
hellions. Overworked,
underpaid, but gener-
ally very entertaining
as they go about their
business of feeding
and keeping the estate
and its grounds moving
along. They have their
own—far more interest-
ing—stories to tell:
from murder and ro-
mance to love and
loss, the footmen,
scullery maids, lady’s
maids and everyone
else are interesting
and fun to watch and
to—most of the time—
cheer for.
D ownton Abbey is a lovely romp before
Monday’s work. Past
seasons are available
on DVD. New season…
come on winter!!
ASInsider is
published
monthly by ASI
Corporate
Communica-
tions for ASI
staff.
If you would like
to contribute,
please contact
Corporate Com-
munications;
x3281
Comments and
suggestions are
valued!
Spotlight, Blue
Chair Review,
and You Used To
Work Where?
contributors
needed for fu-
ture editions.
We hope you
have enjoyed
this month’s
edition of
ASInsider!
I kept my addiction from my friends and
family as long as I could.
But I’m hooked!
Letters to the Editor: Deborah Dalton; x3281.
Cast of Downton Abbey
(back to pg. 7)
raised is: Where does technology
end... and where do I begin?
The first night Paul Miller gave up the
Internet, it is said that he had an unin-
terrupted three-hour conversation
with his roommate: “A true connec-
tion.”
(back to
pg. 1)
Horse Drawn Carriage
Telephone
Electricity
Mini Skirt
The difference with today’s technolo-
gy could be that it is a constant in our
lives. From the ever-available Inter-
net, to ever-present smart phones,
iPads, texting, IM, laptops, etc.
The question that seems to be being
ASInsider: In appears that Prison Fel-
lowship started to feel “unhappy” with
iMIS in 2006.
BL: That sounds right. They had been
trying to use iMIS for everything and
due to too many problems, they were
reduced to just trying to use it for
fundraising. That’s when they said
they were “looking for another prod-
uct.”
ASInsider: Why do you think iMIS
was not working for them?
BL: Well, there may have been prob-
lems with the initial implementation.
It’s hard to say. But they also had a lot
of triggers to customize their data-
base; with close to eight million rec-
ords, the performance was abysmal.
ASInsider: Updating records was a
problem.
BL: They could literally go out for a
cup of coffee while one record updat-
ed. Also, fundraising was not doing
what they needed and they did not
have a good understanding of IQA.
Marketing Suite did not work. Overall,
just too complicated...
ASInsider: Did they seem like a lost
client at that point.
BL: We had to do something or they
were definitely going elsewhere. I
started by cleaning up their database
and triggers. I spent time onsite clean-
ing up extraneous tables, and rewrote
triggers...making them stored proce-
dures. They were still on 10.6 without
a fundraising component. They were
also tracking prisoners, volunteers,
major gift and small donors, Auto-
Draft; all of this through iMIS. Every-
thing except a direct-web interface.
ASInsider: It sounds like you really
listened to them and got them moving
again. Has that translated into 15?
BL: We’re in the process. They’re
thrilled with what it offers. Mark
Breland is working on it, due to the
size of the database. But now, with
everything we have done, they are
basically able to use iMIS to run their
business.
ASInsider: I wonder if they are our
largest client—in terms of database.
BL: Actually, Salesian Missions is larg-
er—close to 15 million records. After
everything we went though with
Prison Fellowship, they still felt
strongly enough about iMIS that they
referred Salesian to learn more
about iMIS 15. They [Salesian] are
now my biggest client.
ASInsider: Quite a turnaround.
BL: It was. Too, Norm Hawn [CIO]
and everyone at Prison Fellowship,
they can’t believe that 15 is the same
iMIS. They are beyond excited.
Norm was just like, “Wow.”
ASInsider: They were a near loss at
10.6, but now...upgrading to 15.
BL: They were moving on—bottom
line. Mark and his team are doing a
lot to ensure upgrading the 8 million
records—it might have to be a data
conversion; that’s in Mark’s hands.
ASInsider: Final thoughts?
BL: You can rebuild a relationship
that has soured. Just be there for
them. Don’t close doors—and keep
people engaged and interested.
(back to pg. 1)
Multitasking and Today’s Technology (continued from page 1)
the Harvard Business Review blog,
writes on technology and “The Magic
of Doing One Thing at a Time.” And
Dr. Keith Hamptons, communications
professor at the University of Pennsyl-
vania, is lead author of the Pew Re-
search Study titled “Social Networking
Sites and our Lives,” part of the Pew
Internet & American Life Project.
To keep this in perspective, it is im-
portant to be reminded of past ad-
vancements that raised concerns:
Page 9
Prison Fellowship (continued from page 1)
If you could do one thing at
a time—or have an uninter-
rupted conversation—what
or with whom would it be?
We’d like to know:
ASInsider
fortunate to have such a strong and
committed group of individuals sup-
porting our Canadian customers.
(back to pg. 2)
gle person consulting firms up to or-
ganizations with 30 – 40 staff. There
are now locally based iMIS Consult-
ants in most major cities across Cana-
da, including Vancouver, Calgary,
Edmonton, Toronto, and Ottawa.
