April 6, 2007
The American feed Industry Association (AFIA) has chosen the Cobalt Association Management Suite as the best solution to replace its membership, communications and web content management systems.
Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, AFIA (www.afia.org) is the world’s largest organization serving the needs of the animal feed industry. AFIA’s membership includes over 570 domestic and international companies composed of feed and pet food manufactures, integrators, pharmaceutical companies, ingredient suppliers, equipment manufacturers and companies which supply other products, services and supplies to feed manufactures as well as state, national and regional associations. The mission of the AFIA is to provide leadership and representation to advance the common interests of the entire feed industry; an industry vital to food safety, nutrition and the environment.
AFIA began the search for a new technology solution by hiring an independent consultant to do a needs and market analysis and to assist with the selection of a vendor. With the consultant’s help, AFIA defined the core requirements for the new system then selected the most suitable vendors to give product presentations. The Cobalt Association Management Suite, built on the latest Microsoft CRM and SharePoint technologies, was evaluated along with other top AMS products. In the end, AFIA selected the Cobalt Certification Management Suite based on its ability to provide all of the association and web site content management functionality AFIA needed, the many advantages provided by the Microsoft platform and for Cobalt’s demonstrated competency and ability to accommodate their needs.
The Cobalt Association Management Suite is comprised of a full-featured Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, a web-based Executive Dashboard for business intelligence reporting and a fully integrated content management system with web portal. It is capable of tracking all interactions with a member from one user-friendly interface and includes workflow management and automation tools to streamline processes. Its built-in web integration enables a host of online member service tools such as: profile updates, event registrations, invoices and dues payments, targeted content, dynamic directories and single sign-on for a plethora of “Web 2.0” functionality (blogs, forums, wikis, e-libraries, online collaboration, etc.). With these tools, AFIA staff plans to automate many manual tasks, increase efficiency and provide superior service to its members.
With the release of the Cobalt Association Management Suite, Cobalt is rapidly becoming recognized in the association marketplace as one of the top contenders for associations considering new AMS technology. AFIA’s choice of the Cobalt Association Management Suite over the largest and most firmly established competitor in this arena as well as another CRM-based product in a head-to-head comparison confirms the product has what it takes to become a market leader.
About Cobalt
Cobalt (www.cobalt.net) is an Alexandria, VA based software development firm focused on working with associations, non-profits and certification boards. Founded in 1996, Cobalt has worked with hundreds of customers to help drive revenue, increase internal efficiency and offer value-added services. Cobalt’s products provide integrated data and communications management solutions using the power of the Microsoft CRM platform.
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