Microsoft Dynamics 365: What You Need to Know from the 2023 Wave 2 Release
February 29th, 2024 By Chris Laskey Microsoft Dynamics 365, a comprehensive suite of business applications, has long been at the forefront of enabling organizations to streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and drive growth. With each new release, Microsoft continues to raise the bar, introducing innovative features and enhancements to empower businesses even further. Let’s delve into the most exciting updates from the latest release of Microsoft Dynamics 365: Unified Interface Revamp: One of the most notable changes in the latest release is the revamped Unified Interface, offering a sleeker and more intuitive user experience across all Dynamics 365 applications. With enhanced navigation, responsive design, and improved accessibility features, users can now navigate seamlessly between modules, boosting productivity and user satisfaction. AI-powered Insights: Leveraging the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Dynamics 365 introduces advanced analytics capabilities to unearth actionable insights from vast volumes of data. From predictive forecasting to sentiment analysis, organizations can now make data-driven decisions with confidence, driving efficiency and unlocking new opportunities for growth. Enhanced Customer Engagement: In today’s hyper-competitive landscape, delivering exceptional customer experiences is paramount. With enhanced customer engagement tools in Dynamics 365, businesses can personalize interactions, anticipate customer needs, and foster long-lasting relationships. From intelligent chatbots to omnichannel support, organizations can now elevate their customer service to unprecedented levels. Integrated Marketing Automation: Seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Service, the latest release introduces robust marketing automation capabilities to drive targeted campaigns, nurture leads, and measure marketing ROI. With unified customer data and automated workflows, marketers can orchestrate personalized journeys that resonate with their audience, ultimately driving revenue growth and brand loyalty. Power Platform Integration: Microsoft’s Power Platform, comprising Power BI, Power Apps, and Power Automate, seamlessly integrates with Dynamics 365, empowering businesses to extend and customize their CRM and ERP solutions without extensive coding. Whether it’s building custom apps, automating workflows, or creating insightful reports, organizations can harness the full potential of Dynamics 365 and drive innovation at scale. Enhanced Security and Compliance: With cybersecurity threats on the rise, safeguarding sensitive data and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements are non-negotiable. The latest release of Dynamics 365 introduces enhanced security features, including advanced threat protection, data encryption, and compliance controls, providing organizations with peace of mind and mitigating risks effectively. Industry-specific Solutions: Recognizing the diverse needs of businesses across various industries, Microsoft continues to expand its portfolio of industry-specific solutions within Dynamics 365. From retail and manufacturing to healthcare and financial services, organizations can now leverage tailored applications equipped with industry best practices, accelerating time-to-value and driving digital transformation initiatives. Seamless Integration with Microsoft 365: Integration with Microsoft 365 brings together the power of Dynamics 365 Sales and familiar productivity tools like Outlook and Teams. With seamless access to customer data and communication channels, sales reps can engage prospects and collaborate with colleagues without switching between applications. Insightful Sales Analytics: Data-driven decision-making is now easier than ever. Dynamics 365 Sales provides robust analytics and reporting tools, allowing sales managers to track performance metrics, identify trends, and optimize strategies for success. With real-time visibility into sales pipelines and forecasts, teams can stay agile and responsive in today’s fast-paced business environment. Mobile Productivity: In a world where business happens anytime, anywhere, mobile productivity is essential. The latest release of Dynamics 365 Sales offers enhanced mobile capabilities, enabling sales reps to access customer information, update records, and collaborate on the go. Whether in the office or in the field, teams can stay connected and productive at all times. Personalized Customer Engagement: Last but not least, Dynamics 365 Sales empowers sales teams to deliver personalized experiences that resonate with customers. With AI-driven insights and integrated communication tools, reps can tailor their approach based on customer preferences and behavior, building stronger relationships and driving loyalty. In essence, the latest release of Microsoft Dynamics 365 represents a significant leap forward in enabling membership organizations to thrive in today’s digital landscape. With its user-friendly interface, AI-driven insights, and seamless integration capabilities, Dynamics 365 empowers associations to elevate their operations, delight members, and achieve sustainable growth. As businesses continue to adapt and evolve, Dynamics 365 remains a trusted partner in driving excellence and fueling growth. Microsoft Dynamics 365 sets the standard for innovation, helping associations unleash their full potential and shape the future of work.
