90% Less Admin Time: Lessons from Amplify Alliance

Manual processes and disconnected systems can be a constant drain on time and energy for associations, unions, and non-profits. Staff get bogged down in spreadsheets, renewals slip through the cracks, and engagement starts to dip.

Amplify Alliance, a leading national association in Australia, faced these same challenges. But they turned it around with automation, cleaner data, and self-service tools for members. The result? A 90% decrease in administrative time, 99% decrease in renewal processing time, and happier members.

Here’s how they did it, and how your organization can achieve similar results.

❌ The Problem: Manual Processes Holding Everyone Back

Amplify Alliance struggled with clunky membership management, manual and time-consuming processes, and fragmented data across five separate systems. Member renewals, event registrations, and communications relied heavily on manual processes and spreadsheets, creating inefficiencies at every turn.

These manual workflows made it hard to: 

• Keep member information accurate and up-to-date

• Generate timely, actionable reports

• Handle organizational memberships

• Engage members effectively, especially with high staff turnover in their sector

The result? Too much staff time wasted on repetitive tasks, missed opportunities for member engagement, low member engagement, and limited visibility into key trends.

✅ Solution: Better Internal Processes and Easier Member Experience

Amplify Alliance created a better experience for both staff and members by improving their internal processes and offering new member benefits. Here’s what they did:

1. Automated Renewals, Event Registrations, and Communications 

Previously, renewal processes relied heavily on manual workflows and staff intervention. By automating renewal workflows, Amplify Alliance reduced renewal process time by 99%. This is no doubt appreciated by both members and staff.

They also automated event registrations and member communications. Bonus: the organization improved member engagement by using better segmentation and targeted outreach.

Want to automate your processes? The first step is assessing one of your current processes. Go through each step to understand its purpose. And no, "this is just how it's done" is not a valid reason to keep a process in place. Note any tedious steps or friction areas.

For example, here are some good questions to ask if you want to automate membership renewals:

• What are all the steps involved for staff users and for members? Can we automate, remove, or simplify any steps?

• Why doesn’t our membership organization accept direct debit or email transfer for payment?

• How would it benefit our members and staff if we added a new option, like automatic, recurring payments?

• Have any members or staff complained about the payment process?

See all 6 steps in our article, Streamline and Automate Your Membership Management.

2. A Single Source of Truth for Member Data

With data scattered across multiple systems, reporting and decision-making were slow and unreliable. By consolidating data into a single platform, Amplify Alliance:

• Can understand their members better

• Achieved real-time insights to make data-driven decisions

• Moved from manual spreadsheets to automated dashboards for reporting

• Now needs 80% fewer systems

Want to consolidate your member data? We hope so! Here are the three main steps, but you can get more details in our guide, It’s Not You, It’s Your Data Silos.

1. Choose the right membership management platform as your core. It needs three main components: membership management (of course), accounting and finance features that can handle complex billing structures, and website management.
2. Add the departmental modules you need. These could be embedded functionality native to your system, or tightly integrated solutions. Examples are event management, advertising and sponsorships, email marketing, automation, and engagement scoring.
3. Extend with the best integration tools. Your membership management platform should be extensible and able to integrate with the latest solutions. Ideally, you build no-code integrations to simplify things for your staff.

3. Self-Service Portal for Members

Amplify Alliance introduced a member portal that gave members control over their own experience. Through the portal, members can:

• Update their own profiles

• Access resources like a dedicated jobs board

• Register for events quickly and easily

This shift reduced the need for staff help and delivered a smoother member experience. In short, it makes everyone’s life easier.

Not convinced? Take a look at our article, Why Association Members Love a Self-Service Portal.

What Can Your Organization Do Next?

Amplify Alliance’s success shows how simplifying processes benefits both staff and members. And streamlining operations helps your team focus on what matters most: serving your members and advancing your mission. 

 To get started: 

1. Identify your bottlenecks. Are renewals, registrations, or reporting consuming too much time?
2. Unify your data. A Single Source of Truth helps you uncover insights and improve decision-making.
   
3. Prioritize the member experience. Tools like self-service portals make it easier for members to engage with your organization.

📘 Read the full Amplify Alliance success story.