Tammy Ven Dange of Roundbox Consulting chats with Michelle Lelempsis, the Founder and Managing Director of Causeis Launchpad CRM solution based on the iMIS Membership Association system.
Topics from this interview about the Causeis Launchpad CRM solution:
In this interview, we learn about:
- 00:00 About the company, Causeis
- 02:00 More about Michelle Lelempsis
- 03:00 Some of Causeis clients
- 05:14 Some of the challenges and benefits of iMIS
- 07:51 The Causeis Launchpad CRM solution
- 13:03 Their Development Roadmap
- 15:38 More about Launchpad and how it saves both time and money
- 17:19 Advice for current iMIS users to get the best out of the system
- 18:47 Contact details for Michelle and Causeis
Links & Resources:
- Learn more about the Causeis Launchpad CRM solution – https://www.causeis.com.au/
- Connect with Michelle Lelempsis on LinkedIn
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Tammy regularly helps Not for Profits make IT investment decisions. Let her know if you need some help.
Tammy Ven Dange is a former charity CEO, Association President, Not for Profit Board Member and IT Executive. Today she helps NFPs with strategic IT decisions as an independent consultant. She does not take commissions nor sign partnership arrangements with vendors.
Video Transcript (minor modifications have been made for clarity)
Tammy Ven Dange I welcome Michelle Lelempsis Managing Director of Causeis an ASI iMIS partner. Michelle, welcome.
Michelle Lelempsis Thank you. Thanks for having me.
About Causeis
Tammy Ven Dange Michelle, tell us more about Causeis.
Michelle Lelempsis Definitely. Causeis is the most award-winning digital consultancy for Associations here in Asia-Pacific. And what we really do is leverage our experience and digital partners to help our 60-plus clients grow. And so that’s across a myriad of different services.
We’re very busy helping clients achieve – whether they’re web strategies, data strategies, CRM strategies. Yeah, all around Australia, New Zealand, and the US.
Tammy Ven Dange – That’s 60 clients. That’s pretty significant. Are they iMIS clients?
Michelle Lelempsis The majority of them definitely are iMIS organisations. So Causis, we partner with around eight leading technology providers. That’s so, like a little software toolkit per se, that we can go into to make sure that the software’s right for the organisation. But yeah, primarily we are the global leading iMIS partner for ASI for three years running.
So yes, definitely the majority of our clients are IMIS organisations.
Tammy Ven Dange So that’s global? I thought for some reason it was just for the southern hemisphere. But you’re actually the global leading partner?
Michelle Lelempsis Yeah, we are. And I think we’ve probably rocked the boat a little bit because we did a clean sweep of the ASI awards last March. So pretty exciting for our team.
Tammy Ven Dange Especially since ASI is an American company, isn’t it?
Michelle Lelempsis It is. ASI actually works with around 2000, 2500 Associations globally and yes, a majority of that customers would be in North America, that’s for sure.
More about Michelle Lelempsi
Tammy Ven Dange How did you get involved in Causeis?
Michelle Lelempsis I actually founded Causeis about 13 years ago.
It was really out of a desire to provide the Not for Profit industry with an alternative to consulting. My background prior to starting Causeis was working within charities and Associations. And I was quite privileged to work across all layers of those businesses where particularly with an IT or database and web focus.
I wanted to create a consulting business that would basically ensure sustainability and empowerment for Not for Profit. That was quite important to me.
Causeis has really changed significantly in the last five or six years. Originally it was just myself and, about five or six years ago I started recruiting and it’s been incredible ever since. We are now a team of 20 consultants here in Australia.
Causis Clients
Tammy Ven Dange So who are some of your clients right now?
Michelle Lelempsis People always perhaps assume that we only work with larger Associations, but we certainly don’t. And it just comes down to wanting to work with organisations that have a desire to improve and ultimately all Associations want to improve. That’s, that the ideal goal for everyone to make a positive difference to their industry.
