Three Quick Wins:
Here are some simple, no brainer items you can move on quickly:
1 – Install And Use an Enterprise Password Manager
Best practice is to use a different, long and complicated password for each service used. In practice this is impossible without using a password manager. We implemented LastPass Enterprise a few years ago and have never looked back. It is about $20/year per user and it will be the best security money your organization has ever spent.
Some plusses:
- Team members can use the free version personally and the enterprise version for work related items and both are presented in a unified (but separate) manner.
- Administrators can set a variety of policies to make sure passwords are not reused and meet certain requirements
- You can access everything from your mobile device
- Administrators can see per user a security score and address if necessary
Microsoft ends support for IE 8,9, and 10 this month. That means no more security updates, compliance issues and lack of support from cloud apps like Salesforce and Office 365. Download the latest version here. Consider a better browser and use Google Chrome instead. If you have a PC running Windows 10 and want to stay in the Microsoft camp try their new Edge Browser.
Windows 10 is available as a free upgrade for compatible devices running Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or Windows 8.1 Update.
The free upgrade is available until July 29, 2016. Once you upgrade, you’ll have Windows 10 for free on that device. More information here.
–Dave Domagala, Nimble AMS Manager of Customer Success
Two Pretty Easy Ways to Ignite Member Passion
Do your events, products, dues and other information from your association management software (AMS) show up in a search on your website? How about information from your learning management system (LMS)? How about content from micro-sites, such as your annual meeting site, or chapter sites? It’s hard to be passionate when you cannot find something.
Fix that problem ASAP through a federated search product like BravoSquared from BlueBolt Solutions. BlueBolt’s Federated search tool empowers your members to find content aggregated from all of your systems and web properties. Find out more here.
Do you have a native mobile app for your organization and your events? It’s 2016 and a native mobile presence in no longer a nice to have but a must have. The good news is there are great association specific apps that are easy to implement and won’t break the bank.
Check out the apps from Eventpedia and Results Direct. I have personally used apps from both of these companies and they are excellent. Both offer entry level versions to get you up and running quickly as well as more full featured versions that integrate with your association management software.
Maybe you already have the best AMS, LMS and content management systems in the world but, at the end of the day the ROI on these systems will largely be determined by how well your staff can use the system. When was the last time your staff was trained on the AMS? Do you have new staff that has not had formal training?
Resolve today to implement a continuous learning plan for your users. Make sure that they have the opportunity to attend a user conference at least every other year. Have your AMS, LMS and CMS vendors in every year to train/retrain your users.
We named our company Nimble AMS because we know that the user is the lynchpin of your success with any technology.
— Derek Meixell, Nimble AMS Director of Client Services
Have A Nimble New Year!
Best wishes from team Nimble AMS for 2016. Leave a comment on other good IT resolutions or let me know if you implemented any of the above and how it went.
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