Empowering Associations with Microsoft Copilot: A Game-Changer for Efficiency and Impact
September 22nd, 2023 By Hannah Shankle As a young marketing professional, I have grown up in a world of constant technological advancements. However, the recent explosion of AI is something different, and truly defines a start to a significant shift. AI is not just a buzzword but a transformative technology with the potential to revolutionize how associations operate and engage with their younger members. The Copilot Effect The recent announcement of Copilot in Windows 11 is just the tip of the iceberg. With first a beta expansion into Dynamics 365, and now into Windows 11, . AI’s role in our daily lives is evolving. It’s no longer a standalone tool; it’s a digital companion, a personal assistant at our fingertips, enhancing our efficiency. For associations, Copilot offers endless possibilities. It simplifies complex tasks, such as document creation and data analysis, catering to Gen Z’s tech-savvy expectations. It delivers data-driven insights, automates member engagement, and streamlines multitasking. This level of productivity aligns perfectly with Gen Z’s expectations. The integration of Copilot into Windows 11 signals a significant shift, making AI an indispensable companion in our digital lives. Its potential to enhance productivity and provide valuable insights holds promise for associations looking to engage Gen Z effectively. Member Engagement Tailored for Gen Z As a marketing professional, I live and breathe member engagement. AI takes this to a whole new level. It doesn’t just analyze member behavior, it predicts their needs, and suggests tailored engagement strategies. It’s like having a full research team tells you how to attract members and keep them actively involved and happy. With the help of Copilot’s Query Assist feature in Dynamics 365 for Marketing, associations can effortlessly create segmented audiences. This simplifies the market segmentation process, enabling the association to tailor campaigns specifically for Gen Z. This not only saves time but also ensures that the messages resonate with younger members, enhancing engagement and satisfaction. Data-Driven Decision Making I may be young, but I’ve come to understand that data is the backbone of successful marketing. AI doesn’t just collect data; it turns it into actionable insights. And let’s face it, being data-driven is no longer an option; it’s a necessity in today’s fast-paced world. An association can harness Copilot to analyze member data in real-time. Copilot can provide insights on specific member characteristics, preferences, and purchase behavior. It helps us understand what’s working and what’s not, enabling us to make intelligent decisions tailored to Gen Z preferences. In this case, an association can use Copilot to compile data from younger members to create highly personalized campaigns. In turn, boosting engagement and retention among younger members. AI’s Limitless Potential The beauty of AI lies in its boundless potential. Whether it’s optimizing virtual events, offering personalized content recommendations, or enhancing the recruitment process, AI is a game-changer for associations. Copilot extends its prowess to applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. It comprehends and responds to user input, simplifying tasks and making engaging with Gen Z a breeze. AI is accessible to everyone. Its user-friendly nature ensures that professionals of all ages can harness its power, making it a valuable asset for associations seeking effective engagement with younger generations. What’s Next? In conclusion, AI is reshaping associations’ member engagement strategies. With Copilot’s integration into Microsoft tools, we’re witnessing a pivotal moment in the digital landscape. AI has evolved from a standalone tool into a trusted companion that simplifies tasks, provides valuable insights, and enhances productivity. This transformation aligns perfectly with the expectations of tech-savvy Gen Z members who demand seamless and data-driven experiences. As a young marketing professional, I’m excited about the limitless potential of AI in reshaping how associations attract and engage younger generations. It’s not just a buzzword; it’s a powerful tool that promises a brighter future for associations and their Gen Z members! Comments For the Author Name Email Tell Us Your Thoughts Tell us what you think of this blog Send
5 Tips for Choosing an AMS System: Insights from Reggie Henry, ASAE
