Why and How to Move Your Membership Organization to a Digital Platform

Most membership bodies have yet to adopt the use of digital record keeping in some form or another. There are several benefits to this, both in practical, everyday operations, and long-term obligations. The transition to digital record keeping has been underway for a long time, but increased accessibility to cloud systems and the resultant lowering of costs continues to drive digitization forward.

Here are some of the advantages of maintaining digital membership records within your organization.

Advantages of maintaining digital records:

• Easier information retrieval

One of the main benefits of maintaining a digital membership system is the time and organizational resources saved by being able to easily search and access membership information. This will go a long way in freeing up employee time and resources, allowing for a more efficient overall operational structure.

• Cost savings

There will no longer be a requirement to add more physical space to your office or document storage facility. The growth of cloud solutions for enterprise level businesses in recent years has made cloud applications a far more cost-effective option.

• Simplify your accounting

Maintaining digital records of dues, membership information and renewal details can be especially efficient in conjunction with business accounting software. This can cut down on time and resources that can then be put towards the actions that drive your business forward.

• Allow for easier collaboration

If members need to be continually updated, this can be easily achieved through digital sharing of documents on the platform. Ease of access opens up new collaboration opportunities, and with solid security in place, shared information access can be controlled. The platform comes equipped with chat groups and forums where members can collaborate.

• Easily backup files and reduce threat of losing information

What happens if you have physical, paper copies of all your important records, and your office faces a flood, or a fire? The resulting loss of information could be devastating.

With digital records, and a regular backup schedule, there’s much less concern about that. There are many cloud-based backup services out there, and an IT professional in your organization can set up a regularly scheduled backing up of files, so that even if something happens to your onsite digital storage, you’ll still have backups that you can easily restore.

• Reduce costs related to document distribution

With digital platforms, disseminating information is as easy as clicking a button on your mouse. The old method of information distribution seems quite antiquated these days: requesting a record, printing it out and sending it via mail incurs all sorts of costs that you can get around or altogether eliminate by moving to a digital system.

• If you’re setting up a new system now, it’s the logical route to go.

Building a relatively new business? You probably wouldn’t fill the offices with typewriters, right? Well, that’s essentially what you’re doing if you’re setting up a new membership association and relying on paper documentation. Storage costs for digital record keeping will likely continue to decline, making it a financially prudent investment to make now. 

What then makes an efficient digital membership system?

• A reasonable cost. One of the main ideas behind the shift to digital platform (beyond simply keeping up with the times) is that, over the long term, the costs of maintaining digital records should be less than the cost of maintaining paper records. 
• Easy searchability. Just like in the physical world of paper records, a huge feature of an efficient digital membership system is organization to ensure easy information retrieval. For example, if you need to look up a member’s information, digital records streamline this process far more than physical paper records ever could. Not only will good organization free up your office staff’s time and resources, it will potentially allow your association to provide better and quicker service to its members.
• Continuous Professional Development (CPD). Easily manage the continuous development of members through the administration of courses that count towards their professional development. The automated compliance tools enable organizational managers to track learning.
• E-Commerce Options. Whether renewing membership dues, or purchasing courses or merchandise, all organizational sales can be managed from a single dashboard.
• A good plan to manage future growth. The beauty of digital platforms is that unlike with physical paper storage, where you must simply buy more square footage as your company grows, your digital records can nicely scale as your organization takes on more members. This ensures that your organization will be well-equipped to maintain easy storage and retrieval for many years down the line.

Get started today.

The overall business trend of a transition towards digital platforms continues to march along. AfroCloud Technologies offers a variety of platforms that can help facilitate the transition for your organization. Check out our Demo platform to get started. Log in as user: test and password: demo1

And of course, if you or your organization require any assistance or guidance in determining the right solutions for a transition to digital membership keeping, be sure to contact us.