TREASURER'S REPORT Mahadevappa Mahesh, PhD, Baltimore, MD

Case of Association Management System (AMS) and Financial Management System (FMS)

There are many applications and tools that are continuously used by members and staff at AAPM. Among them, there are few that permeate through most of all the activities we do. Two such applications/tools are the association management system (AMS) and financial management system (FMS). I consider AMS to be equivalent to the circulatory system that touches all parts of our body. In the same vein, the FMS also interacts with all association activities.

I strongly feel that the purchase of a new AMS and FMS, although it is a major one, is just as important as the acquisition of the new building. Hence I wanted to share with you the rationale for embarking on this path.

Case for New Association Management System (AMS)

AAPM purchased the current AMS system, IMPAK by ISSI, in 1996 and has maintained a support agreement each year since. The AMS has had two major upgrades in the past 21 years. During this period AAPM staff (Information Services staff) have built many tools and accessories to provide necessary data to leadership and volunteers. In late 2015, ISSI informed AAPM that it had been acquired by another company and would no longer provide support to the system that AAPM is using. This triggered the need to search for a new AMS system. A task group (TG285) was formed within the finance committee under the chairmanship of Treasurer. The task group initially hired an outside consultant (ITAG) to navigate through the process of assessing, evaluating and identifying the tools necessary to replace existing system. Over the last 3 months, the outside consultant (ITAG) delivered a Business Technology Assessment with the recommendation to purchase separately the AMS and FMS systems.

Why new Financial Management System (FMS)?

The AAPM HQ team has developed modifications and workarounds to get around inadequacies in the present systems. The Information Services (IS) and Finance teams have developed solutions that have pushed the existing system beyond its capabilities to meet the needs of the organization. Examples of areas that have required modifications and workarounds include:

• Financial Reporting in the Committee Tree
• Annual Budget process and Internal Financial Statements, etc.

The existing systems have struggled to efficiently deliver information needed for insight and analysis. Hence the need to purchase a new FMS became a priority along with the new AMS.
Also, there are a number of benefits by purchasing new FMS for AAPM:

• New FMS systems offer many enhancements not available in our present software such as the ability to upload vendor invoices, reduction of input errors, efficient handling of bank reconciliations, improvements to system's internal control, etc.
• Currently nearly all budgeting, financial reporting, and graphing is handled outside of the FMS in Excel. This is a very time-consuming process frequently requiring significant manual input, and as such is prone to error. Many new FMSes have built-in enhancements for financial reporting, budgeting, graphing, etc. that will enhance our reporting in the future. As less time is spent on report generation, more time can be spent on insight and analytics.

A new FMS will enhance the financial function at AAPM and enable the HQ team to deliver more useful and timely information. Additionally, by reducing the number of manual processes, a new FMS will not only improve overall operational efficiency, but also allow for the HQ management team to deliver improved reporting and provide analytical insight into the numbers.

The funding for a new AMS and FMS will not come from operations budget, but will be funded through our reserves. With AAPM funding so many worthwhile projects both currently and potential new projects in the future, I am sure some are wondering why we should allocate resources towards this back-office function. The purchase of a new AMS and FMS is a strategic investment that can create value for AAPM. Financially, this investment should not impact operations, hence it was decided to take the necessary funds from the AAPM reserves. This information was provided to the AAPM board, which after discussion voted unanimously to withdraw funds from the AAPM reserves towards purchase of the new AMS and FMS.

The business technology assessment report provided by hired consultant has become the core of a Request for Proposal (RFP). AAPM has received proposals and the TG 285 committee and staff are reviewing the proposals. Implementation of the new system is currently planned for Q1 2018.

If you have any questions related to this column, please feel free to reach out to me (email me or call me at 410-955-5115 or tweet me).

I would like to thank Robert A. McKoy and Michael Woodward for their contribution to this column.

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