iMIS

We use iMIS primarily for Membership and conference registration, and it is extremely useful for both. Exporting reports and invoices is a breeze, and the system is overall very user-friendly. If I had one complaint, it would be the difficulty of writing queries for newcomers, but iMIS does provide a variety of online training for anyone willing to learn the art of the possible within their system. Overall, it's a system I would recommend and hope my organization continues to add modules that would benefit our work 

I was introduced to iMIS in April 2022 when I started my new job.  My initial impression was that the software was good but appeared to be difficult to use and complicated.

After 6 months of use, I am now a Certified iMIS Administrator and better understand the software and the possibilities!

This is a great product that is cost effective and can be customized very easily if a 3rd party product hasn't already been created.

Highly recommend!

iMIS is user friendly at the staff site level and has multiple operations requirements built in with out of the box solutions. The ability to display the data as we need it is key and helps us with our day in and day out operations. With the ability to integrate to other key engagment platforms we can provide our members a customized member journey and engage them to the best of our ability. While there is a learning curve, there is always a solution or provider available to help solve the issue at hand. 

Because we are still using a self-hosted version of IMIS, I don't know how good my review will benefit anyone. We are still using the self-hosted version mainly because our workforce prefers it that way. Once our workforce ages out, then we can go venture into the cloud version of our database which will make things more efficient I think. As of right now having to use the "desktop" version of IMIS to post batches and run specific reports only because that is the way it has always been done. Also, the lack of knowledge my co-workers have about our database is big. Most only know how to do the one thing they were taught to do and have no desire to venture outside of that. Also, they are not big on change, so changing something that has worked great even if it is more efficient isn't always the best. Especially when there are limited people who understand the database at all. I haven't had a chance to demo the enterprise version or cloud version of our database, but I can only imagine that it will be easier for our younger generation of workers to use.

We have been using iMIS since 2010.  The many versions we have used have served us well since that time.  We recently upgraded to iMIS Enterprise.  It was not an easy upgrade, but iMIS customer support was with us the entire way.  They were very responsive to every issue.  We began to fully appreciate the capabilites of iMIS Enterprise about 60 days in.  Now we are 90+ days in and we feel like we have been on it forever.  Our membership is growing, but our staff is not.  With iMIS we can provide great service to our members, and valuable information to our decision makers without increasing our staff.  

Using iMIS has meant that our member data is fully accessible in one place for both our office team and our members. We use it for subscriptions, events, eLearning (via TopClass) and accreditation, as well as the RiSE CMS to manage our website. It's user friendly and it's great that it's cloud based as we can access from anywhere.

The main downside is that sometimes it feels like you need a whole tech team to deliver anything bespoke/different from the out of the box solutions - we're a small organisation without inhouse IT support.

iMIS has long been a practical solution for our organization when it comes to data management. It allows us to store and track anything and everything we could ever need during a member's lifecycle. We have created custom sites for internal staff and external volunteers to both party's satisfication.

I find that iMIS is incredibly easy to use, and it saves you having to use other companies to do other jobs as it does so much on there already such as mass emails, memberships etc. I would highly recommend for other companies to use and have spoken to other users outside the organisation I work for, and they have also found it very useful. 

iMIS enables me to seamlessly obtain a series of information and data that I normally would need to pull different reports to obtain, however iMIS streamlines that approach. One downside of using iMIS is that once you understand how the platform works, and how advanced it is, you won't ever want to go back to any other software other than iMIS. iMIS solves the problem of compiling information that I would normally have to search far and wide for, however iMIS enables me to see that information all in one place, enabling me to assist members easier than normally.

For me, the flexibility is a huge plus! Once you get past the initial learning curve, you can quickly whip up an IQA to report on just about anything. The modularity of the iParts makes it relatively simple to build a functional website together quickly, and with a little more time and effort, you can make something truly impressive.

As for downsides, there is a steep learning curve that non-technical users may find daunting. Especially so if you have been dubbed the unofficial iMIS Administrator for your organization (a predicament surprisingly more common than you might imagine!)  I found the lack of documentation for some features to be frustrating, and you will have to look to support partners and outside resources for answers. When getting started, expect to sink a considerable amount of trial-and-error time to get your IQA queries and dashboards working satisfactorily.

All that said, for a small organization with limited staff, we have found iMIS to be a real timesaver. I would add that my experience with ASI support has been super-positive: they have always been helpful and responsive!

iMIS can facilitate nearly any solution you may need as a non-profit association. It provides the most common tools out of the box, while more uncommon solutions are available from trusted partners that offer easy integration. As both a trade association and technical institute, my organization was faced with the challenge of finding software that could fulfill the organization’s dual responsibilities. iMIS has provided the flexibility to create many unique web features that aid my organization’s mission of providing competitive member services, as well as maintaining a body of knowledge. In order to make the most of the software, I strongly recommend connecting with NiUG International, the users group for iMIS users. There you can find professionals that use the software every day, including Authorized iMIS Service Providers, who can help you make the most of iMIS.

