Aptify

With Aptify being the third different AMS I have implemented, used, and supported, I must say that it is the most comprehensive and best-in-class of all systems in the AMS industry. Aptify has gone above and beyond to continually address the needs of its user community as well being proactive with technological changes that continue to evolve. If there is one item that truly extends Aptify over its competition, it would be that it has many similarities to the private sector ERP systems. Aptify is not a system that is solely intended for the association industry (functionality, look-and-feel, etc.), but one that can be further leveraged for the most complex and specific customizations and configurations. If you have used systems such as SAP, Dynamics AX, Oracle, etc., it is easy to establish many comparisons to that of how Aptify functions for the association community. This is evident in terms of adoption for personnel that come into an association with no association/non-profit backgrounds. There is no doubt that Aptify is a large application suite, but it can easily be configured and utilized for smaller associations as well. There are a couple of specific items that I believe sets Aptify apart from other systems in the industry: Graphical User Interface: Look-and-feel mimics that of the Microsoft Office Suite. This allows adoption quickly at the end-user level as there are many comparisons to the look-and-feel and the flow of usage per the similar usage of the Microsoft Office Ribbon feature. Data Views: Utilization of viewing system can easily generate any and all data out of the system real-time and per the userÕs requirements. Creating a dataset view is easily completed for any user. In the most recent version, the option to utilize what is called ÒMultiple Base ViewsÓ adds advanced ability to obtain data from any area of the system. Security: There is probably not another system that can be as granular in terms of security as Aptify. Data can be secured all the way down to the field level and user access can be granted to specific individuals, groups, etc. Deferred Revenue: By far, and probably one of their best features, Aptify has an excellent methodology for handling deferred revenue. Deferrals are handled per the Scheduled Transaction service and the deferral scheduled is defined at the product-level based on Subscription settings. Each order contains the deferral schedule and allocations (per being shipped), which allows for a far more detailed reconciliation process (if required). Inventory: Aptify uses the Product Inventory Ledger (as well as the Product Inventory Ledger Entry) services to facilitate allocation of inventory availability and handling COGS/Inventory GL information. This feature easily allows a cohesive relationship between Fulfillment and Accounting departments and reduces the need for dual/manual data entry. Financial Integrations: Aptify easily (very easily) integrates with the PayPal Gateway and Dynamics GP (and SL) for financial packages. In using a separate financial package, Aptify becomes the subsidiary A/R with all detail while the financial package handles the summary data. Scalability: Out-of-the-box, Aptify can meet business process needs, but also can be configured and/or customized to meet the most succinct business requirements. With the usage of the Application Framework and Process Flow, anything is possible for any business need. There are plenty of other advantages and too many to list in this review, but in terms of an AMS and related TCO and ROI, Aptify has a clear advantage in refining past business processes, becoming the source for all association data, and extending innovative and cutting-edge solutions for any association.

The most important advise I can provide is that really your going to find many AMS systems that fit your needs and the right decision is to chose the sytem that has the buy-in of all your power users. Without this buy-in no matter how great the system is, your project will fail. Also another key objective is to establish from the get-go that you should start out simple and identify all the criticatl business processes you have and make sure that is the only priority. Your going to see so much bells and whistles that will tempt your senior management and power users, but realize that that can lead to scope creep, budget increases and lengthen the timeline of your project. Staying on plan and budget is very important and the right approach is to implement in phases. We chose Aptify our system because it supported the capabilities we needed and we loved the flexiblity of the product. The best feature of this software is that is allows every power user to pull out data easily and efficiently. I encourage you to reach out to me for more information and to ask further questions to give you more feedback - because this is an important decision! Good luck and you can reach me at howe@pda.org.

We've been an Aptify customer for a few years. The software is so customizable that you can create problems for yourself, and we did. Having said that, the company seems very difficult to deal with. Any implementation of this size requires a real partnership to be successful. It will include lots of give and take on both sides of the table to be truly successful. We feel strongly that the vendor has done a lot of taking, and not much giving. Even negotiating with Aptify was difficult, although I believe they have streamlined their process now. It's not a good situation when you feel you're being held hostage by a vendor. They have extremely talented and knowledgeable staff, but they hid behind far too much process and procedure, to the point of not being helpful.

Aptify is a very flexible AMS system that can do just about anything you ask it to do. Customizing it is as simple as point and click. What it offers in robust scalability it lacks in usability. The system is very intense to the first time user and even a seasoned veteran will have difficulty at first in understanding and manipulating the software. I would recommend this to associations with onsite technology support and also recommend you stay away from their professional services and seek some of the solution providers out there that are more business minded. Again I would recommend this system to associations, but there are some trade-off's that must be considered.