Welcome to 501evolved and the new approach to building technology solutions for associations
It started years ago, when none of the systems in association I worked for at the time could effectively communicate with each other. Data had to be exported out of one system and imported into the other. As soon as that happened, information in both systems started to diverge, as changes in one system did not propagate to any other system. This resulted in constant busy work for staff, trying and failing to keep data consistent and reliable across systems. Also all of our processes where manual and relied mostly on email communications.
Photo: Misha sharing the evolved approach to Integrated Best-of-Fit (IBF) business systems architecture at a NoviAMS Summit.
That experience led me to embark on a journey through universe of approaches and architectures that eventually resulted in creation of 501evolved.
A bit of history: Evolution of thinking
Association IT architectures kept evolving over time and this will be a subject of a future blog posts. A brief evolution sequence looks something like this:
Bunch of disconnected tools mostly housed in on-premise servers.
AMS vendors starting to expand functionality of their software by bolting on modules to their core systems in order to centralize all association management functions under one roof. This was mostly in response to customer demand, who were tired of dealing with disjointed systems.
SaaS is starting to enter the marketplace and vendors are starting to offer cloud-based services. Baby integration steps are being taken, but essentially we are back to step 1, with the exception of stuff moving into the cloud and few systems starting to talk to each other.
Purpose-built systems explode into SaaS as monolithic AMSs keep on expanding their offering and bolting on more modules or acquiring other vendors.
Open APIs become more and more prominent and it becomes possible to tie various SaaS systems together. Vendors pay most attention to integrations between AMS and other auxiliary purpose built business systems.
This gives rise to a Hub-and-Spokes architecture where systems are somewhat integrated with the AMS.
As APIs become more prominent, developers are starting to write custom integrations between auxiliary systems. This created a mess and a maintenance nightmare, but the data is starting to flow in all sorts of directions.
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) are starting to gain prominence allowing for standardized APIs between the main integration platform and individual systems. This allows for all systems to talk to each other over iPaaS as if they were telephone lines. This precipitates a move from monolithic AMS solutions to a more decentralized Integrated Best-of-Fit (IBF) architectures. More on those in future posts.
What's next?
IBF architectures are not only for associations, and have penetrated all areas of technology. Think of home automations, when various systems in your household like lights, washer, dryer, kitchen appliances, sound systems, security systems, all can communicate with each other and with you. This is the latest step in IT architecture evolution and smart and forward-looking nonprofits are quickly adopting this way of thinking as it is cost-effective, vastly improves operations and member service via automations, supports better data governance, and increases ROI.
If your association is starting to think about replacing its AMS or some other mission critical systems, it is important to approach this process from the latest way of thinking about your future systems architecture. We are always here to answer any questions.
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