As one of Australia’s top business forums, the AICC needed a membership management system that could meet the specific demands of their extensive network.
The AICC’s existing membership management system wasn’t stacking up. Staff were dealing with unnecessary duplication of work, information was stored all over the place, and there were manual processes involved in running every AICC event, which led to a lot of staff time wasted on admin.
The Chamber implemented CAMS, Clade’s purpose-built membership management solution, powered by Dynamics 365. Among other features, the AICC has introduced bespoke event functionality, to help streamline the management of AICC’s international trade missions.
CAMS has reduced the pressure on the AICC’s membership & marketing team and improved their levels of efficiency. Processes that used to be manual are now automated, and day-to-day tasks run more smoothly and efficiently. The team no longer have to look in multiple places for information and can easily track member communications, ultimately providing an enhanced membership experience.
Promoting collaboration and cooperation between Australia and Israel, the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce helps to bring world-leading innovation to Australia, with a member network that includes some of the country’s most prominent business and political leaders.
Running a schedule of more than 70 events a year, in addition to facilitating regular trade missions, the AICC needed a membership management system that would simplify the management of each event and overseas mission.
The Chamber’s existing software wasn’t stacking up. Staff were dealing with unnecessary duplication of work, information was stored all over the place, website updates were tedious, and there were manual processes involved in running every event, which led to time wasted on admin.
The AICC team realised a change was needed, and knew it was critical to get the new software selection right.
“Our database, our software’s event management functionality, and its marketing functionality is pivotal to our success” says Michelle Blum, CEO, AICC.
“Our previous solution was creating a lot of unnecessary work, it didn’t provide the level of customisation we required, and wasn’t allowing us to be sophisticated in our marketing activity. Given that we represent the best in innovation and technology, using a system that didn’t reflect this was no longer acceptable.”
Michelle and her team went through an extensive process of reviewing alternative solutions and partners, and ultimately found that CAMS was the right solution for the Chamber.
“The fact that CAMS is powered by Microsoft Dynamics 365 made us feel very comfortable – it has a strong foundation. I also spoke to several existing CAMS customers who provided very positive feedback.”
“For me, the selection was also about choosing the partner that would provide the best solution, service, training, and support. Particularly as we had lots of unique requirements.”
Some of those requirements included the ability to handle corporate memberships, as well as streamlining the management of trade delegations.
“The system has handled our large delegations beautifully” says Michelle. “Previously, information and documents around each trade mission were stored across spreadsheets, paper, Outlook, and more. Now everything is in one place, the information is connected in CAMS, and the related processes are automated.”
The AICC also took advantage of CAMS’ dynamic segmentation tools, and automated email journey builder, to further improve member targeting and ultimately enhance the membership experience.
“CAMS has made it much easier from a team perspective” says Michelle. “Things work smoothly and efficiently. Processes that used to be manual are now automated. We can now quickly and easily update the website ourselves. We no longer have to look in multiple places for information. We can easily track member communications. All these improvements impact the efficiency of the work we do and reduce pressure on the team.”
“While the technical functionality and quality of your chosen software is obviously important, the people that you work with, and the relationships, are critical. You need to feel sure that you’re working with a partner that cares about your organisation” says Michelle.
“With Clade’s CAMS team, we have that confidence. The team is accessible, and we actually know and trust the people who are providing support – we’re not just dealing with an anonymous helpdesk”.
Through its extensive program of high-profile business events, the AICC has become synonymous with the business, government and academic communities as an innovative, prestigious forum and connector to high value content, thought leadership and influential networks of decisions makers.