In today's interconnected digital landscape, your community management platform isn't an island. To truly maximize its potential and deliver an exceptional experience for your members, it needs to work in harmony with the other essential tools that power your organization. Integrating your community platform with other business software streamlines operations, enhances data accuracy, and ultimately strengthens the value you provide to your community.
So, what types of software should you be looking to integrate, and why is it so beneficial? Let's dive in.
1. Association Management Systems (AMS)
For associations and membership-based organizations, the AMS is the backbone of your operations. Integrating your community platform with your AMS is non-negotiable.
Popular AMS Vendors:
- NetForum by Community Brands
- iMIS by ASI
- Fonteva (built on Salesforce)
- YourMembership by Community Brands
- WildApricot
- Abila (now Community Brands)
Benefits of Integration:
- Seamless Member Profile Syncing: Automatically push new member registrations, profile updates, and contact information between your AMS and community platform. This eliminates manual data entry, reduces errors, and ensures your community always has the most up-to-date member information.
- Membership Level-Based Access & Permissions: Grant different levels of access, content visibility, and forum participation based on a member's current membership status or tier in your AMS. This ensures members receive relevant experiences and exclusive benefits.
- Event Registration & Attendance Tracking: If your AMS handles event registrations, integrating it with your community platform can allow for single sign-on to event pages, automated attendance updates, and even post-event discussions within the community.
2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems
Even if you're not an association, a CRM is likely central to your sales, marketing, and customer service efforts. Integrating your community platform with your CRM can unlock powerful insights and drive better engagement.
Popular CRM Systems:
- Salesforce
- HubSpot
- Microsoft Dynamics 365
- Zoho CRM
- SAP CRM
Benefits of Integration:
- 360-Degree View of Your Customer/Member: Get a holistic understanding of every interaction. See community engagement alongside sales history, support tickets, and marketing campaign interactions. This informs more effective communication and service.
- Lead Nurturing & Qualification: Identify highly engaged community members who might be excellent leads for new products, services, or upgrades. Community activity can serve as a powerful indicator of interest.
- Enhanced Customer Service: Support teams can quickly access community discussions to understand common issues, find solutions, and offer proactive assistance based on member activity.
- Targeted Marketing & Communications: Segment your CRM contacts based on their community engagement and deliver highly personalized marketing messages, event invitations, or content.
- Feedback Loop for Product Development: Community discussions can provide invaluable feedback on products or services, which can be fed directly into your CRM and routed to relevant teams for consideration.
3. File Management Systems
Your community generates and consumes a lot of content – documents, images, videos, and more. Integrating with a robust file management system ensures easy access, organization, and version control. Typically companies use file management systems like Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and MS OneDrive.
Benefits of Integration:
- Centralized Content Repository: Members can easily access shared resources, documents, and templates directly from the community platform, without having to navigate to a separate system.
- Version Control & Document Security: Ensure that members are always accessing the latest version of a document and control who has access to sensitive files.
- Improved Searchability: Leverage the search capabilities of your file management system within the community, making it easier for members to find the information they need.
- Streamlined Content Creation & Sharing: Community managers can easily upload and share files directly from their integrated file management system, simplifying content distribution.
- Reduced Duplication: Avoid multiple versions of the same file scattered across different platforms, leading to confusion and inefficiency.
4. Calendar Sync
Events are a cornerstone of many communities. Syncing your community calendar with your primary business calendar ensures consistency and maximum visibility.
Benefits of Integration:
- Single Source of Truth for Events: Avoid discrepancies and confusion by having all event details – dates, times, locations, and descriptions – synchronized across platforms.
- Increased Event Attendance: Members can easily add community events to their personal calendars (e.g., Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar) with a single click, boosting attendance rates.
- Automated Reminders: Leverage calendar integrations to send automated pre-event reminders, reducing no-shows.
- Streamlined Event Promotion: Promote community events seamlessly across your website, internal calendars, and external marketing channels by pulling data from a synchronized source.
- Better Resource Planning: Accurate event data from a synchronized calendar aids in better planning of staff, venues, and other resources.
5. Active Directory / Single Sign-On (SSO)
For organizations with an established internal network, integrating with Active Directory or implementing Single Sign-On (SSO) is crucial for a seamless member experience.
Benefits of Integration:
- Simplified Member Onboarding: New members can gain immediate access to the community using their existing organizational credentials, eliminating separate registrations and passwords.
- Enhanced Security: Centralize authentication and authorization, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and simplifying password management.
- Improved User Experience (UX): Members appreciate the convenience of not having to remember another set of login credentials. SSO provides a seamless transition between internal systems and your community platform.
- Streamlined Member Management: Automatically sync user profiles, roles, and permissions from Active Directory to your community platform, ensuring consistency and reducing administrative overhead.
- Reduced Help Desk Tickets: Fewer forgotten passwords and login issues mean fewer support requests related to community access.
The Bottom Line: A Connected Ecosystem for a Thriving Community
Integrating your community management platform with these essential business tools isn't just about technical efficiency; it's about building a more connected, data-rich, and ultimately more valuable ecosystem for your members and your organization. By breaking down data silos and automating workflows, you free up time and resources, gain deeper insights into your community, and empower your members to engage more effectively. The result? A stronger, more vibrant, and more impactful community for everyone involved.