May 1st, 2023 By Chris Laskey As associations grow and expand their membership base, managing member data can become a daunting task. That’s where AMS (Association Management System) software comes in – it can help associations manage their membership data, events, and other functions. But how do you choose the right AMS system for your association? During the ASAE Demo Days introduction, Reggie Henry, Chief Information and Performance Excellence Officer at ASAE, shared his insights on how to choose an AMS system that works best for your organization. 1. Outline your requirements and prioritize them Before you start evaluating AMS systems, it’s important to outline your requirements. What do you need the AMS system to do? What features are essential, and what are nice-to-haves? Once you have a list of requirements, prioritize them. This will help you focus on the most important features when evaluating different AMS systems. 2. Develop a script for your demos When evaluating different AMS systems, it’s important to have a consistent approach. One way to do this is to develop a script for your demos. This script should be based on the priority of your requirements. For example, if online transactions are a top priority, make sure you allow enough time in the script to explore this feature. This will help you compare different AMS systems more effectively. 3. Consider your members’ needs AMS systems are designed to help you manage your relationship with your members. It’s important to consider your members’ needs when evaluating different AMS systems. What features will help your members get the most value from your association? For example, if your members attend conferences, they may want to be able to connect with other attendees from their area. Make sure the AMS system you choose can support these needs. 4. Minimize customizations Customizations can be tempting, but they can also be a double-edged sword. While they can help you tailor the AMS system to your specific needs, they can also make it harder to upgrade the software in the future. In general, it’s best to minimize customizations and stick to the out-of-the-box functionality as much as possible. This will make it easier to upgrade the software and avoid costly customizations. 5. Focus on what gets done, not how it’s done Finally, it’s important to focus on what gets done, not how it’s done. Don’t get bogged down in the details of how a particular feature works. Instead, focus on the end result – does the feature help you achieve your goals? Too often, associations get caught up in the minutiae of how things are done and end up with over-customized software that is hard to maintain. Instead, focus on the big picture and choose an AMS system that helps you achieve your goals. In conclusion, choosing the right AMS system can be a complex process. However, by outlining your requirements, developing a script for your demos, considering your members’ needs, minimizing customizations, and focusing on what gets done, you can make an informed decision that will help your association manage its membership data more effectively. Selecting the right AMS can be an overwhelming process. We’re here for you! Need more information? Look at Altai’s Buyers Guide for in-depth guidance, information, tips, and tricks on making an informed decision on selecting your association’s next AMS.
Five Reasons Associations choose Altai and Microsoft Dynamics 365
February 15th, 2023 By Admin Association Management Systems (AMS) have been a staple of the industry for many years, providing organizations with a centralized platform for managing member data, events, finances, and more. However, traditional AMS platforms are often limited in their capabilities and struggle to keep pace with the evolving needs of modern associations. That’s where Altai Systems comes in. As an AMS platform built in Dynamics 365, Altai Systems is revolutionizing how associations manage their operations. In this blog, we’ll explore a few key differences between Altai Systems and traditional AMS platforms and why Altai Systems is the future of association management. Flexibility and Scalability Altai Systems is an app within Dynamics 365. This provides associations with a highly flexible and scalable platform that can easily be customized to meet the unique needs of each association. With Altai Systems, associations can add new features, integrations, and configurations as they grow. This can all be done while remaining on the upgrade path and without being held back by rigid and inflexible systems. Seamless Integration with Other Technologies One of the biggest challenges with traditional AMS platforms is integration with other systems and tools. Since Altai Systems is a Dynamics 365 application, it works seamlessly with other Microsoft technologies, such as Office 365, Teams, and SharePoint, as well as integrates easily with third-party tools such as marketing automation platforms and payment gateways. This allows associations to streamline their operations and work more efficiently. Intuitive User Experience Altai Systems is designed to be user-friendly, with a modern and intuitive interface that makes it easy for users to access the information and tools they need. This not only saves time but also reduces the risk of errors and improves the overall user experience. Improved Data Management Altai Systems includes robust data management capabilities, with a centralized database that can store and manage all member information in one place. This makes it easier to access and analyze data, streamline processes, and make data-driven decisions. In conclusion, Altai Systems is a Dynamics 365 AMS that offers associations a flexible, scalable, and integrated solution for managing their operations. With Altai Systems, associations can improve their member experience, work more efficiently, and make data-driven decisions that drive growth and success. Don’t settle for a traditional AMS – upgrade to Altai Systems and experience the future of association management today.