The Canadian iMIS partner channel
has a strong reputation for delivering
exceptional service and we are very
Paul, Andrew, Shearne and I [Colin]
worked with groups of 2 or 3 each, shar-
ing an iPad, and going through a basic
script using the Public Member site. In
Melbourne we only allowed 10 minutes
of iPad time—but had to stop after 25 as
we had run out of time. In Sydney we
were prepared for longer hands-on
time, so that executives could see the
potential of WCM and iParts for both
staff and member sites.
Paul hosted the last session on skill sets
required by customers nowadays to run
a good system; which included talking
about business analyst skills and data
analyst (mathematical) skills. It was ex-
cellent to hear a number of customers
present had already made similar hires
and with strong results.
In both meetings we had very positive
customer re-
sponses with a
mix of long term
iMIS customers,
CEOs that had
used iMIS at a
number of organ-
isations, and also some less familiar and
keen to learn. Quote of the day in Sydney
was from Stan at Chartered Secretaries
Australia (CSA) - "iMIS lets me sleep
well at night."
In Sydney we had a journalist from
Australian Financial Review (AFR) in
attendance and she had her story up
online before the day was out.
It was great to see our account execs
having in-person time with our cus-
tomers’ C Level staff— and also to see
the positive response when the cus-
tomers got first-hand experience
touching the potential of iMIS 15.2.1.
Lots of potential upgrades and oppor-
tunity to follow-up! (back to pg. 2)
For the entire press release, including
information on the iXtend Partner Pro-
gram, Key Facts, and more on iFINITY,
a “leader in the European association
space for over 15 years,” please see:
ASI and iFINITY Announce Forms Au-
tomation Software Tools for iMIS
With iFINITY's iParts/iBO-based Web-
FormZ system, iMIS customers can
create forms, custom data entry
screens, and business rule-driven
workflow processes, and then deploy
them for use by both staff users and
public users. WebFormZ provides
iMIS users with new form options that
were previously only achievable via
expensive custom development(…)
(back to pg. 2)
Canada Happenings with Andy Sherwin (continued from page 2)
Asia-Pacific Updates by Paul Ramsbottom (continued from page 2 )
Europe News from Niroo Rad (continued from page 2)
This
year’s
NiUG
Cana-
da conference is scheduled for June
25 – 27.
The ASI partner channel in Canada
consists primarily of Authorized iMIS
Consultants, ranging in size from sin-
Page 10 ASInsider
Sydney
And with Mark’s efforts in resolving
product escalations, we were able to
not only save one client in particular,
but also sell them more licenses. There
is much more to come from this effort!
Join An Association: ASI production
staff experience what it’s like to be in
an association—or contribute to a chari-
ty—that uses ASI products by joining
one of our customer organizations.
(Note from Editor: this effort was fea-
tured in the April ASInsider.)
Gold Database Project: The purpose
of this project is to understand and de-
liver a demonstrable website and data-
base out of the box with each iMIS
sprint deployment (occurring every two
weeks). In addition, there is a shared
mission between production and sales
support to better understand each
group’s goals, challenges, and respon-
sibilities.
At the begin-
ning of the
year, sales
support staff,
along with
several pro-
duction staff,
met and
worked together for one week in the
Austin office to kickoff this project.
Teams developed during that kickoff
continued to meet weekly to comple-
tion of the project. Those teams met
once again, face-to-face, at iNNOVA-
TIONS, and plan to meet again in both
the summer and fall. At the end of this
project the sales support team will
have a consistent product to demon-
strate—and with the absolute latest
updates. The production teams, for
their part, will gain a better under-
standing of Sales’ goals, challenges,
and responsi-
bilities, and
will be in a
better position
to deliver de-
monstrable software. The other gem
we receive from this project is that the
production team, in working so close-
ly with our sales support team, are
gaining a better understanding of our
customers and the sales process.
Consulting Days: Production will be
hosting several of the consultants in a
week-long workshop on solution crea-
tion, including iPart best practices,
and development standards and prac-
tices. This is scheduled for June and
we are looking for the same benefits
from working with our consulting team
as we achieved by working with sales
support. In addition to exchanging
much technical knowledge, we are
striving for a better understanding of
our customers and consultants’ needs
and challenges.
Sales Presentations and Visits: Da-
vid Riffle has spoken to the production
team several times concerning the
status of the i100 beta program. This
is also a time for Q&A about i100 and/
or other sales related topics; provid-
ing a great opportunity for the pro-
duction teams. Paul Corbeil (U.S.)
also visited the Austin office and
offered to take a few production staff
members on a sales call with him!
This was a great learning experi-
ence and we would enjoy any op-
portunity the sales team has to visit
our U.S., U.K., and Asia-Pacific pro-
duction teams.
Throughout the year the production
teams will be looking for more oppor-
tunities to interface with other depart-
ments and directly influence the suc-
cess of ASI.
(back to pg. 3)
Words from the U.S. by Donna Benz (continued from page 3 )
Page 11 ASInsider
Downtown Austin
With increased under-
standing comes better
software.