When choosing an Association Mangement Solution look past the features.

Industry specific applications like non-profit association management solutions (AMS) are all sounding the same at the feature level. They all offer similar features and even blur when compared. But to see the real difference you must look past the features and focus on the underlying technology. This is what will determine how a solution will 1) give you the flexibility to adjust the system to meet your processes (and not vise versa); 2) scale to match your growth; and 3) upgrade to stay current with new trends in business and technology.  Otherwise you will be in a constant loop of convert and replace.

When Microsoft designed their CRM to allow the system to be configured for business processes outside of sales management, they created an application development platform that has no equal. Consider this, if an application developer has no ownership of the underlying technology or the integrations between the system components, then it is a custom solution with a very limited upgrade path. In fact custom solutions avoid upgrades to limit the cascading effect of unknown compatibility to legacy components and code. Survey the development team and the consensus will be to avoid major system upgrades.
Using Microsoft CRM as the foundation for an industry vertical application like Association Management frees us up from version control and compatibility of the OS, database, security layer, user interface, and integrations with Outlook, Excel, Word and even SharePoint and GP.  All owned and developed by Microsoft. Plus what application development company has the resources dedicated to the underlying technology that results in the over 500 v2011 enhancements to an already solid platform like CRM.

Don't get me wrong, features are important and there are some real inovations out there. My contention is that investing in a solution based on current features doesn't guarantee future innovation.