Association Manager by CDS

Overall the system was very good.  And it was highly customized for groups that hold a significant amount of continuing education for their members and non-members.  We ran hundreds of seminars and up to 40 large conferences and two trade shows each year through this system without any problems.  The larger events did require some minor tweaking to accommodate special requirements you have with events that have so many speakers, breakouts, social events and various registration fees.  The database passed this information back and forth with the website quite easilly (website was not part of this system).  

Memberhip dues were also highly customizable to our numerous variations of dues categories.  The system has all of the expected functionality from any system, dues, meetings, education, donations, chapters, special interest groups, etc.

Still primarily a newwork installed system versus Internet based system, however when integrated with a good website, it is a great product.

I would recommend this product if you have a significant amount of continuing education to manage because it does it so well.

Great company committed to enhancing their AMS. Best customer service I've ever experienced in my 16 years working with AMS providers or any technology provider. The actual AMS itself is very flexible and fairly simple to use. Only downside is it doesn't have any web applications though so you need web developers to integrate and create any web based applications.

This AMS is unique in that the company focuses 100% on the State CPA Society industry. It started out as a custom AMS being built for one state, and ended up being adopted by over 40 other states. The company seems to be more concerned with solid products and awesome customer service and less with flashy new technologies and marketing. The system has a very simple SQL database under the hood that can be easily understood for custom queries and even bulk data updates. It is developed with .NET technology but does not run in a browser. It requires the installation of a client package which may seem less sophisticated than running in a browser, but provides a fast and simple interface. There is a standard API, but the company will custom build any type of integration that is desired. The downsides are that the company does not focus on marketing and flash, which can make it a hard sell. They are a very small company and there are some risks that go along with that. The overall direction of the product is determined by client votes, which could be a plus or a minus depending on how you look at it. The upside is amazing customer service that would be hard to match anywhere else. Customization appears to only be limited only by how much you have to spend on it. Hourly rates are relatively low and they seem to be very efficient in that they accomplish a lot of work in a short amount of time.