Welcome to fusionSpan

Have you ever found yourself trying to figure out how to create a flow, update a page layout, or create a complex formula field, and you can’t get it to work? I sure have. One of the things that I am constantly reminded of working…

This blog was originally published on June 7, 2018. So you’re just getting started with Salesforce, a powerful Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform that offers users a great deal of functionality, and unlimited possibilities! Or, maybe you are using Association Management Solutions (AMS) powered by…

Beginning February 1, 2022, Salesforce will require customers to enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) in order to access Salesforce products. In our opinion, this is a good move by Salesforce. We always recommend our clients to enable MFA on any and all of their IT systems…

This blog was originally published on March 28, 2019. Salesforce Sandboxes are crucial to testing new releases and functionalities in a controlled environment before they are placed in your live production environment. Before you test on your Salesforce Sandbox environment, we highly recommend taking the…

This blog was originally published on September 18, 2013. Are you ready for a new Association Management System (AMS)? If you just answered ‘YES’ or ‘MAYBE’ then read on… Finding the right AMS for your organization can be like Prince Charming finding Cinderella. Sure, you…

This blog was originally published on September 13, 2016. The first interaction most people have with an organization is through their website. Having an attractive website that is easy to navigate and well organized to engage effectively is essential for every organization. The latest web…

You are live, have gone through the go live challenges, and have worked on the other phases whereby the implementation project can be closed. What now? Here are a few items to consider: Expand Training Spend time developing training materials, and put a system in…

Your organization has put countless hours of work and research into your new AMS, and now it is time to introduce it to members and stakeholders. Go live day usually begins calm, but soon gets hectic and turns into a stressful few weeks. We warn…

The end of Your AMS Journey is in sight – you have undergone testing and training, and are now ready to prep for launch. In fact, preparing for go live is something the team has to keep in mind throughout the entire project. Here are…

Your organization has been hard at work throughout the implementation and data conversion phases of the project. The team has made great progress, but all the activity has been predominantly conducted by the core project team working on perfecting individual modules of the overall project.…

Data conversion, or data migration, is the task of bringing over relevant data from your legacy system to your new CRM. This is one of the most crucial steps for a successful AMS implementation. Bad data will result in a failed project, no matter how…

NetForum Enterprise is a feature-rich association management system (AMS), but most associations will inevitably find themselves needing to customize. That’s fine – NetForum allows customizations. The challenge comes in down the road when you’re looking to upgrade and the customization does not support new functionality…

With the discovery stage complete, you and your staff let out a sigh of relief. The team is happy the implementation is moving along, and members are eagerly anticipating all of the features they expect the new AMS will bring to make their lives easier.…

By this stage of Your AMS Journey, you have made all the crucial decisions regarding choosing a new product and implementation partner. With your platform and partner selected, now it is time to roll up your sleeves and get to work. To begin, you will…

You made your product selection, and are excitedly looking forward to implementing your new AMS platform. Now comes the decision to select an implementation partner. Look carefully at who you plan to use to implement your chosen product. You want a team that understands your…

So what should I look for in my next Association Management System? As implementers, we often get asked this question is some shape or form during the AMS Journey. For those following this series in order, we have asked “why do we need a change…

In today’s age of digital transformation, leveraging data efficiently and effectively is imperative for associations looking to deliver consistent value to their members. We often work with clients leveraging platforms such as Salesforce and Fonteva, which are tools that offer a wide range of functionalities…

As an organization that specializes in AMS support and implementation, we typically step in after the selection of an Association Management System has already been made by your organization. Our first step is to ask the AMS partner or association for their Request For Proposal,…

Welcome to Your AMS Journey: Selection to Adoption, a blog series presented by fusionSpan. Throughout our work providing consulting, implementation, and support services to non-profits and associations, we have seen our share of successes and challenges that the entire selection and implementation process involves when…

