The recent passing of Pris-

on Fellowship’s founder,

Charles “Chuck” Colson,

rekindled stories of ASI’s

near business loss of the

mission he began. And

while Chuck had not been

part of the mission for many

years, he was its endower

up until the time of his

death on 21 April 2012.

For more on this colorful

character—one of the Wa-

tergate Seven before find-

ing redemption upon his

federal imprisonment—

please see NY Times.

For ASI, the story of a near

loss of Prison Fellowship

began in 2006, followed by

herculean efforts to get the

relationship back on the

forward moving track it is

on today. Instrumental in

the turnaround AiSP, Bob

Lane, and a cast of ASI staff.

The following Q&A with

Bob was conducted by

ASInsider via phone the

week following Chuck

Colson’s death.

ASInsider: One of our iMIS

clients is in the news, Pris-

on Fellowship, due to the

passing of its founder,

Chuck Colson.

BL: I’ve stayed at Colson

Lodge...lots of pictures of

him there. He was well-

respected.

Prison Fellowship: Anatomy of a Saved Client Relationship

Multitasking and Today’s Technology Beginning 1 May of this

year, popular tech blogger

Paul Miller (The Verge)

vowed to give up the Inter-

net for one year. In his fare-

well piece published on

CNN, Miller spoke to lost

time and relationships fall-

ing to the sidelines in a

world where our lives are

increasingly distracted by

high-tech gadgets and tools.

Miller stressed that his deci-

sion was “Not an indictment

of technology—but a simple

experiment.”

Miller is not the first to raise

questions about life, technolo-

gy-multitasking, and technolo-

gy’s impact, overall, on cogni-

tion, relation-

ships, socie-

ty, and emo-

tions. Author

Tony

Schwartz, on

Special points of

interest:

ASI (U.S.) Horses Around!

ASI Gold Sponsor at AFG

National Conference

Girl Guides Gift to a Prin-

cess 65 years ago

15.2.1 Upgrade Path

ASInsider

A D V A N C E D S O L U T I O N S I N T E R N A T I O N A L

Volume 1, Issue 3

2012 May

Global Updates 2-3

The Platform 3

Conferences & Events 3

Social Media Shoutout! 4

Sales & Marketing

Times

4

Spotlight 6-7

You Used to Work

Where?

7

Blue Chair Review 8

Regular Features

The staff newsletter of ASI.

Start your engines...

The 2012 Formula 1™ United

States Grand Prix is expected

to draw 200,000 visitors to

Austin for the 18 November

race and events! (continued on pg. 9)

Bob Lane, Lane Services,

LLC

“You can rebuild a

relationship that

has soured. Just be

there for them [the

client]. Don’t close

doors—and keep

people engaged

and interested. ”

-Bob Lane

Charles “Chuck” Colson,

1931-2012

(continued on pg. 9)

photo: tumblr.

Canada

also runs a

three day

conference

in Toronto

in June of

each year,

which typi-

cally sees attendance in excess of 120

individuals.

(continued on pg. 10)

ant with a reseller—back as a custom-

er—and most recently as an Author-

ized iMIS Consultant. Having worked

on both sides of the table gives Debo-

rah a unique perspective on the needs

and interests of both clients and part-

ners.

NiUG Canada has grown over the

years and now has sub-chapters locat-

ed in Toronto, ON; Ottawa, ON; Van-

couver, BC; and most recently Edmon-

ton, AB. Meetings are held three

times a year in most locations, and

usually have a strong turn-out. NiUG

(Contributing writer: Colin Bryant,

Global Manager, Customer Sales)

ASI Asia-Pacific iBEF CEO Update

Lunches

During the last month we presented

two CEO & Executive Updates to cus-

tomers in Melbourne and Sydney. This

was a different approach to our iBEF

full day conferences in 2011, with a

shortened 2.5 hour (over lunch) meet-

ing... and we had great attendance in

both cities.

Paul pre-

sented the

new iMIS

overview

Power-

Point fo-

cusing on

why the

new full-cycle value cycle (recruit-

engage-measure-grow) is so im-

portant, and how it differs to our pre-

vious value cycle in closing the loop –

linking iMIS measures to strategy exe-

cution (the growth part).