The Pros and Cons of the RFP process
September 29th, 2022 By Chris Laskey In our recent joint Webinar, Altai’s Beth Power and Achurch Consulting Tammy Marko came together for a roundtable discussion on the RFP process. In today’s Market, countless Association Management Software (AMS) vendors are each promising to deliver the best solution for your organization. Navigating your way through selecting a new vendor can be daunting. Hearing the truth about the process from industry experts can help you better prepare and move forward with this process. What is an RFP? An association that is searching for new AMS software may issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) to each prospective AMS vendor. What are your system considerations? What needs are being unmet by your current AMS? An RFP can help you answer these questions. Typically, an RFP includes: Background Information Detailed description and goals of the project Specific Requirements of Project (Budget, Systems, Materials) Project timeline and deadline Project deliverables, specifications, and questions Evaluation criteria of RFPS The document outlines what the organization is looking to achieve with its new software. Along with this, the RFP asks for detailed information on the perspective vendor’s systems ability to meet requirements. An RFP can help an organization understand the strengths and weaknesses of its organization while providing a framework for managing the selection of new software. Do You Even Need an RFP? RFPs allow associations to create and understand their feature assessment list to inform the selection process. The featured assessment could be from how you do events to changing address types, it is one of the most important aspects of an RFP. So, whether it is in the traditional term of an RFP, you still need to determine what your basic guard rails of what you are looking for in an AMS are. While not all associations require an RFP, many require it under association policy. From a consulting perspective, RFPs are always encouraged to better understand needs. A detailed RFP can be leveraged in the discovery period because a lot of the legwork is already done! Along with this, RFP can help with understanding what anticipated costs might look like. Whichever way you proceed, make sure to check your by-laws to ensure that the decisions you are making align with them Should You Use a Consultant? The role of a consultant can address many different facets of the RFP process. Think of a consultant as an extension of your staff, they are here to help you and make your life easier. Consultants can: Help walk you through the process. Maybe you haven’t selected a new AMS in a long time –or maybe ever! Consultants can help you navigate your way through this process all the way to the down selecting process. Save your association time. Consultants know that staff are already busy with their job responsibilities. A consultant taking charge of time-consuming tasks such as writing the RFP and responding to vendors will allow more time for staff to be focused on day-to-day operations. Understand your association from a technological perspective. Consultants can help Identify where your challenges are, what your needs are, and other higher-level requirements. Going Into an RFP… Communication is essential when beginning the RFP process. Selecting an AMS is not just an IT selection. A new AMS affects every department of an organization therefore It’s important to consider everyone who plays a role in your organization. It’s important to consider who is going to be responsible for making the decision. Talk with your team before to understand: What features you are looking for Your pain points- and how a new AMS could help. What your customers and staff are asking for Focus on a core team consisting of liaisons from each of the functional areas of your organization. Ensure that the team stays part of the process, don’t be afraid to lean on them on every part of the process. Engage with staff and volunteers throughout the process. A new AMS system can change many aspects of your organization structure, make sure to engage staff involved throughout the process to alleviate stress. How to Construct a Good RFP Here’s the thing: we all know that most systems are going to address the basic responsibilities of an AMS. While checking the boxes is important, asking too generic questions isn’t necessarily going to narrow down the selection of your vendor. Instead of asking Generic Yes/No questions, asking how or why can help you better distinguish vendors from another. Along with this, Tell the vendor why you need specific functionality to help the vendor distinguish YOU from other clients. Tip: Write the narrative or scenario that you need to be solved by an AMS. Not only does this frame the conversation, but also can be used in the future for the Vendor for user stories. Comparing Apples to Oranges So, you got your RFP responses back. What now? Comparing vendors can be tricky and can sometimes feel like comparing apples to oranges. When reviewing an RFP response, if you don’t have the specific details of how a vendor will achieve what you want them to- It’s okay. If you feel confident in their ability to achieve your goals, it is perfectly okay to proceed with them. So, What’s Next? Demos After the RFP process, you’ve narrowed down your selections to the vendors that best fit your needs. Next is the demo phase of selecting new CRM software for your organization. Until the very end of the process, it’s essential to have your core team a part of the whole process, including demos. Scorecards Using scorecards when comparing vendors throughout the entire RFP process can be helpful. While using a data-driven approach narrowing down the selection can certainly be effective. Down selecting After seeing all the demos, using your scorecards and other selection methods you will be able to narrow down your selection to your finalists. Having a thorough discussion with your core team will allow you to determine what vendor will suit