What are Einstein Bots? Whether you know it or not, chances are you have encountered a chatbot while using the internet. Many chatbots can be found immediately when visiting a website, as they exist to greet the visitor and help guide them. Chatbots are designed…

What is Lockbox? For those associations that still recieve checks mailed to your organization’s physical address, you have had to recently address: who goes in to collect the mail, logs the checks, and what the next steps are to deposit the checks and apply payments…

More than Implementations “Bridging Gaps Through Technology” is not just a catchy tagline we like to say – it is words that drive our everyday work. While we help bridge the gap between organizations and their members, we also aim to provide our customers with…

What is Happening If you use Salesforce or a platform built on the system, then you are probably well aware of the Salesforce Spring ‘20 release, which came out on February 17, 2020. Although the releases are a regular Salesforce event, the latest one contains…

The semi-annual Salesforce update this fall will happen between October 12, 2019 and November 1, 2019. Here is Gayathri’s synopsis of the stand-out items from the release. Reach out to Gayathri or the Digital Strategy team if you’re interested in Marketing Cloud. Marketing Cloud Setup:…

Quality onboarding is essential to long-term success. Association executives are becoming more and more cognizant of how important customer data, and in turn their customer database, is to their organization’s success. Yet most associations struggle to establish a culture of data, where everyone understands the…

Roses are red, Violets are blue, We love Salesforce reports And we hope you do too! Salesforce provides standard report types which can be used to build reports summarizing and analyzing your organization’s data. Salesforce reports are a powerful tool that helps you and your…

Following the Complicated Integrations Made Easy with Zapier – Part 1 article, we will now look at how we can leverage Zapier to easily build an integration with no actual coding. There are hundreds of Zapier connectors that we can use to integrate various systems together.…

One of the biggest challenges with association management system (AMS) implementations is that organizations often confuse processes in their old system with their business requirements. When this happens, organizations request customizations to make the new system function like the old system. [Read one of our…

We’ve all gone through change —sometimes good, sometimes bad—but worst of all is the unknown. The transition of your Salesforce organization from Salesforce Classic to Lightning Experience (LEX) can seem like a daunting change with a lot of unknown, but there’s a lot to be…

One of the most common questions we get from associations is how to integrate various applications and IT systems. Through integrations, you can copy data from one application to another, or event in one system can trigger an action in another. There are a few…

What Is a Salesforce Group? If you’re reading this, you are somewhat familiar with Salesforce and maybe even its groups construct. Essentially, a group is a group of users with the same level of access to specific records within the organization. Salesforce offers some great…

In the previous post, we went through an overview of SSO with a domain cookie. In this post, we’ll dig into some of the technical considerations when implementing this SSO solution. System Overview As an overview, here are the responsibilities of each website from the…

There are a number of different implementations for Single Sign-On (SSO). SSO is generally approached in one of two ways – The first is a browser-side implementation which usually involves an integration that redirects the user to an Identity Provider’s login page (Identity Provider is…

netFORUM Enterprise is a feature-rich system out of the box. But if your organization selected netFORUM Enterprise, they also likely selected it for the flexibility allowed through customizations. Being able to customize means you’re not dependent on a vendor’s roadmap to get the features your…

Organizations choosing enterprise-level Association Management Systems (AMS) likely do so for a range of reasons. They know they’re getting a product with a rich feature set and all kinds of configuration options. They know they’ll have a greater deal of flexibility. But, likely most important,…

“Did I lose my special treat?” A frequent question from my son. We’ve created a system in our home where if he behaves, he gets a “special treat” after dinner – usually in the form of 22 minutes of TV. While there are some issues…

Tired of receiving the “You have one or more certificates in your Salesforce org XYZ* that will expire soon…” notices? Or worse, when your CEO receives it and sends a panicked email to you at 3 in the morning? You can solve the countless email bombardment,…