Our second presentation was the new

iMIS Product Development Outlook

(PDO). In

presenting

the PDO we

finished with

a session on:

"What does

iMIS 15.2 mean to you as a senior ex-

ecutive?" To put the power of 15.2.1 in

the hands of executives, we handed

out iPads and let everyone loose.

the largest, privately-owned global

provider of

software for

member and

donor-based

not-for-profits,

today an-

nounced that

(From the Editor: Due to scheduling,

no ASI Europe updates by press time.

Reprinting, in part, ASI’s announce-

ment on iFINITY—formerly Fisher

Technology—joining the iXtend Part-

ner Program.)

(May 8, 2012 — Alexandria, VA) Ad-

vanced Solutions International (ASI),

iFINITY (previously Fisher Technolo-

gy) has joined the iXtend Develop-

ment Partner Program, and their forms

automation software product, Web-

FormZ for iMIS, has been granted Sil-

ver-level status as an iMIS add-on ap-

plication.

(continued on pg. 10)

Canada Happenings from Andy Sherwin Country Manager, ASI Canada

Asia-Pacific Updates by Paul Ramsbottom Managing Dir., ASI Asia-Pacific

Europe News with Niroo Rad CEO & Managing Dir., ASI Europe

ASI Canada is fortunate to have both a

strong user group community as well

as a strong Authorized Partner com-

munity. On the client side, NiUG Can-

ada was officially launched as a formal

chapter of NiUG International several

year ago, after operating as an infor-

mal, independent Canadian based

users group for more than a decade.

The President of NiUG Canada is Deb-

orah Hannah, who has been involved

in the iMIS world since the mid-1990s.

Deborah first began working with

iMIS as a customer—then as a consult-

Page 2 ASInsider

Melbourne

(continued on pg. 10)

The 15.2.1 release announcement also

includes a link for downloading iMIS

15.2.1.

For additional information, please

contact Technical Support.

mation on expanded features such as:

New Mobile Website

Expanded Self Service

Capability

VAT Enhancements

PayPal Integration

NRDS Integration

Over the last

several years

the production

teams at ASI

have been fo-

cused on under-

standing and

implementing the Agile methodology.

We’ve had to change everything from

the way we work, to the tools we work

with, to the environment that we work

on and more. And while we have sur-

passed expectations in implementing

and succeeding with the methodolo-

gy, what does that mean for the rest of

ASI? The production teams make a

great product – but is it the right

product? Can we sell it? Can our cus-

tomers use it to improve their every-

day work experiences with iMIS? In

trying to understand how production

can better contribute to the company,

we’ve embarked on a few new pro-

grams and an overall attitude change;

our aim is to understand and directly

impact the goals and success of ASI as

a whole. In order to do so, production

created the following programs as a

way to more fully understand our cus-

tomers and contribute to their suc-

cess:

Partner Outreach: Mark Breland

Falivena and Jeff Webb (U.S.) will be

representing ASI

in booth #118 at

ASAE MM&C Con-

ference in Wash-

ington, D.C., 23-24

May.

In Canada, two late

-May events will

have ASI booths:

On 3 May, ASI was the gold sponsor at

the Association Foundation Group’s

(AFG) annual conference; according

to their website, AFG is the “only or-

ganization [in the U.S.] dedicated to

the association foundation profession-

al.” In addition to being gold sponsor

of the conference, ASI also sponsored

the Lunch, Keynote, and Presentation of

the 2012-13 AFG Board.

Also on May’s schedule, Larry

27-30 May: Canadian Association for

University Continuing Education An-

nual Conference

30 May– 2 June: Canadian Association

of Continuing Health Education Annu-

al Conference.

For Europe, ASI will be at the 17 May

MemCom 2012 Conference at the In-

stitute of Directors (IOD) in London.

The Platform: Release Update: iMIS 15.2.1 Upgrade Path

Conference & Event News: ASI Gold Sponsor at AFG 2012 National Conference

On 4 May, ASI updated the iMIS 15.2.1

release announcement to: When up-

grading to iMIS 15.2.1, customers

should upgrade from version

15.1.3.6699 or higher for best results.

