We’ve got some great news to share with you all: the iVvy Membership Manager is here and we are absolutely positive that you are going to love it!

Why?

Well, for starters, the entire membership management process will happen all in the one place. This includes the initial sign-up, payment, membership approval, members newsletters, membership renewal reminders and even your reporting. Furthermore, the tool fully integrates with your iVvy Event Management system allowing you to manage your events and memberships all in the one place.

Let’s take a closer look at how it works. You’ll start by adding your membership types into the tool, including the initial membership registration cost and renewal cost. A form is then created on your website allowing people to register for membership 24 hours a day, seven days a week and pay online using any of your activated payment gateways.

Their details are then added to your Membership Manager and your contact database. From here you can approve pending memberships; view existing, cancelled and expiring memberships; and view your payments. Furthermore, you can use the Email Marketing and SMS Marketing tools to send attractive newsletters or promotions to your members. Renewal reminder emails can be sent from the system automatically, saving you a massive amount of administration time.

Sounds like a pretty impressive tool, doesn’t it?

The iVvy Membership Manager really will be a valuable asset to any organisation that has a membership program. For more information contact us today.

This year’s AIME was everything we hoped it would be. It was a huge success for us and we’d like to again thank everyone who came and visited us at our stand.

For those that didn’t catch our earlier blog post, AIME is a yearly conference that attracts individuals and organisations in the events and meetings industry. People come from all over the Asia-Pacific region and use the event as a chance to keep up-to-date with happenings in the industry and meet new key personalities.

iVvy was represented by four of our valued team members, Lauren, James, Melissa, and Megan, who all had the pleasure of meeting several of our existing clients as well as some new ones. The team went home with the general feeling that event organisers were searching for something new, and that the overwhelming opinion from the people they’d spoken to was that iVvy is going to be the solution. This has strengthened our resolve to become the revolution for Events and Membership Management, so look out world, here we come!

Again, thanks for popping by to see us. We look forward to meeting you all again.

Last year the Asia-Pacific Incentives & Meetings Expo (AIME) in Melbourne was a blast. We had such a great time that we are participating in 2012 AIME, in fact next week!

Just like last year we will be available at a stand (Stand 1900) so we can hopefully have the opportunity to meet you and introduce you to our software. But this year, we’ve also got something pretty special planned...

The launch of our very new Membership Manager!

The Membership Manager, like all iVvy components, will integrate seamlessly with the rest of the tools for a complete Event and Membership Management solution. For the chance to gain a sneak preview of the new feature join us between 4:30pm and 6pm Tuesday the 21st for drinks and a chat. We’d love to see you there!

For more information visit their website.

Are you a prospective Victoria University Event Management student? If so, you’ll be learning the iVvy system as part of your degree! Pretty cool, heh?

iVvy and Victoria University have teamed up to provide Event Management students with an academic program that gives graduates industry accreditation for iVvy, improving their employment opportunities upon graduation. Martin Robertson, lecturer for Events Management at the University said, “We can clearly see that iVvy is quickly becoming one of the market leaders in the events and conferencing space, and as a result have made the decision to use iVvy as our teaching platform for all Events Management diplomas and degrees starting in 2012.”

So, if you’re keen to get a head start in the industry, and learn the iVvy Event Management software, consider enrolling in one of Victoria University’s suite of Event Management degrees. It might just be the extra edge you need for a successful and enriching career.

We were absolutely delighted when we received our copy of CIM Magazine today! Why? Well, it was bright pink and had a big white ‘V’ on it!  That’s right folks, iVvy made the front cover of CIM Magazine and we couldn’t be happier! Better still, we turned to page 10 to find our very special cover story on the benefits of cloud technology for Event Management.

It’s always great to have publications like this recognise and support us in our quest to revolutionise the Event Management industry. If you’d like to learn more about CIM Magazine, visit their website. Thanks for your support, CIM!

What is “Cloud Computing” and how will it revolutionise events and membership management? James Greig, Chief Technical Officer and software expert at iVvy, talks about this new method of software distribution and the benefits for associations using it.

What is Cloud Computing? Well, in a nutshell, there is one major difference between traditional software and Cloud based software. Traditional software is stored on your computer’s hardrive or your server, whereas Cloud software is stored on the developer’s service and you gain access to the software via an Internet login. Examples of cloud computing include Gmail, Salesforce, Facebook and iVvy - Cloud based software for enterprise-class conference and events management.

Of course, there are many small differences between the two and the advantages of Cloud computing are far reaching. One major positive is the accessibility of Cloud computing software from anywhere in the world. All you need is an Internet connection and it becomes possible for you to organise your event, or manage your memberships, from wherever you are. This is perfect for associations with a dispersed or mobile team and it helps improve communications and organisational structure.

Another very important benefit to Cloud computing is the cost factor. Computing hardware is expensive. There’s the initial purchase, ongoing maintenance fees and electricity bills that can quickly burn into a company’s budget, particularly for the smaller association. With Cloud computing software all you really need is a computer and access to the Internet, allowing you to funnel your savings back into your business rather than into infrastructure. The other advantage of not having the software stored on your own hardware is that you will benefit from immediate software upgrades as they happen, as well as 24 hour, seven day a week server maintenance from experienced technicians.

