GoMembers Enterprise vs. WildApricot by Personify

The product was purchased four years before implementation. After having been stalled for more than a year, we were tapped to get the software setup and implemented on a tight six-month deadline. And because we hadn't been involved in the selection process and primary setup, we basically had to start from scratch. I can't say what questions were asked, since I wasn't a part of the selection process, but if you are - and beyond anything else - know upfront what your overall business objective goals and end results are before selecting a product. If the product doesn't meet your needs - with or without modification - keep moving. Research, research, research.

Wild Apricot is well-suited for medium-size membership organizations with technically competent staff members. The cost of the platform (which is increasing) makes justification/ROI difficult for small organizations of non-profit associations with limited or sporadic income. The system is effective for organizations with 1200 or more active member and where the organization needs a website with a basic store. Wild Apricot will not satisfy organizations that are accustomed to robust e-commerce platforms or that operate with complicated workflows and/or complicated membership options or requirements.

• Membership management.
• Meeting management and registration.
• Accounts receivable.

• Controls registration through a linked series of events in the new member acceptance process: background check, orientation, and evaluation.
• Provides access to data through the export of membership, invoice, and payment tables for use with Excel, to respond to requests for queries and reporting.
• Generates renewal invoices en masse for email distribution.

Incentivized

• The new customer service portal seems to be missing a lot of the product documentation/training manuals. In order to access them, I had to submit a ticket and receive a file via FTP.
• The process by which to get a quote or proposal has been sometimes challenging and lengthy. It's certainly been a point of frustration from time to time.
• The GoMembers (Association Management System) product has changed the way we do business, but some of the functionality seems to be incomplete or missing. Basic functionality of certain processes within the system are cumbersome or just don't make much sense to our technical team, or the end user.

• They could have more interactivity for the contacts (vs members) designation
• Easier way to customize required fields for registration

Incentivized

As with any company, we are always looking and interested in technology that can make our operations run smooth. I don't believe we'll be changing providers anytime soon, however if our needs grow and Aptean/GoMembers isn't capable of that functionality we will be required to look elsewhere

Some of the GoMembers CRM is intuitive, some is counter-intuitive. What might seem like common sense to me might not to another user. Having been through the setup of the product, it's easier for me to anticipate the steps needed to complete a task. For the average user, possibly not.

Support from our project manager and trainers was bar-none. They were there both before and after Go-Live, answering questions and anticipating any snags along the way.

When compared to iMIS, Wild Apricot is an order of magnitude easier to implement and use. It is also a tool that can be administered without a considerable amount of outside support and expense. Wild Apricot is also a more fully integrated system that does not require complicated module licensing and the associated costs. iMIS is also much more expense than Wild Apricot Ultimate Membership Pro (UMP) is a WordPress plugin solution for managing association memberships. Since this is an add-on software, the cost is a small faction of the expense associated with Wild Apricot. The feature set of Wild Apricot is more extensive than the capabilities of of UMP, however, Wild Apricot is easier to use and understand that UMP. Being a hosted solution, Wild Apricot is also much more stable and predictable.

• Upgrading to the GoMembers system has led us to initiate and complete a company wide overhaul. We have streamlined many administrative functions, reduced time spent manually tracking certain information. Although we are less than one year of being live with the system, countless hours of staff time has been saved due to system driven changes and improvements.

• Staffing expenses have been kept flat through significant membership growth.
• Operating costs for WildApricot are reasonable, considering the functionality available.
• Managing membership renewals effectively means that we get our revenue into the bank within a predictable, reasonable time.

Incentivized