For the complete announcement,

please direct applicable clients to visit

here.

In addition to the upgrade clarifica-

tion, the announcement includes infor-

Page 3

Words from the U.S.: Donna Benz, V.P., Operations (U.S.), in his new role as Senior Product

Engineering Executive, joined John Ben-

da (U.S.) in 2011 on visits to several

partners. They came back with a wealth

of information and several items we

were able to quickly act upon. As an

example, Mark and David Riffle (U.S.)

hosted a Chairman’s Circle Breakfast

with the goal of prioritizing concerns

and developing action items from Part-

ner Outreach feed-

back. With that feed-

back, we have creat-

ed and updated SOA

documentation.

(continued on pg. 11)

Shearne Ramage &

Martin Angelin

(AP), Third Sector

Expo 2012, 16-17

April, Melbourne.

I had my first opportunity to use

the new positioning paradigm

in a new prospect call yester-

day; the stakes were high, the

prospect is a 100M labour union.

Things were differ-

ent immediately. I

thought I was

speaking to an ex-

ecutive team member who makes strate-

gic decisions, but instead I was talking to

a middle manager—really what she was

doing was being a high level gatekeeper

for the CFO (who is also a board mem-

ber). That is the guy I really wanted!

When she started down the existing sys-

tems road & their challenges, I used the

techniques that we learned to interrupt

and say that while this was very important,

it was also premature. My first conversa-

tion needed to be with the CFO to talk

about their strategy & mutually determine

whether or not we are even an option for

what they want to accomplish. That made

her stop and say that my approach was

"refreshing." At that point, she said that

she would relay my request to the CFO

(whom she named) and said that in her

opinion, she agreed that I should meet

with him as the next step. Then, she actu-

ally APOLOGIZED to me for being on this

call, and said that it must be difficult for

ME at MY LEVEL to have to talk with mid-

dle managers like her first. Please re-

member that this individual and I had

never met and so it’s not my exceedingly

good looks and charm that won her over!

I shifted and asked her some background

questions "so that I would be better pre-

pared to talk with George" and found out

that they have budget starting July 1

(their new fiscal year), that they are fac-

ing huge costs in 2013 when they have to

change Oracle databases to v12. From

this series of questions, I now know a lot

of minefields, and can have a frank con-

versation with the CFO. I am in such a

better place with this prospect than I ever

would have been before at this very early

stage, and I can move forward making

reaching that Go - No Go decision

point much faster and if this falls away,

move to the next one (or as Paul

DiModica says - sell that next pair of

shoes and turn inventory over).

So, thanks to Niroo who made me re-

think my entire approach. I stood

straight, got in a quiet environment,

and did all the little things that we all

know how to do (to prepare for the

call). I told many of you that it was the

introduction of ASI and myself that

didn't flow well for me in training.

Well, thanks to Paul Ramsbottom who

had me rehearse and practice the in-

troduction again, again, and again (8

times in all) until at last I finally "got it"

right. On this first use, I had turned

that weakness into the strength of the

call. All of us struggled with parts of

the role play-except for that savant-

like Steve Cook guy— and I can say

that I made progress and so can all of

you; I won’t return to the old ways.

Customers are invited to attend the

Webcast, being offered at two differ-

ent times, and may register for either

at:

Thurs 17 May 10:00 AM (EDT, U.S.)

Thurs 17 May 2:00 PM (EDT, U.S.)

PROSPECTS: White Paper: 90 Days

to Smart Software Selection: How to

Save Time & Money by Avoiding

Costly Mistakes that prospects can

download from a landing page. Pro-

spects may download the North Amer-

ica version of the landing page here:

NA Version.

Also promoted to Prospects for the

month of May, the Webcasts: iMIS

ASI Sales & Marketing offer the follow-

ing promotions for the month of May

to Customers and Prospects:

CUSTOMERS: Webcast: Maximizing

Your iMIS Investment with the Soft-

ware Update Plan (SUP).