Configured Association Management System VS Custom-Built
A Configured Association Management System VS Custom-Built Why Altai Systems, built within the Microsoft Power Platform is the right fit for associations even if your association is considering a custom-built solution In economic terms, custom solutions depreciate in value year after year. The long-term impact of employee turnover and leadership changes is rarely factored into the cost of building a custom solution but has real negative impacts on how they are managed, used, and maintained. This devalues the software your association relies on to service members and follow your association’s mission. One of the main arguments for building custom software for your association is that it will fit exactly what you need and match your specific user requirements. Custom Solution developers argue an off-the-shelf software is built to fit a generic audience and not your association’s unique needs. What’s missing from this argument is the configurability of off-the-shelf platforms that perform and behave like custom software without the years-long effort to get your custom-built solution where it needs to be. These platforms start your association in the final mile of a marathon, we’ve already run the first 25.2 miles so that when you join the team, we simply finish the race together. This option has all the benefits of custom software without the detraction of a long, harrowing, implementation followed by ongoing retrofitting and maintenance. A configurable platform is designed to meet your unique needs while also working behind the scenes to remove bugs, install upgrades, security patches, feature enhancements, and more. There will never be a question about who is responsible for this ongoing maintenance and improvement. Your SaaS partner takes that burden off your shoulders, alleviating that stress from your internal team. Altai Systems has 100,000+ hours getting our solution where it is and continue to invest hours into improvements, maintenance, and upgrades. We already know associations and have done development creating a solid framework for your association-specific solution. Building on top of that kind of investment in our technology allows us to configure the platform to exacting terms that match your association’s needs today and tomorrow. With your configured solution working exactly the way you need, we’ll continue to invest in improvements and upgrades so you’ll never need to worry about it. Our software continues to improve, unlike a custom solution that remains static until you invest more money to improve it. On the flip side, custom developers argue that their solutions don’t include a yearly licensing fee. What they neglect to tell you is that your licensing fee pays for the continuous improvements, debugging efforts, revamps, upgrades, and improvements that allow your software to stay current. Custom-built solutions remain static and unadaptable to changes in technology. As you go through the long implementation phase, you lose valuable growth from the technology you’re building on and by the time you go live, you already have out-of-date software. Even worse, your association most likely needs to hire staff or dedicate significant time to maintaining your custom-built solution just to keep it secure and operating at the status quo. These expenses are difficult to predict and are therefore often overlooked. At the end of the day, your association will need to budget for the extraneous time and expense it takes to build a custom solution from scratch and then maintain it day in and day out. Weigh the stress and effort that this time and effort takes away from other projects and determine what is best for your association. Contact us to learn more about how we can incorporate Altai and Microsoft’s functionality into your Association.
Single Sign On (SSO), Identity Management, and how to not torture your members.
Single sign-on, or SSO, allows your members – and really anyone who has an online account with you – to avoid keeping track of multiple usernames, passwords, permissions, and roles. One login gives them access to all your connected digital components they have rights to access. It also allows you to manage who has access to what. Restricted board content, digital downloads, personalized recommendations. SSO opens the door to the experience your member is often already getting in their daily life. If you are a member, you do not care that the association provides benefits from different platforms and likely don’t notice SSO details until they are absent. You just want to use the tools that make your association membership worthwhile without having to type a new password at each step. If you are an administrator, or IT professional, SSO and how it is implemented matters a great deal. The technical differences between identity, authentication, and SSO are the subjects of many books, but for the sake of this article, let’s just say they are security technologies that allow the real member to work in your systems securely without infecting you or each other. They achieve this by understanding who is at the keyboard and what they can do automatically without asking the user for more information. While there are nuances between identity management, authentication, and SSO, for now, we’ll talk broadly about secure member access to your content and their data. Do I know you? What are you allowed to do? Hey job board this is “Jeff”, he is good to go, Hey Breezio this is “Jeff” he is a board member, Everyone…. “Nancy” just got hacked, kick her out of every system now! Security has come a long way. Things like PII, PCI, and GDPR weren’t on our radar when we first started asking members to log into our websites. Whether asking them to update their mailing address or find the agenda for the board meeting, we had rudimentary safety precautions around our login information – at least by today’s standards. Today, storing usernames and passwords in your AMS puts you – and your member – at risk. I’m sure your General Counsel has thoughts on the liability risks of a password solution that doesn’t live up to today’s standards. During the pandemic, the FBI reported a 300% increase in the number of cybercrimes, from about 1,000 cases to between 3,000 and 4,000 cases each day. Enter Commercial Identity Management. Whether you set your system to timeout after a session or not, knowing that you can confidently rely on the top security in this commercial solution gives you and your leadership peace of mind. It also gives your members not only peace of mind but the ease of use. No more remembering multiple passwords for their community and membership and content. No more struggling through forget your password steps No more disconnected experiences between platforms within your organization We support almost any Identity management system, but we use and recommend Microsoft Azure B2C for three reasons. It is ultra-reliable, Azure Active Directory has an SLA of 99.9%. Service reliability and availability is one of the top considerations for our customers in choosing an Identity and Access Management solution. With Azure AD being the largest enterprise cloud identity service, reliability and security of service is a top priority for Microsoft. It protects you and your members from dangerous hackers It is free till you hit 50000 authentications a month and after that, it’s incredibly affordable AzureB2C understands volume with a trillion security transactions a day. It facilitates identity verification and proofing by collecting user data, then passing it to third-party systems to perform validation, trust scoring, and approval for user account creation. It knows if Grandma’s computer is hacked, and it knows that George the member cannot be in San Francisco and a coffee shop in Lagos at the same hour. AzureB2C allows you to set up your SSO connection to your other systems such as a job board or community site in an hour or so. AzureB2C allows you to control the authentication, including letting your members use Facebook, LinkedIn, or their email to log in. AzureB2C knows if it is the member’s computer at their office or house and logs them in automatically. You decide how loose or tight you want the controls to be and how long you want to trust the member. AzureB2C has all the “Register” and “I forgot” login built-in. You are out of that business and now your staff can focus more on creative pursuits to push your mission forward, rather than the clerical issues of identity management. In this day and age, any Web or AMS project should include commercial identity management. It benefits us, it benefits you, and most importantly, it benefits your members.
How to view top usage of CRM tables to clean up your data in Microsoft Dynamics
As your association’s CRM administrator, one of your top priorities is the management of your data and how it is stored. With the changes from Microsoft on storage, our clients are asking us how to clear out unneeded storage of data and to gain insights on where the largest data exists. By clearing out unneeded data, your system’s storage capacity will be improved and you will avoid overage charges from storing unnecessary data. Below you will find details on how to gain these insights in order to best make decisions for what data you may be able to remove if and as needed. Power Platform Admin Center The simplest and most detailed way your association is able to access insights about your data is to use the Power Platform Admin Center. The Power Platform’s admin center features Analytics of your CRM environment. There you can click on “Dataverse” which shows you by entity. While in the dataverse you can access a wide range of useful details such as entity usage. Dataverse includes a base set of entities that provide structure for data used by business applications. For more information on entities click here. You can also ascertain your organization’s data capacity. This page provides a tenant-level view of where your association is using storage capacity. To view the Summary page, select Resources > Capacity > Summary.
Call For Proposals
Call For Proposals is Altai’s latest functionality that makes soliciting feedback from members easier to gather and qualify. Our CFP module assists an organization in requesting suggestions or feedback from its membership and industry thought leaders. Allowing associations to call on their constituents to propose, an award, a session, a paper, a nomination, an abstract, a grant a request, or any number of requests that will benefit from soliciting information gathering on a large scale. The functionality allows your association to build a survey with their request, receive feedback from the larger population then collate and send information to a smaller subset of judges or reviewers to evaluate and quantify that feedback so they can take action. Now your association can utilize this module to parse results that best serve your membership. For example asking 5,000 members for possible event topics, receiving 500 responses, and sending those out to 100 judges to score and quantify the results in order to implement or take action. Use the power of Altai’s CFP to better crowdsource the best scenarios, speakers, papers, proposals, and more.