So from our client base, honestly, they range from volunteer-led Associations all the way through to large Associations. We work across all industries as well. So, we’re not just tied to certain types of markets or industries.
Some of the organisations we work with include quite a few of the Real Estate Institutes – New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, Victoria.
We also work with the Australian College of Nursing, which went through an incredible period of support during COVID, and so lots of digital change for them. Through to organisations like Christian Schools Australia, Library Information Association and so many more. So, all are very different in their size and industry.
But the one thing that they all have is this constant desire to improve, grow and innovate, which is really important to us.
Tammy Ven Dange And so it sounds like all sizes as well. What’s the smallest iMIS client you are working with right now?
Michelle Lelempsis Yes, we actually work with a few organisations that literally, just two or three users, and some of them are volunteer-led.
An organisation we work with is the Collier Charitable Foundation based in Victoria, which is also most people tend to know them as the Lord Mayors Foundation or the Melbourne Lord Mayors Trust. We actually work with them and enabled their grant application process, and they’re a team of one. They knew that they wanted to partner with an organisation that would help improve that efficiency on the data side for their grant process.
They are very small ones through to large ones, and it’s important.
How does Causeis work with plugins and integrations?
Tammy Ven Dange One of the things that I’ve found with iMIS, the product itself, is that it requires a lot of plug-ins and integrations. As such that’s one of the challenges whenever I help the client and they decide on iMIS is just the number of plugins I have to price and try to figure out who’s going to actually do the implementation,
What do you typically do around that? Because that is one of the, I suppose, challenges with iMIS is just that some things that you expect to be native are not.
Michelle Lelempsis Yeah, it’s a really good question and I think there’s probably two ways I want to approach this one.
The first is iMIS is probably one of the only AMS (Association Management System) platforms that has a very large consulting network and it is important to recognise the value that that brings. So globally, there’s around 80 authorised consulting organisations like Causeis and all of those consulting partners bring a different skill set, different perspective. And some of them will create a product that might fit iMIS.
The other part of iMIS is that, being built in the Microsoft platform, it obviously uses open API’s to do integrations and extension. So, one of the great integrations is with Higher Logic, for example.
So, you are right in that there are a lot of options that you could access if you needed to. And even now with Zapier and all of those technologies, you can access hundreds of things.
The Causeis Launchpad
Michelle Lelempsis Having said that, with Causeis, we’ve also recognized that it can be probably a little bit confronting, I think, for a new organisation to kind of go, “Well, hang on a minute, I thought I was getting iMIS Why do I require these components as well?” As iMIS has evolved and as it’s now got open APIs, what we’ve done it Causeis is we’ve effectively created all of those requirements within standard.
So, we have what we call the Causeis Launchpad powered by iMIS which is effectively that starter environment to rapidly implement with most of those requirements in that product. And so that means that we can effectively now look at not having to add in multiple third-party solutions. But that’s also an advantage as well to the market that when they want to extend into other technology they can.
Tammy Ven Dange Little things that I would expect would be native (to iMIS) would be things like a job board. That’s something a lot of Associations use and yet you need a plug in for that.
Michelle Lelempsis That’s a big example of what we’ve certainly solved. So Launchpad has a native jobs board. It has the native career centre. We’ve done some work with other Associations using our jobs board. They’ve actually been able to access an immediate return on investment where some have received up to $100,000 in new revenue just by that jobs board.
So, jobs boards and other components that we know is maybe yes, it’s a requirement today. But it’s certainly a future state requirement, I think, for all Associations. So, they implement Causeis Launchpad, they get the jobs board. They get a ton of other native functionality to the product like a video library.
Causeis Launchpad Video Library
Michelle Lelempsis A great way to think about a video library is think about Netflix. Netflix as an on demand video service and it knows what you watch and it knows what the demand is like. So the video library allows an Association to reuse their webinar content or either improving or increasing the member value proposition where perhaps it’s free for members,
But what we’ve also done is we actually allocate any time if they’ve watched the video and then that means that we can automate all the CPD allocations. The member experience from that alone is next to none because it’s what they expect today because everyone is watching things like Netflix.