Solution Tour for Associations:

Wed 23 May

Mastering the Software Selection

Process:

Thurs 24 May

Thank you

to Debbie

Willis

(U.S.), Sales

& Market-

ing, for con-

tributing to

this article.

Social Media Shoutout! Paul Corbeil (U.S.), Yammer from 27 March

Sales & Marketing Times: May Customer and Prospect Promotions

Page 4 ASInsider

On 19 April, several

ASI (U.S.) staff mem-

bers donated a day

of service to Minis

and Friends, a won-

derful group whose

mission is… “To

provide the chil-

dren, youth, and elder adults in our

[Austin] community with a unique

equine experience…(and) bring

hope and healing into their lives.”

ASI staffers trained and bathed the

minis, painted stalls, repaired trac-

tors, and “adapted” puppies to the

world. Special thanks: Henry Huey,

award winning pho-

tographer, for all of the

fantastic photos!

cake. Learning of the need, Girl

Guides arranged for the much-needed

ingredients to be shipped to bakers in

England as a wed-

ding gift for the

couple. Following

the 20 November

nuptials, the newly-

weds had a single

tier returned to

Australia as a thank you.

In 1947, with food

still rationed in post-

WWII Britain, Girl

Guides Australia—

national body of

modern-day iMIS 15

customer Girl

Guides Victoria—

donated the ingredients needed to

create Princess Elizabeth and Lieuten-

ant Philip Mountbatten’s wedding

As for iMIS, Girl Guides Victoria are close

to launching their WCM

15.2 site—with plenty of

new features. Shearne

Ramage (Melbourne), ASI

sales exec to Girl Guides

Victoria, told the ASInsid-

er that launch of the new

site is set for mid-May: Girl Guides Victo-

ria.

(photos courtesy of BBC News Magazine)

Community Service: U.S. Staff Horse Around...and make a difference

Girl Guides Australia: A Sweet Link to British Royalty

Page 5 ASInsider

Shana Moore, U.S. Accounting Supervisor, 10 Years ASI

Do you ever ask yourself how you

got here? I do, all the time. It doesn’t

matter what the situation is I always

like to ask myself that question.

What was the one thing that set me

on this

course?

How I

ended up

at ASI is

a good

example

of this,

but a

little

compli-

cated. In

2001 I

was liv-

ing in

Houston

planning my wedding and my fu-

ture. Brian (now my husband) and I

wanted something a little different—

and so we opted for a May wedding

in Las Vegas. After all, marriage is

the ultimate gamble. We thought it

would be easy... but we were naive.

It’s only easy if you get married at

the drive-thru or have “Elvis” per-

form the ceremony. If it’s a tradi-

tional ceremony with fifty guests it’s

just as difficult as having it close to

home. Where are Bradley Cooper

and Zach Galifianakis when you

need them?

To top it all off, within weeks of the

ceremony, Brian was told his posi-

tion was being transitioned from

Houston to Austin and we had thirty

days to move. After a couple of

house hunting trips—and a few

“bridezilla” moments—we were

married in Vegas. The day after we

got back from Vegas the movers

picked us up and relocated us to

Austin. My employer at the time

allowed me to transfer to Austin, but

I was looking for a change. After

several months of adjusting to our

new life I decided to get out of tech-

nical services and back into account-

ing.

In April of 2002 I came across a post-

ing for an accounts payable position

at ASI. During the hiring process I

was interviewed by Vickie Strong

and Amber Ackerman. After the ini-

tial interview it was clear to me that

ASI was a place full of challenges

and fun, while incorporating a fami-

ly-friendly working atmosphere.

This was attractive. After a second

and third interview, I was offered the

job and accepted.

On April 22, 2002, I proudly became

a part of ASI! Since that time ASI has

allowed me to expand my skills in

other areas of accounting. “Helping

people achieve great things” is some-

thing that ASI doesn’t just do exter-

nally for iMIS clients, but internally,

too. In looking back, it has been a

great ten years working in a values-

driven environment that seeks the

betterment of the non-profit industry

and its own people. A big part of

the enjoyment I receive at ASI is di-

rectly related to my awesome col-

leagues in accounting. Over the

years the accounting department has

evolved with the help of acquisi-

tions. Despite all the changes the

team encounters, we have proven

that we can adapt well and still have

fun. It really is a great place to work!

