After years on the same association management system, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) had accumulated roughly one million records. Multiple bot attacks, inconsistent maintenance, and years of data buildup made it difficult to know what was accurate, what was useful, and what should make the move into a new AMS.

For ACSM, the migration was about more than transferring records from one system to another. Before anything could move, the team needed confidence that the data going into the new system was data they could actually trust.

“We did not trust our records coming over to the new AMS, and IntelliData helped us verify what was real and what was garbage.” Christopher Walter, Vice President of Technology, American College of Sports Medicine

The Challenge

With approximately one million records in its existing system, ACSM knew it did not want to simply migrate everything as-is.

Years of database activity, bot-generated records, and inconsistent maintenance had created uncertainty around the quality of the data. Moving all of it into the new AMS would have carried those same problems forward and increased storage costs in the new environment.

Walter says the cleanup ultimately helped ACSM avoid bringing unnecessary data into the new platform, saving the organization a significant amount in data storage while also giving staff more confidence in the information that remained.

 

Why IntelliData

ACSM first connected with IntelliData at an industry tradeshow.

Walter recalls immediately feeling that the IntelliData team understood the challenges he was dealing with. What stood out most was the team’s familiarity with associations and its ability to speak directly to ACSM’s data issues without trying to sell the organization more than it needed.

As Walter put it, IntelliData “spoke the language of associations” and understood both the problem and how to address it.

That combination of association experience and technical knowledge gave ACSM confidence that the migration was being handled by a team that understood both the systems and the business context behind the data.

 

The Migration Experience

Throughout the project, IntelliData worked closely with ACSM to review the existing data, identify what belonged in the new system, and work through questions and decisions as they arose.

Walter describes the experience as unusually collaborative for a data project. He says he actually looked forward to the meetings because each conversation moved the project forward and helped ACSM reach decisions the team would have struggled to arrive at on its own.

“You would think that a data meeting would put you to sleep, but I can honestly say I looked forward to every interaction I had because I always left feeling like we got somewhere that I could have never arrived to on my own or with any other team.”

 

The Result

The most meaningful outcome for ACSM was not simply having cleaner data in a new system. It was trust.

Walter says ACSM staff now has confidence in the data coming out of its AMS, something the organization had not had before. Cleaner data also meant less unnecessary information carried into the new system, helping ACSM reduce storage costs and start fresh with a stronger foundation.

“Our staff now trusts the data that comes out of our AMS. We never had that before. Now, there are no excuses. The data is FACT, not Fiction.”

Looking back on the experience, Walter is equally direct about what he would tell another association considering IntelliData for a migration:

“IntelliData knows what they are doing. They are the best in the industry. They will tell it to you straight, not upsell you, and get the job done quickly, efficiently, and give you as many options as you want to lower the cost.”

For ACSM, the migration did more than prepare data for a new platform. It gave the organization a cleaner, more reliable foundation and renewed confidence in the information its staff uses every day.