How to calculate AMS total cost of ownership

Moving from multiple technology systems to all-in-one association management software can help your small association save time and costs by using a single solution to manage your organization’s database and day-to-day activities. Here’s how to evaluate the total cost of ownership for a full-featured AMS solution so you can justify the move for your association.

If your association has a small staff, you might be using multiple systems or spreadsheets to manage your organization. But that can be time-consuming and costly. Moving to all-in-one association management software (AMS) can save your staff time and boost productivity.

As you consider a move to a new AMS solution, it’s critical to understand the total cost of ownership (TCO) of software so that you can make a well-informed decision based on accurate data.

This article will help you understand why it’s important to calculate the total cost of ownership of an AMS solution. It also provides information about how to analyze AMS total cost of ownership.

Why calculate the total cost of ownership for association management software?

There are multiple factors that go into the cost of association software. And evaluating the use of multiple systems and spreadsheets versus using a full-featured AMS solution is not an apples-to-apples comparison.

You might use one tool to manage member data, another for email marketing, another for managing events, and still another for billing. These various systems require multiple subscription fees, maintenance expenses, and other costs that impact the bottom line. Meanwhile, an all-in-one AMS solution provides a wide range of functionality in one system.

Calculating total cost of ownership gives you a clearer picture of how much your association is investing in implementing and maintaining technology now so that you can accurately compare those costs with the costs (and value) of moving to a new AMS solution.

How do you analyze total cost of ownership for association management software?

Analyzing AMS total cost of ownership of involves more than just looking at the cost of your current member database software. To gain a true picture of what you’re spending now versus what you would spend with a new all-in-one AMS solution, you must look at multiple factors:

• Monthly cost of all software that you currently use to manage your association, including:

  • Membership database
  • Website
  • Event management system
  • Online community
  • Member directory and member profiles
  • Blogs and forums
  • Email marketing system
  • SMS text message marketing system
  • Invoicing/billing system
  • Reporting software
  • Membership analytics
  • Shopping cart and e-commerce software
  • Software for sending surveys to members, sponsors, volunteers, and other audiences

• Ongoing management, maintenance, and hosting of software, including:

  • Hosting fees
  • Website design/updates
  • Software updates and upgrades
  • Training costs
  • Support costs

• Time costs of managing your software, including:

  • Administrative time
  • Support time
  • Time spent upgrading your software systems

As you calculate the costs of owning and maintaining your association’s software in these areas, keep in mind that moving to an all-in-one AMS solution means that:

• You’re consolidating your technology into one system and replacing all of the costs with one monthly cost for the new AMS solution. This can be extremely helpful when planning your budget, assessing return on investment, maximizing your technology investment, and managing risks.
• Your staff will be able to manage data and processes in one system, saving valuable time that can be better spent on acquiring, engaging, and retaining members.
• You might be gaining entirely new capabilities that your current software does not support, such as process automation, helping your association’s small staff to provide greater member value and generally get more done.