Well, if you made it through the first

section you know that this May I’ll

celebrate my 11th year of marriage.

Time flies by when you are having

fun! At the end of last year I was

wrapping up my BBA from St. Ed-

ward’s University when Brian and I

got the idea to take advantage of

working remote. We loved Austin

but decided to

relocate back

home to be

closer to fami-

ly. In March

of this year

we sold our

home in Lean-

der (after only

17 days on the

market) and

moved to

Spring, Texas (a

Houston sub-

urb). And like everything else we

do... there were bumps along the

way. The biggest was Mother Na-

ture’s decision to ease the Texas

drought the week of the move. With

a little help from our families—and

our pal vino—we moved in just fine.

Page 6 ASInsider

Page 7

After all, isn’t that what family is

for?! Since returning back home

we’ve enjoyed seeing more of our

parents and siblings—especially the

little nieces and nephews.

Moving back has given me more

time for hobbies. I had been going to

night school since 2007 and so the

only hobby I had time for was sleep.

But now it’s back to exploring the

outdoors again and it doesn’t matter

to me what that involves. It could be

camping, hiking, fishing, gardening,

or even yard

work! I don’t

care as long as I

am outside soak-

ing up the sun!

Our most recent

camping trip, alt-

hough a short one, put us at the Oak

Thicket Park on Fayetteville Lake.

The park is very well maintained

and is known for its trophy bass fish-

ing. If you visit, bring a boat...it’s a

must! Fayetteville Lake is also a few

minutes away from Round Top.

Round Top is a small, quaint town

where twice a year it turns into an

antique hunter’s paradise. For me,

the great thing

about the place is

it is the half-way

mark for the BP

MS150. My fa-

ther-in-law

[pictured] rides

his bike each year

to help raise money for multiple scle-

rosis. There is no way I could get

Brian to ride a bike from Houston to

Austin, and so we support my father

-in-law by providing shelter. We are

very proud of him for participating

each year.

This summer

we hope to

take many

more camp-

ing trips.

Now that we

are once

again living

in the “concrete jungle” (aka Hou-

ston) it is a must. Who knows?

Maybe a trip to the Rocky or Smoky

Mountains is in order. I am fascinat-

ed with nature and early Indian his-

tory. It looks like the Smoky Moun-

tains [National Park] has good places

to visit... I wonder if any of them are

near wineries?? If you know of a

good

place,

my

exten-

sion is

3268.

ASI Staff Before They Were ASI Staff!

This month: Ruben Ochoa (U.S.)

Residential

My first job out of high school

was at an apartment complex

working as a porter. Duties

included picking up trash, re-

placing light bulbs on outside

fixtures, cleaning the pool, and

making vacant apartments

ready for the next tenant. One

of the more interesting stories

during my time there was re-

ports of a horrible smell in an

apartment. The maintenance

man and I set about finding the

cause. The smell was nar-

rowed down to the bathroom

and after cutting a hole in

the wall, it was discovered

that during construction of

the building, a skunk had

crawled into it and fallen

down between two panels of

sheetrock and died. There's

nothing worse than a dead

skunk.

Retail

During college I worked in

retail at the department

store Dillard's, where I cov-

ered multiple areas includ-

ing men's clothing,

housewares, customer ser-

vice, and home electronics.

Electronics was my favorite

department as I was able to

see first-hand all the latest

gadgets. (This was when

VCR was king of video and

audio CD players were just

coming out.) One of my big-

gest sales was a 35”

Mitsubishi television for

which the customer paid

$3,500 cash. At the time, it

seemed like he kept hand-

ing me hundred dollar bill

after hundred dollar bill...

Customer Service was another

area that I was assigned to—

which included gift wrapping.

Also located in this area was

the bookkeeping department

where two sweet, elderly la-

dies had

been

working

for many

years.

(continued on pg. 8)

Ruben and a co-

worker at Dillard’s.

time it was the number two long dis-

tance provider— behind AT&T). Cus-

tomer Service was where I started and

learned all the different calling plans

they had to offer; including their well-

known 'Friends and Family' plan.

