Protech's MemberPoint Solution
MemberPoint is the "out of the box" Microsoft CRM based solution that Protech sold to customers over the last few years. As of early 2014 they are no longer selling this solution, although they are providing support to all the organizations that originally signed up and are offering an upgrade path (although it is a bit pricey). We selected MemberPoint (MP) because it was cloud based, the user environment was very familiar (Microsoft), the solution met all of our minimum criteria (email rosters/lists, member dues, SharePoint integration, event management, member directory, marketing tools, etc. ), Protech provided extensive training, and it came at a reasonable cost. Before selecting MemberPoint we had researched and demoed 12 different products. Data migration ran about $5500 and the administration licenses ran about $1200 per person, per year. In the end, it was likely the reasonable data migration costs that likely prompted Protech to stop offering the solution. Our organization moved from 5 disparate data systems to one centralized system. All of our contacts resided in Microsoft Exchange so the data migration for us was a bit cumbersome and pretty big lift for the staff person that was responsible for organizing the data into the preferred migration format. Likewise, even though the system was on a Microsoft platform, there was still a significant learning curve for staff that need to use this system day in and day out. Highly recommend you not take on an effort like this unless you have a dedicated IT staff person or you schedule it around your slowest period of the year. Expect at least a 15 day interruption, although each systemÃs implementation process is different. We really like MP for the basics including contact management, tracking officers and chairs, meeting scheduling, processing dues and registrations, and as a member directory. The SharePoint integration was well done but our membership didnÃt take to it the way we had hoped. The biggest challenges for us related to day to day emailing. We previously had our own Microsoft Exchange Server, so emailing large groups was relatively easy. Just two clicks to send a message with an attachment to a large list. MemberPoint has several ways to send off emails but known of them take less than 8 clicks and none of them allows you to send an attachment. We ended up having to either export the email roster list to excel and then copy into outlook or create a link to the attachment. In the end, linking offered us data transfer savings as well. Another big challenge for us has been browser compatibility. Protech did not ensure MPÃs upgrades matched MicrosoftÃs CRM upgrades. The original MP was built on CRM 4.0 and Microsoft has moved on to new CRM products. Unfortunately, this means some of the tools/functions use deprecated code and the newer browsers do not recognize the programming. This results in my organization having to remain on IE 9.0. We cannot upgrade or we lose access to our AMS. More importantly, we cannot purchase computers with Windows 8 or beyond as there is no way to install IE 9 on those machines. Protech has confirmed this issue and we are stuck until we choose another solution or pay the pricey Protech upgrade. Another challenge for us related to credentialing. Both SharePoint and event registration requires the member to maintain a login and password. This was not necessarily a big deal but if the memberÃs email address changed, my staff had to go to customer service to change it. This was a known glitch in MP and was supposed to be worked out but so far it has not been resolved. If MP was still sold as a solution, the only way we could recommend it is if they solved their own CRM upgrade issues so we could move forward with a newer browsers. The other challenges were disappointing but we had found way to live with them. We were originally told that our upgrades would come with the monthly licensing, which never really materialized.