Or what they can do is create new revenue by having these video libraries through their website and non-members to be able to purchase videos.
We’ve actually seen all of our clients that use this video library. Again, they’re accessing new revenue streams, and they also are able to publicly show that member value proposition through the website.
It’s all part of that Launchpad offering. The video library is one of them.
The other one is digital content. We’re seeing now the need for Associations to be the home of content for their industry and content could be anything from PDF benchmark reports. It could be even an Excel template, or framework. It could be actual like HTML, or web content.
So, with these content services, we want to be able to publicly show users what’s available to them. But if they’re a member, that’s going to be gated. They can access that as they require or it could be purchased directly through their website if they’re a non-member.
Example: Christian Schools Australia
Michelle Lelempsis One of our clients, the Christian Schools Australia. They’re members of schools. And so obviously all of the constituents they are involved within schools, there’s a lot. As soon as they launch their new digital library, the immediate thing that they heard their members tell them, “Wow, we actually had no idea that you had this much content and tool kits available to us as a member.”
It’s been an incredible achievement for them because they’re constantly showcasing member value propositions. There are a couple of them.
Causeis Launchpad Member Mapping Tool
Michelle Lelempsis Another one that’s, again, sort of expected today, but we’re saying the goal of an Association should be to connect their member with the members, customer or market.
And so when we think about, “Well, how could an Association do that? Yes, you could have a typical kind of member directory. But what we’ve done is we’ve created one that’s more like Airbnb for example. So Airbnb you go “I’m going to go and travel to Brisbane and I’m going to look at what’s in the area”.
We’ve created member mapping tools that allow the user to really navigate who they’re looking for and to do the filtering. But then what’s quite powerful about it is two parts. One is how the consumer or the public will connect with that member. So yes, they can send an inquiry, they can share the profile, they can send a text message to them directly through the Association’s website.
But for the Association, what’s really important is it’s being tracked. So, before the renewal campaign we can confidently tell the member we’ve connected you with 20, 30, 40 potential customers to you, and that’s now allowing some of our clients to create these profiles for the non-member market to say, “Did you know that your competitor who’s a member of our Association, we have connected them with X number of potential customers”.
Then from that new revenue perspective, we’re looking at things like priority listings, peer reviews, all those types of things.
So, the Launchpad offering is yes, it’s powered by iMIS. So you get all of the great things that come with iMIS, but it comes with more than just iMIS and that’s built through our consulting mindset, which is, “What’s next? What’s next for the Association? How do we leverage member value proposition and the revenue stream?”
What is in the Causeis Launchpad Roadmap?
Tammy Ven Dange Leading on from that “what’s next” question, do you have anything in the roadmap you have to share?
Michelle Lelempsis There’s a few that we’re working at the moment. We’ve got an active list of what we call our blue sky thinking. So, we don’t say “No.” We always say, “How can we achieve it?” We’re lucky that we do work with such a range of organisations and we’re seeing new requests starting to come in.
Some of the things that we’re starting to work on is we’re looking at ways that we can bring best practice to things like the whole customer lifecycle. It might not sound as exciting perhaps, but what we’re seeing is that some Associations are still not leveraging or using a customer journey and knowing how to automate components within it.
What we’re doing is actually pre-designing all member journeys. So, whether it’s onboarding, if it’s prospect management, if it’s nudging, if it’s the renewal journey, whatever it might be, or engagements. So, that’s one piece that’s being worked on and we’re using evidence to actually build those out.
The other one is we’re starting to see a shift in the way the data can be used, probably for far more insights than probably ever before. Not only have we created native trend analysis within Launchpad, so you can track membership movement over time, you can see what somebody was at a point in time, etc.
