Nimble Technology Strategy Flows With Association Goals

If the pandemic taught associations anything, it was that the world can change more quickly than most people realized. Being able to adjust technology strategy as circumstances shift requires a nimble approach to your plans.

“Once you do the strategic plan, you need to think about the technology that’s going to support the strategic plan,” said Duane Capuano, senior consultant at Tecker International, LLC. “So that could be an [association management system]. That could be a new website. It could be a new online community. It could be an email or marketing automation software, depending on what your strategic needs are. For every strategic goal an organization has, there is definitely technology that can support that goal.”

Anne Ornelas, senior operations manager for CASSS—Sharing Science Solutions, said when the COVID-19 pandemic hit two years ago, her association initially revisited its technology strategy every three months to make sure it still met the organization’s needs. In typical times, organizations can stretch out such check-ins, but staff should be doing them if they want to remain nimble.

“Revisit things every six months to a year, just to check in,” Ornelas said. “Just to see: Are these [goals] still on track? Are these things we still need, or have we found other resources or other areas we need to focus on?”