As a result of cloud technology, associations have a means of reducing costs usually associated with licenses and having to hire permanent IT staff to manage and maintain in-house servers or deal with upgrades and ongoing maintenance. Now they can focus their budgets on membership and delivery of educational and other objectives rather than major infrastructure and up front capital costs.

I am often asked about the security factors of Cloud computing, particularly in the wake of the recent hacking examples. While I cannot speak for all Cloud computing companies, I can say that iVvy take security very seriously and have implemented a number of security measures to ensure the integrity of our client’s data. If you are contemplating investing in a Cloud computing service, always ask for a copy of the company’s security documentation. This document should outline the measures they take in the interest of security. If they can’t provide such documentation, I would not opt for their services.

In my opinion, Cloud computing software, with its cost efficiency, accessibility, automatic updates and high security, is going to revolutionise today’s event and membership management for associations.

Cloud Computing for Associations in a Nutshell

1. It’s cheaper
2. It’s safer
3. It’s more convenient
4. It’s portable
5. It improves communication
6. It allows for regular, automatic software updates

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the inherent security of cloud computing, particularly in light of the June hacking of a large Australian web hosting firm. As a cloud computing services provider who relies on the integrity of our security system, we thought that now would be the perfect time to release our Security Whitepaper, which outlines the measures we take to ensure the security of our clients’ data.

In the Whitepaper, you’ll find information on how we manage personnel and staff, measures we take to protect against hacking attacks, as well as how we protect our hardware from fire and damage among many other security measures we have in place. We highly recommend that you download and read the Security Whitepaper so you too understand how seriously we take security.

If you have any questions, please contact us and we’d be happy to address them.

That’s right folks! According to the 100 maven judges in Anthill’s SMART 100, iVvy is the seventh most innovative and commercially viable new company in Australia. For those that didn’t hear, the SMART 100 competition went live last month and was judged by trusted industry experts as well as all our friends and fans who helped make our success possible by tweeting, liking and commenting about us. It is with much gratitude that I thank everyone for their help, as well as our amazing programming team who have committed countless hours developing our application.

So, considering we’re on the topic, let’s look at the seven reasons why iVvy is the seventh most innovative company in Australia today.

1. It has all the Event Management tools you need in one place

Gone are the days of keeping track of budgets using Excel spreadsheets, Word documents containing your task list and sending invoices and tickets from your Outlook account. With iVvy, every tool you need to successfully set up, market and manage an event can be found in the one easy-to-use system.

2. It can be accessed from anywhere you have Internet

Unlike other Event Management software, iVvy is stored on the Internet, not your computer, making it possible for you to access your iVvy account wherever you have Internet. Holidaying in France and need check your event registrations? Simply find an Internet connection and login - it’s that simple.

3. It takes payments online from 13 different gateways

Rather than paying a third party provider to manage your ticket sales, use the iVvy system. It supports 13 Payment gateways and manages everything from invoicing and delivering receipts to managing the registration status of a ticket depending on whether payment has been made or not. It’s perfect for keeping track of tickets sales, registrations and attendees.

4. You can try before you buy

Not sure if the iVvy system is for you? Then sign up for our Free Trial. It’s completely obligation free and is the perfect opportunity to find out how your event management will benefit from a little help from us.

5. It’s affordable

Depending on your needs, there’s a pricing plan to suit you and all our packages are affordable. When you factor in the amount of money you’d usually spend on updating your software, hiring extra staff to manage time consuming operations and paying to have marketing consultants design email marketing campaigns, you’ll be very surprised at how much money you’ll save using the iVvy system instead.

6. It’s Australian

Think that the best software always comes out of The States? Think again. In the past decade, Australian’s have started producing some of the best software in the world. By taking advantage of our local talent, we’re able to produce a product that is proudly Australia Made and Owned and of a quality that competes with our best international competitors.

7. It’s always getting better

We don’t just resell software that other developers have made - we ARE the developers. We have a full-time team of programming experts that work nine to five, Monday to Friday, developing  ways to make our system even better. Updates occur on a weekly basis and, because we use the Cloud Computing method of software provision, you receive those updates as soon as they are made.

For all you iVvy fans out there, you’ll be pleased to hear that we’ve entered into the Anthill SMART 100 list! This initiative by Anthill magazine recognises companies across Australia for their sense of innovation as well as their commercial viability based on a public voting system.

This is where you come in. By simply visiting our SMART 100 listing and “tweeting”, “liking” or leaving a comment, you’ll help us achieve our goal of being listed in the Anthill SMART 100 Index alongside ninety-nine other groundbreaking, innovative Australian companies.

So, please, help us make the most of this amazing opportunity and get behind your iVvy team.

AIME, or the Asia-Pacific Incentives & Meeting Expo, is heralded as the “must attend event for event organisers,” so of course our iVvy directors, Lauren Hall and James Greig were there with bells (and suits) on!

The event was held in Melbourne on the 15th and 16th of February and was a wonderful event for everyone involved in the Event industry. The entire two days was a hive of activity with 850 exhibitors representating all aspects of the event industry, networking with each other and sharing ideas.

The highlight of the event was definately catching up with some of our existing clients and getting introduced to a range of companies that we know will love what we do. Many thanks to the team at AIME who managed to create such a fantastic and successful event.