Learn how Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa (ABASA) has developed adaptability and achieved organizational success with our all-in-one solution
Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa (ABASA) was established in 1985 to promote the professional interests of the Black community engaged in the accounting profession. They are dedicated and committed to the pursuit and have the drive to ensure that every aspiring Black accountant is provided with the necessary support to advance in the profession.
Sharing the journey towards improving ABASA’s adaptability to better serve its members with Glue Up was Linda Maqoma, National Head of Transformation, Women, and Communication at ABASA. Here’s what she had to say:
CRM: Data-Driven Membership Management
Our biggest pain point was managing our database. We have 9 branches, and using spreadsheets to manage and track our members was a nightmare. We had to update and consolidate files manually from all those branches. Through the help of Glue Up, we are converting our current contact list that comprises about 5000 membership leads into paying members. We have successfully managed to get 400+ paying members through the value proposition of using Glue Up CRM database tool.
Fast and Centralized Financial Reporting & Audit
The other challenge we faced was our audit. We had to verify that these are paying members to recognize the income as revenue earned. Glue Up provided us with a centralized system that has a payment feature that allowed for easier reconciliations. Additionally, it helped us give the appropriate evidence for financial reporting and audit purposes. Glue Up was also able to interface with Xero, which is the accounting platform we have migrated to with an aim to further strengthen our financial reporting process.
Better Event Management and Outstanding Member Experience
Before we got onto Glue Up, we were using Zoom, which was great in kick-starting our digital webinar presence. However, by synchronizing different event features with Glue Up, we have improved our member experience and event marketing capabilities. We get to choose from a wide array of event page templates. We can add speakers, sponsors, and even documents where need be. The campaign feature is a great marketing tool for us to market to our member database.
Glue Up’s Event Management Software has also come in handy during this challenging COVID-19 times. The country has been on lockdown. For this reason, our value proposition to our members relied on in-person meetings and events. With this new system, we have been able to run webinars using the Glue Up platform to keep our members engaged through various digital conversion drives addressing topical matters aligned to our mandate. Our number of event registrations and paid memberships have increased and the ability to track this progress is extremely helpful from a stakeholder ROI reporting perspective.
A Software Ecosystem with Community Feature
We are incredibly excited to explore the community feature. As I mentioned earlier, we have members from 9 different branches. We plan to formulate communities under the 9 branches as that’s the national strategy we have. This will make work easier for the different chairpersons handling different committees, and we will be able to tailor-make the communication to the various communities.
Top-Notch All-in-One Solution
For me, it's the fact that it's an all-in-one solution for organizations like ours with limited financial resources and back-office capacity. The system consolidates functions performed by different software, making it easy to use and eradicating human error mishaps. My advice is, if you are on the fence, do an impact analysis and compare it to Glue Up's all-in-one solution and you will see it's a no-brainer in terms of the cost comparison.
What Sets Glue Up Apart from the Competition
For ABASA, Glue Up’s cost-effectiveness is what makes it incomparable to others. After our analysis, we found that the solution could cater to a range of needs at an affordable rate. The simplicity of the platform also caught our eye. From time to time, we job shadow student volunteers who assist in our back office. They have been having such an easy time on the platform, which is great, and we do not have to worry about using lots of hours training them on the system, which has made the transfer of duties easy for us particularly with the remote way of working.
“We are getting amazing feedback from our members, especially when it comes to communication and visibility of the organization. We were struggling with that before we started using Glue Up. Members now feel they have more ownership over their membership. The word has spread and we are getting some of our sister organizations inquiring on what system we are using. The platform has given us ABASA great return on investment in a short space of time."
Linda Maqoma, National Head of Transformation, Women, and Communication at ABASA
What’s Next for ABASA?
Glue Up has given us the digital leverage, flexibility, and ways to adapt and maneuver, especially during this pandemic. We have only touched the tip of the iceberg. And yet, the platform has so many functionalities that will allow our leadership to focus on our strategic goals while our back office is running smoothly. We look forward to serving our members better with the Membership Management Software as we unlock and explore all its features.
Do you want to improve your member retention and engagement rates using efficient membership and community management software? Book a demo of our all-in-one Membership Management Software. Discover how Glue Up is helping chambers of commerce, associations, and other organizations worldwide become digitalized through automation.
