Implementing Membes AMS – through the eyes of a customer.

If you’re considering Membes AMS and wondering what the implementation process actually looks like, here’s a first-hand account from a customer who’s recently been through it.

Brook Durling, CEO of the Australian Institute of Conveyancers WA Division (AICWA), chose the Guided Implementation package – one of three support options available. Here, he shares what the process was really like, from decision-making to go-live.

1. The challenge

“When I joined AICWA, our technology hadn’t really evolved. The website was old and clunky and not fit for purpose. It was more of an e-commerce solution retrofitted for membership use.
It caused a lot of frustration for both staff and members. Even simple things like event registration or renewals took too long, and our team had to hand-hold members through these tasks. It created workplace anxiety because the technology just wasn’t working for us. I knew there had to be a better way.”

Brook wanted a commercial off-the-shelf platform that could be configured to AICWA’s needs—without the cost of a custom build.

2. Why Membes?

“I started by looking for a CRM because I’d worked with Salesforce in a previous role. But when I discovered association management systems, I realised that was a whole different concept.  
Some AMS platforms were very basic; others were too complex. Membes was the Goldilocks option—right size, right functionality. It could handle membership, renewals, events and education, but also had room to evolve as we grew.

I needed something that could meet our needs from day one but also allow us to add features over time — to improve the member journey, and the employee experience as well.”

3. Choosing the Guided Implementation package

“The software is intuitive, but I didn’t have time to figure everything out alone. I also didn’t want someone to just ‘do it for us’ and hand it over. That’s what had gone wrong with our previous website project — we weren’t involved enough, so we didn’t fully understand how it all worked.

The Guided package let me be hands-on, learn as we went, and make sure the setup reflected how we actually work.”

Including staff in the process was a deliberate choice by Brook.

“I wanted my team to be involved so they’d feel confident using it day-to-day. The better your staff know the tool, the happier they are.”

4. The onboarding experience

“Before our guidance sessions even began, we went through the training videos and setup guides—they were fantastic. And they became really valuable when we started the sessions, because we could use the time to tackle specific questions rather than starting from scratch.

The biggest value came from the practical advice and best-practice tips. Membes supports many associations, so they could share examples of different ways of doing things - like pricing setup, renewals and event creation - and show us exactly how to do it in a way that works for our association.  That was really useful.”

 Having staff join those calls was invaluable.  They started to play and get familiar with it. And it gave them a safe space to ask questions and connect what they used to do in the old system with how it works now.

There were a lot of ‘aha’ and ‘oh wow’ moments when they realised the system was designed purposefully for what they do - not a website patched together with plugins.”

5. How long did it take?

“We pushed quite hard to get as much as possible in the guidance sessions because we had a calendar of events about to launch. We wanted the new system to drive that straight away so we wouldn’t have to depend on a third-party arrangement which was terribly manual.”

“From staging handover to go-live took around six to seven weeks. We received access to the site just after Christmas, which was ideal — a quiet time to focus on configuration.”

6. Go-live! Members’ reaction

“Go-live was quite an anticlimactic experience. There was no drama, no chaos. Suddenly members were just registering for events on their own. We didn’t even tell them what to do! How is this possible?”

To prepare members, AICWA sent a simple announcement with login instructions and a couple of how-to guides.

“We didn’t overpromise. We just told members a new system was coming and gave them clear instructions to log in.

And then I just sat there watching the dashboard. I was seeing updates roll in — events being registered, profiles updated — but the phone wasn’t ringing. And that was fascinating – and really exciting.”

“The highlight for me was a member who isn’t that comfortable with technology and found the old website absolutely horrible. She often called staff for help in registering multiple people for events. I personally emailed her to tell her the new website had launched and sent her a link to an event she was interested in saying, ‘Give it a go, call me if you get stuck.’ A short time later she wrote back saying she’d worked it out and asked me to check her five registrations.  So, I looked and said, ‘I’m impressed, I’ve had a look and can confirm those five people are registered’.  She replied, ‘You’re impressed? I’m ecstatic. Nothing ever works for me tech-wise, so you’ve done well if I can get it to work. Thank you.’”

“Those messages, for me, really resonate because the member experience and the ability for us to deliver benefits to members is so important. It sounds a bit surreal to think that a new website is a member benefit, but when it's so easy to use, it's so intuitive, and it delivers a great experience that's frictionless, well, it is, it is very beneficial for our members.”

7. The impact after launch

“A month after going live, I’m already seeing dividends in terms of return on investment. Hearing my staff say ‘Oh, this is great. Like, wow, it took me 30 seconds to do something that used to take half an hour’. Or our members calling up or sending an email or SMS to tell us how their experience has been. It's starting to prove the investment was great.”

8. Would you recommend Membes?

“Yes—wholeheartedly, absolutely. From sales and procurement to contract execution, onboarding and go-live, it was just great. It’s changed our association.”

Implementation support packages

Membes offers three implementation packages for new customers giving them the flexibility to select the level of support that suits their budget, internal resources and preferred level of involvement:

1.    Supported DIY 
2.    Guided (Brook’s choice)
3.    Assisted.

Interested in learning more?

Contact us at sales@membes.com.au or request our Product Overview here.