(SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Dec. 5, 2023) ― SME, the nonprofit committed to accelerating new manufacturing technology adoption and building North America's talent, is launching a request for proposal (RFP) process to identify a powerful and customizable association management system (AMS) to support many of the organization’s key functions.

SME’s mission to accelerate widespread adoption of manufacturing technologies and build North America’s talent and capabilities is supported through member programs, publications produced by SME Media, manufacturing conferences and trade events and workforce development activities through certifications, industry training support, and the SME Education Foundation.

“To ensure we can adequately support the continued growth of SME we need to put a more robust system in place,” said Erica Ciupak, SME vice president, Information Technology. “We are confident that with the right partner and the right solution, we can be even more effective in advancing North America’s manufacturing industry.”

The RFP seeks flexible, efficient and robust organization management capabilities to integrate and support businesses and functions that include:

• Membership management for SME’s broad base of members
• Certification and transcript management
• Advertising, circulation and subscription management for SME Media's publications, including digital offerings as well as journals, yearbooks, special sections, conference and event publications, and product catalogs
• Conference and event management, including floor plan management, event scheduling and abstract management for presenters
• Workforce training support for SME’s learning and development solutions for the manufacturing industry
• Finance management, including order tracking and invoicing, account tracking for customers, sales tax management and interoperability with other important systems
• Fundraising and philanthropy capabilities to support the SME Education Foundation’s scholarships, PRIME and Student Summit programs and other specific purpose funds
• Robust, flexible reporting capabilities to visualize data, support marketing strategies and provide actionable business intelligence

Proposed solutions must be designed to manage at least 5,000,000 records efficiently, and should integrate when possible with other specialized tools the organization uses in managing its operations.

Full details on the request for proposals, including technical requirements and submission guidelines, is available from the SME website at https://www.sme.org/globalassets/sme.org/sme-ams-rfp-2023.pdf. The deadline for vendors to declare intent to respond is Dec. 31, 2023.