With many millennials having challenges finding the right work opportunities, associations are uniquely positioned to support them by offering education opportunities. By offering industry specific education opportunities, associations are able to address the workforce needs of their current members while also providing the knowledge to…

fusionSpan was at AMSFest, put on by Teri Carden, founder of ReviewMyAMS.com. It’s an intimate event where association professionals can get an up-close look at a bunch of different AMS (association management systems) vendors all in one place. They also can talk with industry partners…

Salesforce, by its very name, sounds like a product that only for-profit companies can leverage. Yet, as Kristen Singleton –  Director of Tools and Technologies at Education Resource Strategies (ERS) – explains, Salesforce can play a significant role in the information management at non-profit organizations as well. On this podcast…

Where has the time gone?! This year has flown by, and today marks the first day of summer! If you’re like me, you have left a lot of opportunities for spring cleaning untouched so here is our chance to redeem ourselves. Spring cleaning applies to your…

May 10th, just 5 days post Cinco de Mayo is another day for celebration in this month of budding optimism; AMS Fest Midwest in Chicago is the place to be and it’s cause for small associations to cheer. Those interested in examining AMS options, communicating…

We are very happy that our client the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) has been chosen to receive the 2016 Abila Excellence Award at the Abila User and Developer Conference (AUDC) at Austin, TX. Abila describes these Excellence awards as (more…)

Dan Labert, the executive director of NACBA We’ve recently rebranded the podcast as the Non-profit Tech Podcast, presented by fusionSpan. This week I spoke over the phone with Dan Labert, the executive director of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys about his recent move…

Teri Carden, founder of ReviewMyAMS.com Welcome to the inaugural fusionSpan Podcast! Our first episode of the Non-Profit Tech Podcast is with the creator of ReviewMyAMS.com, Teri Carden. She discusses the value of an association management system (AMS), how associations are using their AMS, and when…

API: Application Programming Interface. A vague phrase that offers little insight if you’re not a computer science major, yet if you’ve spent any time around system vendors or website developers they’ve likely thrown the acronym around as if its taught in the third grade of every…

netFORUM Pro is a widely adopted association management system (AMS). It provides several interfaces that can be used for member interaction. eWeb or “external web” which is a web based interface where members can perform certain actions – like purchase renewals, buy products etc. xWeb…

There has been lots of buzz lately in ASAE’s Collaborate community regarding Salesforce based AMS/CRMs for associations. Since we’ve got our fingers on the pulse of new trends in the association world, we thought we’d share our thoughts and let you hear from an expert…

Congratulations to Caroline from the South Carolina Bankers Association for winning fusionSpan’s 2014 netFORUM Pro Consulting Giveaway. We look forward to working with you in 2015! (more…)

With each new year, we reflect on as many of the last 365 days we can remember while simultaneously resolving to [insert unattainable New Year’s resolution here]. For me, 2014 was a big year with more resolutions checked off the list than I had anticipated. …

As I enter the large exhibit hall at the Gaylord National Resort and Conference Center, I’m immediately surrounded by hundreds of people, all here for one purpose – to see what’s “new” in the technology world. Wandering around the ASAE Technology Conference and Expo, one…

Dear Betty: Our small-staff Association Management Company (AMC) recently acquired a new client. Which is great, but we have a problem. Their data is a mess! Keeping day-to-day operations running for our new association client is nearly impossible given the dire state of their membership…

One of our clients, a small-staff association, wanted to improve user experience during the annual conference registration . In the past they just used their AMS, netForum Pro to register attendees but increased customer service calls forced them to look for an alternate solution. This time…

In the spirit of giving (and with your tight budgets in mind!), this holiday season fusionSpan would like to help a small-staff association by giving away 8 hours of free netFORUM Pro consulting. fusionSpan is proud to be a Certified Implementation Partner with Avectra, an Abila…

Have you considered hiring a consultant to help you identify the ideal system for your association and help with the data conversion? If your nonprofit has a small staff, little technical expertise or limited time, a consultant may be just what you need. You’ll want…