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In a small staff association, time is a rare, highly sought after form of currency – every minute counts. This never rang truer than for the Apartment Association of New Mexico, a small staff association with large staff expectations.

AANM found themselves consistently short on time and resources. Their association management software, a tool that was supposed to help them, was causing more harm than good. Their current platform promised them the moon but consistently fell short on delivery.

Everything changed when a fellow association executive introduced them to Novi AMS. AANM knew it was time for a change, and with Novi the whole universe was within reach.

Consumed By Data Entry

  Before making the switch to Novi, AANM was forced to pick and choose which projects they could tackle. Most of their time was spent on manual data entry – a necessary evil that pushed other impactful projects and goals onto the backburner.

The dues rules setup for their organization didn't work, requiring a manual check of every invoice – often taking more than a week to complete.

  AANM's staff struggled to get events live on their website in a timely fashion, which led to undue stress, limited educational outreach and unsuccessful events.

Automating Tasks With Novi Led to a Shift In Focus

  Despite initial hesitations and distasteful memories of their past software systems, AANM made the switch to Novi AMS nearly two years ago.

Novi's automated dues processing, email integration, and data entry processes freed up 30 hours of staff time per week and cut membership database maintenance time in half. With this change, AANM was able to reallocate resources and shift their focus from the "how" to the "why." The effects of switching their attention to the members were two-fold: their passion was reignited, and they quickly saw a spike in membership, with an astounding 30% increase in members.

Novi Understands

Novi's seamless integration with MailChimp keeps AANM's mailing lists up-to-date and dynamic. They no longer need to manually update the list in both their AMS and in MailChimp, because once it's updated in Novi it automatically syncs with MailChimp. With the saved time, staff is able to create more segmented emails, expanding their reach to every corner of New Mexico.

"Reaching out to different audiences and keeping separate databases current was basically an impossible challenge until Novi AMS created a direct integration with our email marketing service. We are able to develop groups based on a variety of demographics, allowing us to message the right people at the right time."

Before Novi, the events section of the AANM website was neglected. This led to late signups and uncertainty as to whether an event or class would be successful. Now, events are up early and they're full of details, which has led to an increase in early signups and full classes. AANM can now easily determine which events are most popular, giving them the ability to add additional dates as needed.

When it comes to dues processing, Novi understands complicated relationships. The first time AANM ran invoicing with Novi, they searched their most difficult invoices looking intently for the 'gotcha'. There were no 'gotchas' to be found, and with the smooth transition, AANM got a week of much needed time back to focus on creating change throughout their community.

With their gained time, AANM was also able to focus on engaging the members with new, valuable content. The organic growth and content sharing heavily contributed to the bump in membership since migrating to Novi.

"Our move to Novi AMS has amplified the change that our association is positioned to create."

Kelle Senyé is the Executive Director of the Apartment Association of New Mexico. The Apartment Association of New Mexico (AANM) is a private, non-profit trade organization dedicated to providing a common foundation for rental housing industry professionals and the various businesses that service the industry. Founded in 1979, AANM has more than 800 primary and associate members, representing over 55,000 rental units throughout the state. AANM promotes professionalism, education, career development and pro-active legislative efforts to benefit owners, investors, residents and other association members.