The Altai Advanced Certification and Credentialing Solution
Altai’s Advanced Certification solution (ACCS) was first released in 2010 utilizing the Microsoft CRM platform. We’ve been enhancing and expanding its capabilities for the last 10 years to bring you the best solution possible. The ability to extend and enhance the solution is one of the strengths of the Altai Business Platform. It is designed to be personalized to your organization’s needs while maintaining an unhindered upgrade path. By configuring CRM instead of writing custom code, Altai meets our client’s short-term requirements while allowing our clients to adapt their configurations as new requirements arise. Our certification solution is highly flexible and is designed to support basic certification requirements as well as automate complicated certification programs, continuing education programs, business rules, and recertification processes – all managed by your staff from a single system. this includes a powerful rules engine that can manage the most complex certification programs that your staff can adjust as needed without coding. They will also be able to monitor certification status, track and approve applications, and easily update application forms and online processes from the Altai business platform back office. Our solution covers everything from the application processing to exam management, to certification and re-certification. Importantly, our Certification solution is part of the AMS product and is fully integrated across all modules (i.e. Certification, Membership, Events, Education, Finance, etc.). This provides a seamless experience to your users and access to all related information. As with other areas of our solution, certifications are tracked from Web to GL. While Altai has been working with certification organizations since 2010, in 2012, we engaged with the Project Management Institute (PMI) to replace their existing systems. This included certification, membership, education, and multiple integrations that included: financial, credit card processing, Prometric’s exam management, etc.. Working as a team, we were able to consolidate five different systems into one, move their million-plus members into Dynamics CRM; replace and automate a number of their certifications, integrate with Great Plains Dynamics, Prometric, and their website. During this time, Altai significantly expanded their solution to meet the needs of enterprise organizations; and incorporate a tool we call the “Business Rules Engine” into our solution that provides the ability to apply complex business rules without using code. Since then, we’ve deployed our solution to a number of organizations including: The Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI), an international organization that certifies HR professionals around the world. As part of the project, we replaced their certification, recertification, membership, and education management solutions with our integrated Certification and Membership AMS solution. They have been live on their systems for over 2 years now and are continuing to expand its functionality and deploy new certifications and products with little to no effort on our part. This was one of the project goals, to enable HRCI to take ownership of the system and extend it based on their business needs. Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), a national organization that provides key elements in perpetuating success throughout the healthcare industry thru its membership and certifications. MGMA also replaced several existing applications with our integrated Certification and Membership AMS solution. Similar to HRCI, MGMA has to continue to expand its functionality and deploy new functionality and products with little to no effort on our part to better support their business units’ needs. In the following sections, we will delve deeper into the Altai Certification solution, the respective functional areas, and how it will work for you General System Overview Certification and Recertification Setup and Management Application Processing Exam Management and Processing General System Overview The table below provides an overview of the modules/areas that comprise and support the Altai Certification solution and some of the benefits that our clients receive. Certification and Recertification Setup and Management Your staff will be able to set up the requirements for each of your certifications easily within the system as well as the rules and requirements around recertification. The requirements that you setup will control how the certification/recertification processes are managed and applications are processed. This includes items such as: Available Exams for Certification Requirements associated with an exam such as “Eligibility Period”, “Wait Period”, “Exam Extension Period”, “Exam Failed Retake Wait Period”. You can add additional required as needed. General Certification requirements such as “Education Level Required” and “Work Experience Required”. Additional requirements such as “School”, “Work” and you can define your own requirement types. Auditing rules – i.e. “Audit Threshold”, “Audit Counter”, “Recert Audit Threshold” and “Audit Recert Counter. Recertification requirements – i.e. “Allow Recert by Exam”, “CEU’s Required”, “Work Experience Required”. Once again, all of these rules are configurable within each Certification and additional ones can be added as part of the configuration. The screenshot below provides a sample of how certification can be setup. The implementation of these rules and the Altai web portal will enable your certificants to: Maintain their profile information, upload their picture, and capture any of the data needed for you to better support and manage your certificants. Complete applications for certification and recertification. Submit required documentation for certification and recertification (i.e. Student transcripts, Letters of Reference, Resumes, Vitas, or CVs). Purchase and schedule exams for certification and recertification. Monitor their exam status and see the results. Monitor their certification and recertification status. Track and submit their Continuing Education (CEU’s, PDU’s, CE’s, etc.) as part of their recertification process Based on your organization’s business rules and requirements, you can use the Web Portal to collect and manage the Certificant data you need. Application Processing Using Altai’s certification/credentialing solution, applications can be processed manually via a submitted paper application or on-line using our web portal. Once submitted, the application will follow your business processes. The Dashboard below provides an example of how you can see and manage your applications. The applications are queued based on “Certification being applied for” and “Application Status”. Your staff will quickly see what’s in their queue to work on. The solution supports the configuration of different “Application Statuses” so that you can map your certification process to the system and organize queues based on your business processes. Exam Processing Exam processing is typically one of the key components of certification. Whether exams are required for certification and are used for recertification, the Altai Certification solutions support both. We provide support for tracking all relevant Exam data, the ability to collect additional data as needed, and