My phone duties included setting up

new long distance service, answering

billing inquiries, suggesting ways to

Often, after being handed some

skimpy lingerie to gift wrap, I would

have fun making the ladies chuckle by

saying out loud, "WOW! Look at how

little this thing is!!! I've seen more

cotton in a bottle of aspirin!"

Communications

MCI Telecommunications was another

company that I worked for (during the

help customers save on their long

distance, and handling problems in

regard to long distance. One custom-

er was so thankful for my help in sav-

ing her money, that she took time out

to write me a thank you note. I was so

impressed by her act of kindness that

I've kept the note all these years.

You Used to Work Where? (continued from page 7)

Page 8 ASInsider

This month, “Downton Abbey,” the

ITV (U.K.) and PBS (U.S.) Series.

Reviewed by: Anonymous

III ttt wasn’t intention-al. No one told me

about “Downton Abbey”

and I never set out to

watch the period drama

(early 1900s) with all

of its bawdiness...and

occasional attempts at

historical accuracy.

As I remember it, I

had just finished sup-

per and was having a

cup of coffee to ward

off the late-winter

chill. Little did I

know, but an innocent

click of the remote

would enter me into

the world of a de-

ceased Turkish prince

found in the bedroom

of a young, unmarried,

daughter! But not just

any daughter. But the

daughter of an Ameri-

can heiress living in

the English country-

side with her husband,

the Earl of Grantham,

their two other daugh-

ters, and a vexing

mother-in-law. Throw

in the sinking Titanic

tossing the heir-

apparent out to sea...

and you’ve got Downton

Abbey!

B ut who can worry about all of that

when there will be a

war to be fight (WWI),

the Spanish Flu to die

from, dresses to be

laced, shoes to shine,

tempers to flare, af-

fairs to be had, a

nasty American newspa-

perman to sneer at,

and yet another daugh-

ter with a forbidden

yearning...this time

for her handsome

chauffer. All of this

topped off with a lev-

el of spying and

eavesdropping that

would put today’s JIC

(U.K.) and CIA (U.S.)

to shame.

A nd let’s not forget the staff that

serves this group of

hellions. Overworked,

underpaid, but gener-

ally very entertaining

as they go about their

business of feeding

and keeping the estate

and its grounds moving

along. They have their

own—far more interest-

ing—stories to tell:

from murder and ro-

mance to love and

loss, the footmen,

scullery maids, lady’s

maids and everyone

else are interesting

and fun to watch and

to—most of the time—

cheer for.

D ownton Abbey is a lovely romp before

Monday’s work. Past

seasons are available

on DVD. New season…

come on winter!!

ASInsider is

published

monthly by ASI

Corporate

Communica-

tions for ASI

staff.

If you would like

to contribute,

please contact

Corporate Com-

munications;

x3281

Comments and

suggestions are

valued!

Spotlight, Blue

Chair Review,

and You Used To

Work Where?

contributors

needed for fu-

ture editions.

We hope you

have enjoyed

this month’s

edition of

ASInsider!

I kept my addiction from my friends and

family as long as I could.

But I’m hooked!

Letters to the Editor: Deborah Dalton; x3281.

Cast of Downton Abbey

(back to pg. 7)

raised is: Where does technology

end... and where do I begin?

The first night Paul Miller gave up the

Internet, it is said that he had an unin-

terrupted three-hour conversation

with his roommate: “A true connec-

tion.”

(back to

pg. 1)

Horse Drawn Carriage

Telephone

Electricity

Mini Skirt

The difference with today’s technolo-

gy could be that it is a constant in our

lives. From the ever-available Inter-

net, to ever-present smart phones,

iPads, texting, IM, laptops, etc.

The question that seems to be being

ASInsider: In appears that Prison Fel-

lowship started to feel “unhappy” with

iMIS in 2006.

BL: That sounds right. They had been

trying to use iMIS for everything and

due to too many problems, they were

reduced to just trying to use it for

fundraising. That’s when they said

they were “looking for another prod-

uct.”

ASInsider: Why do you think iMIS

was not working for them?

