Survey conducted by Lehman Associations puts NetForum’s AMS at the top among enterprise competitors.
The AMS Market Study by Lehman Associates provides annual insights into the association management software (AMS) market. The study, conducted annually, surveys hundreds of  associations with a budget of $1M and above. Here’s what to know about the 2018 report and how NetForum Enterprise ranks. Â
According to the 2018 AMS Market Study by Lehman Associates, NetForum Enterprise received the highest average ratings in 8 of 29 detailed areas covered in the study, including very high comparative satisfactory of the product’s CRM capabilities, and the highest average customer satisfaction rating among leading AMS providers to larger associations.
In the study, Lehman Associates surveyed hundreds of association professionals in the United States about their AMS solutions. The study answers questions such as: What AMS solutions are associations using? How does this vary by size and type of association? What about custom systems? How well do associations say these products are working? And much, much more. For the study’s methodology, visit lehmanreports.com. Note that NetForum Enterprise was not involved with the report’s creation and has verified with Lehman Associates that the data presented in this post is correct. Here are some highlights from the study and a few important points about NetForum Enterprise.
NetForum Enterprise customers surveyed stated that they are well satisfied with the product across several measures.
These areas include:
- A high proportion of customers who installed the product in the past several years say performance met or exceeded their expectations, and most say they would make the same decision again.
- A high proportion of customers say it is likely they will stay with the product at the next decision point.
- NetForum Enterprise receives a higher than average satisfaction rating across the 30 detail categories covered in the study.
- Among the leading three products used by larger associations, NetForum Enterprise has the highest average satisfaction rating. It also has the highest satisfaction ratings for many of the individual product areas.
- Two-thirds of customers say they would be likely to recommend the product to a colleague. This rises to 73% for customers in larger associations.
NetForum Enterprise received exemplary marks in key areas of importance by customers surveyed.
The report also surveyed association employees to rate the importance of 31 areas of functionality and service. Here are the areas where NetForum Enterprise outshined competitors and a few notes about each function.
1. Ease of use – User experience (UX) design focuses on enhancing user satisfaction, improving how we interact with the websites, applications, and devices in our lives. To understand and document these needs, the NetForum Enterprise team engaged in a significant series of usability studies, conducting in-depth interviews with nearly 200 users to identify opportunities to improve NetForum Enterprise and better optimize the tool’s design.
2. Basic reporting capabilities – NetForum Enterprise provides 300 standard reports for visibility into the health of your organization.
3. Technical and customer support – The NetForum Enterprise support team consists of experienced technical professionals. Customer Support is available by phone, email, fax, and online via the NetForum Enterprise Support web portal, where clients can log requests, which are then given tracking numbers for easy reference.
4. Supports business processes/workflow – NetForum Enterprise allows you to easily create automated workflows through a graphical workflow builder to simplify and streamline your day-to-day operations.
5. Customer self-serve –NetForum Enterprise end-user documentation, including the entire user manual, is conveniently provided online. Also included are technical and new release documentation and documentation for data structures, reporting tools, the developer’s toolkit, and content management system (CMS). This information is supplemented with customer comments and code samples.
6. Cost and ease of upgrade options – NetForum Enterprise believes it is essential that an association’s software is built on a platform that facilitates regular and routine upgrades. NetForum Enterprise is upgradeable, which ensures that you can maximize the potential and effectiveness of the solution. The standard upgrade process is available at no charge for hosted clients at a mutually agreed upon time.
7. Advanced analytics and reporting – NetForum Enterprise allows you to quickly modify standard reports without the need for IT help using a query tool to dive deep and answer specific questions across multiple data sets. In addition, NetForum Enterprise includes configurable dashboards for a quick view of key data. In just a few clicks, you can drill into the graph or chart to view the data behind it, and then drill further to obtain a list.
8. Website/CMS integration – NetForum Enterprise includes a comprehensive CMS that allows you to manage one or many websites. The NetForum Enterprise CMS includes dynamic content publishing, workflow for approval and publishing, and style sheets and template management tools.
NetForum Delivers Powerful Integration PotentialÂ
The study shows that by far, the most frequently cited reason for associations to purchase a new AMS product was to gain enhanced integration capabilities with their website and with third-party applications.
NetForum Enterprise integrates with leading service and application providers to provide best-of-breed technologies for everything your organization needs – from social media and building an online community to online marketing, donor management, event planning, and more. Partners appreciate NetForum Enterprise’s straightforward certification process and complete XML Integration Library; clients appreciate the diversity of products and services offered, and the access they gain to vital new technology the moment it’s developed.