But we’re starting to correlate that back to things like engagement scoring and not only just engagement scoring with numbers and scores. We’re actually now aligning it to dollar values and we’re seeing a big appetite within the market to know the real value of what a member is accessing and how we can translate that into retention or retention strategies or at-risk strategies.
In the tech space we have a very long list of new functionality that we’re building. So, we’re staying in need for particularly regulatory bodies to have live licensing. So, we’re now looking at how that can be delivered pretty much automatically through the systems as well.
There is a lot in the pipeline. But I think for us, our mantra is enabling the Association’s growth and that member experience. So, everything sort of centred around that.
More about the Causeis Launchpad benefits
Tammy Ven Dange Is there anything else you want to share Michelle Lelempsi?
Michelle Lelempsis I think one of the things that we are generally excited about, so with the Launchpad, the reason why it came about was that we realised that an Association wanted to have access to best practices. But also we just say a lot of project fatigue.
Project fatigue can be because a project when you start it, if you have to start from scratch, that’s a lot of effort from both sides, the consulting side and the Association side.
And so Launchpad has come about to reduce the effort. The price point can actually be lowered for the Association because a lot of pre-work has been done and also to lower the time to implement. So, it’s a faster implementation.
There’s so many reports out, whether it’s McKinsey or Gartner, etc., that says the ‘faster you can go live, the better return on investment you will have.’
We’ve had clients implement within 8 to 10 weeks which is rapid and to be honest, it’s quite unheard of, 8 to 10-week implementations through to an average of around 4 to 5 months.
I think any time I hear someone say, “Oh, our projects taking 12 to 18 months” that’s just like it’s not right. It’s not the right fit and your business changes so rapidly. You’ve got to adapt and get that technology fast.
So that’s probably one thing I just wanted to highlight.
Tammy Ven Dange – Yes, well, given most of the larger implementations take a minimum six months, I think that’s a real value proposition for sure.
How to get the best out of iMIS
Tammy Ven Dange – For people or Associations already using iMIS. Do you have any advice for them about getting the best out of that product?
Michelle Lelempsis Yeah, absolutely. Again, there’s probably a couple of things. One, my background was as an iMIS user as well, so I’ve certainly been in their shoes. One of the things I would say to any iMIS user or organisation is to invest in training. So first and foremost, training is critical to any platform that you use.
So, access training. There is a wealth of training out there. Causeis, we run a conference, we run online training, we run tons of training. ASI also have hundreds of courses available, so that’s quite important. The other one is actually making sure you’re asking questions, whether it’s to your partner or even back to iMIS themselves. And just trying to find out the capabilities. What can you do?
What can you use the system for? Because again, the clients that we work with, there hasn’t really been anything that can’t be achieved. So, organisations that might feel frustrated if they’re using iMIS or they’re not finding their way with it, there’re definitely ways to improve that.
We just got our Net Promoter Score back from ASI, and we’ve actually got the highest net promoter score they’ve seen, which is 78, which is pretty unheard of given the average the tech companies is around 20.
But like all technology, you’ve got to manage it. You’ve got to have a strategy, got to have user training, you’ve got to own that product. It’s not going to sit there and do everything for you.
How to find out more about Causeis
Tammy Ven Dange Michelle, if there’s someone out there that wants to know more about your company, what’s the best way to do that?
Michelle Lelempsis Yeah, definitely. We obviously have a website. So, please jump on our website: causeis.com.au
We do run a conference. So our conference, which is called Digital First 23, obviously for this year. It’s not about iMIS, it’s not about the products, it’s not about the technology. It’s actually about digital strategy for Associations.
So that’s another great way just to start to learn about the thought leadership space that we’re in. But yeah, definitely reach out to me personally through LinkedIn or my email. [email protected]
Tammy Ven Dange – Great. Michelle, it’s great to talk to you today and thank you for sharing what you do with Causeis and also with iMIS.
Michelle Lelempsis Thank you so much, Tammy. Thanks for having me. It was great.