BL: Well, there may have been prob-

lems with the initial implementation.

It’s hard to say. But they also had a lot

of triggers to customize their data-

base; with close to eight million rec-

ords, the performance was abysmal.

ASInsider: Updating records was a

problem.

BL: They could literally go out for a

cup of coffee while one record updat-

ed. Also, fundraising was not doing

what they needed and they did not

have a good understanding of IQA.

Marketing Suite did not work. Overall,

just too complicated...

ASInsider: Did they seem like a lost

client at that point.

BL: We had to do something or they

were definitely going elsewhere. I

started by cleaning up their database

and triggers. I spent time onsite clean-

ing up extraneous tables, and rewrote

triggers...making them stored proce-

dures. They were still on 10.6 without

a fundraising component. They were

also tracking prisoners, volunteers,

major gift and small donors, Auto-

Draft; all of this through iMIS. Every-

thing except a direct-web interface.

ASInsider: It sounds like you really

listened to them and got them moving

again. Has that translated into 15?

BL: We’re in the process. They’re

thrilled with what it offers. Mark

Breland is working on it, due to the

size of the database. But now, with

everything we have done, they are

basically able to use iMIS to run their

business.

ASInsider: I wonder if they are our

largest client—in terms of database.

BL: Actually, Salesian Missions is larg-

er—close to 15 million records. After

everything we went though with

Prison Fellowship, they still felt

strongly enough about iMIS that they

referred Salesian to learn more

about iMIS 15. They [Salesian] are

now my biggest client.

ASInsider: Quite a turnaround.

BL: It was. Too, Norm Hawn [CIO]

and everyone at Prison Fellowship,

they can’t believe that 15 is the same

iMIS. They are beyond excited.

Norm was just like, “Wow.”

ASInsider: They were a near loss at

10.6, but now...upgrading to 15.

BL: They were moving on—bottom

line. Mark and his team are doing a

lot to ensure upgrading the 8 million

records—it might have to be a data

conversion; that’s in Mark’s hands.

ASInsider: Final thoughts?

BL: You can rebuild a relationship

that has soured. Just be there for

them. Don’t close doors—and keep

people engaged and interested.

(back to pg. 1)

Multitasking and Today’s Technology (continued from page 1)

the Harvard Business Review blog,

writes on technology and “The Magic

of Doing One Thing at a Time.” And

Dr. Keith Hamptons, communications

professor at the University of Pennsyl-

vania, is lead author of the Pew Re-

search Study titled “Social Networking

Sites and our Lives,” part of the Pew

Internet & American Life Project.

To keep this in perspective, it is im-

portant to be reminded of past ad-

vancements that raised concerns:

Page 9

Prison Fellowship (continued from page 1)

If you could do one thing at

a time—or have an uninter-

rupted conversation—what

or with whom would it be?

We’d like to know:

ASInsider

fortunate to have such a strong and

committed group of individuals sup-

porting our Canadian customers.

(back to pg. 2)

gle person consulting firms up to or-

ganizations with 30 – 40 staff. There

are now locally based iMIS Consult-

ants in most major cities across Cana-

da, including Vancouver, Calgary,

Edmonton, Toronto, and Ottawa.

The Canadian iMIS partner channel

has a strong reputation for delivering

exceptional service and we are very

Paul, Andrew, Shearne and I [Colin]

worked with groups of 2 or 3 each, shar-

ing an iPad, and going through a basic

script using the Public Member site. In

Melbourne we only allowed 10 minutes

of iPad time—but had to stop after 25 as

we had run out of time. In Sydney we

were prepared for longer hands-on

time, so that executives could see the

potential of WCM and iParts for both

staff and member sites.

Paul hosted the last session on skill sets

required by customers nowadays to run

a good system; which included talking

about business analyst skills and data

analyst (mathematical) skills. It was ex-

cellent to hear a number of customers

present had already made similar hires

and with strong results.

In both meetings we had very positive

customer re-

sponses with a

mix of long term

iMIS customers,

CEOs that had

used iMIS at a

number of organ-

isations, and also some less familiar and

keen to learn. Quote of the day in Sydney

was from Stan at Chartered Secretaries

Australia (CSA) - "iMIS lets me sleep

well at night."