The great thing about iMIS is flexibility. We are not required to reach out to anyone for programming changes. All of our dashboards, reports and processes have been built to our own specifications and work processes. We make changes often to work with staff's needs and wants. 

Self-service tools to grab a snapshot of anything you want. Dashboards are great way to utilize and display reports that help us understand everything we need to know about our members in one database! Support is usually able to help resolve most issues within SLA standards. It is an Association flagship assuming you can visualize what you want the information to show or forecast.

Our organization has used iMIS for over 22 years.  We keep it up-to-date and have successfully used it to meet all of our business requirements (both simple and complex) over the years.  We have a development team that consists of 3 BAs, 2 Developers, 2 QAs, 2 DBAs and a brilliant iMIS consultant (3 days per week).  We have 45,000 members and 130 staff using iMIS.

We have a deployment environment and a carefully managed process to build, test and deploy code.

Over the years we have resorted to using SQL database triggers, functions, stored procedures and scheduled tasks to achieve our objectives.

We use three iMIS application servers segmented in different networks.  One for our members, one for our staff, a second for staff who process credit cards (this helps us maintain our PCI compliance).

We have a high level of maturity when it comes to developing, testing and maintaining our iMIS solution.

In general we are quite happy with iMIS’s capabilities.  We’re happy with ASI support.

The challenge is the version of iMIS we use (2017) is the last version ASI is making available on premises.  While ASI says there is no end date for the support of iMIS 2017 (they will continue to provide updates for security flaws and bug fixes) there will be no new features offered.

ASI’s alternative is iMIS Cloud.  This looks like an impressive and modern system, but as yet, we have no experience with it.  We know we won’t have direct access to the SQL database in iMIS cloud (which makes perfect sense).  This means the hundreds of SQL triggers, functions, stored procedures and views will now have will need to be re-written using REST APIs in order to work in iMIS cloud.  I suspect we will lose some granular functionality and control as a result.

Another concern is our existing development process will have to be rethought in order to work in the Cloud environment.  This isn’t specific to iMIS cloud, so that’s more our problem than anything else.

ASI is now ISO 27001 certified (as of June 2021) which is great news.  The cloud service is new for them (2018 – I believe).  It’s a very different mindset to run a SaaS service versus writing software that is then installed and maintained by the organizations who use it.

The question is can they transition from a software development company to a full-on SaaS cloud provider?  It’s too soon to tell.

We were able to work with iMIS to create a more customized system for our needs. The iMIS team has been great to work with and have built a great product for us. The system has a somewhat steep learning curve at first, but once you get fully onboarded, the system is really powerful. 

Our Association has used IMIS since the 1990s. They were the gold standard then and remain the gold standard today.

The product has simplified the way we run our organization and has saved us time and money. We get a good return on our investment.
 

We not only get a great AMS system but we also get  quality service. There have been many changes over the years and they have led to an amazing system.

IMIS has always been there for us and we heartily recommend it to everyone who asks

Unfortunately we were forced into changing our CRM when our previous supplier decided not to support their own product anymore. In hindsight it was the best thing that could have happened to us. iMIS has changed the way we work by making us more effiecient and changed the way we engage with our members and supporters. 

Our previous system, even though it was reletively new was out dated. iMIS has been a real game changer for us by streamlining most of out previously manual processes. Our website now has a direct link with our CRM that was never there before. Our supporters and become members, make donations(including recurring donations) and book on events and the data feeds directly into iMIS. This means our staff, overnight have become far mroe efficient giving them more time to concentrate on us achieving our mission and helping disadvantaged young people.

The team at ASI, along with their development partner, C-Systems were a pleasure to work with and we continue to develop a fantastic partnership moving our charity forward. I cannot reccomend iMIS enough.

I have been using iMIS for over 13 years and it has become the backbone of our association. All of our member data, event, publications, services and billing are done through iMIS. We track engagement with our members and use the scoring module to provide that information to our members. We have also been able to automate certain functions that used to be done manually through the Process Automation. 

WHat really frustrates me with iMIS is that there is zero automtion. Lots of things you just have to hire a consultant to program. It is not compatible with lots of programs, plug-ins, that allows you to customize your processes. Certification module failed for us, so we had to hire someone to create one for us. Every time you upgrade, you have to make sure your "custom" programs are 'clean' so they can be upgraded. You have to have a consultant on payroll if you ayhve any custom programs. If you have an IT Manager, they will need intense training. I just do not think it is manageable to get them trained. Might be best to have a consultant. The "deep" back end of iMIS is complex, so it takes a lot of training. 

iMIS is wonky, sometimes the website crashes or updates to pages do not get posted. When we reach out to ATS, they take forever to respond. We spend tens of thousands of dollars on their support package, but have to wai for a long time to get support.  

iMIS does not come out of the box ready to use, and requires ongoing consultant support.  The logic that runs it is not intuitive and the IQAs that underpin reporting are complicated to learn to use.  If you are willing to commit the time and resources, it is a powerful tool with a lot of customization opportunity.  Just be aware of what you are getting into.