In Sydney we had a journalist from

Australian Financial Review (AFR) in

attendance and she had her story up

online before the day was out.

It was great to see our account execs

having in-person time with our cus-

tomers’ C Level staff— and also to see

the positive response when the cus-

tomers got first-hand experience

touching the potential of iMIS 15.2.1.

Lots of potential upgrades and oppor-

tunity to follow-up! (back to pg. 2)

For the entire press release, including

information on the iXtend Partner Pro-

gram, Key Facts, and more on iFINITY,

a “leader in the European association

space for over 15 years,” please see:

ASI and iFINITY Announce Forms Au-

tomation Software Tools for iMIS

With iFINITY's iParts/iBO-based Web-

FormZ system, iMIS customers can

create forms, custom data entry

screens, and business rule-driven

workflow processes, and then deploy

them for use by both staff users and

public users. WebFormZ provides

iMIS users with new form options that

were previously only achievable via

expensive custom development(…)

(back to pg. 2)

Canada Happenings with Andy Sherwin (continued from page 2)

Asia-Pacific Updates by Paul Ramsbottom (continued from page 2 )

Europe News from Niroo Rad (continued from page 2)

This

year’s

NiUG

Cana-

da conference is scheduled for June

25 – 27.

The ASI partner channel in Canada

consists primarily of Authorized iMIS

Consultants, ranging in size from sin-

Page 10 ASInsider

Sydney

And with Mark’s efforts in resolving

product escalations, we were able to

not only save one client in particular,

but also sell them more licenses. There

is much more to come from this effort!

Join An Association: ASI production

staff experience what it’s like to be in

an association—or contribute to a chari-

ty—that uses ASI products by joining

one of our customer organizations.

(Note from Editor: this effort was fea-

tured in the April ASInsider.)

Gold Database Project: The purpose

of this project is to understand and de-

liver a demonstrable website and data-

base out of the box with each iMIS

sprint deployment (occurring every two

weeks). In addition, there is a shared

mission between production and sales

support to better understand each

group’s goals, challenges, and respon-

sibilities.

At the begin-

ning of the

year, sales

support staff,

along with

several pro-

duction staff,

met and

worked together for one week in the

Austin office to kickoff this project.

Teams developed during that kickoff

continued to meet weekly to comple-

tion of the project. Those teams met

once again, face-to-face, at iNNOVA-

TIONS, and plan to meet again in both

the summer and fall. At the end of this

project the sales support team will

have a consistent product to demon-

strate—and with the absolute latest

updates. The production teams, for

their part, will gain a better under-

standing of Sales’ goals, challenges,

and responsi-

bilities, and

will be in a

better position

to deliver de-

monstrable software. The other gem

we receive from this project is that the

production team, in working so close-

ly with our sales support team, are

gaining a better understanding of our

customers and the sales process.

Consulting Days: Production will be

hosting several of the consultants in a

week-long workshop on solution crea-

tion, including iPart best practices,

and development standards and prac-

tices. This is scheduled for June and

we are looking for the same benefits

from working with our consulting team

as we achieved by working with sales

support. In addition to exchanging

much technical knowledge, we are

striving for a better understanding of

our customers and consultants’ needs

and challenges.

Sales Presentations and Visits: Da-

vid Riffle has spoken to the production

team several times concerning the

status of the i100 beta program. This

is also a time for Q&A about i100 and/

or other sales related topics; provid-

ing a great opportunity for the pro-

duction teams. Paul Corbeil (U.S.)

also visited the Austin office and

offered to take a few production staff

members on a sales call with him!

This was a great learning experi-

ence and we would enjoy any op-

portunity the sales team has to visit

our U.S., U.K., and Asia-Pacific pro-

duction teams.

Throughout the year the production

teams will be looking for more oppor-

tunities to interface with other depart-

ments and directly influence the suc-

cess of ASI.

(back to pg. 3)

Words from the U.S. by Donna Benz (continued from page 3 )

Page 11 ASInsider

Downtown Austin

With increased under-

standing comes better

software.