Since I'm no longer working full-time, I feel I'm not really qualified to speak on Blackbaud products. I'll be setting up another blog and some posts will be on working with Blackbaud products or other software apps. I am doing some consulting work and maybe some of what I learn will help others.
Best to all my followers and friends.
Nora
Saturday, May 7, 2016
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
We all have a say in what our software does for us
I recently had a follow-up conversation with Jana Eggers, SVP Product Management and Marketing at Blackbaud. This was in regard to the roadmap for The Raiser's Edge. Jana expressed to me her concern that Blackbaud wasn't getting the message to its clients that it is committed to the Raiser's Edge users. She indicated to me that Blackbaud (BB) understands it has a strong client-base using RE and it will support those clients.
I don't know what is coming after RE7. I've heard the term "bluebird" - a new product that Blackbaud is not ready to discuss in detail at this point. We've seen the solution, Altru, for those in the Arts and Cultural venue. But, I will be the first to say that I wanted the enhancements that I saw in the discovery process for the now debunked RE8. Along that line, prior to speaking with Jana Eggers, I spoke with Jenn Mercer,the RE Product Manager at BB. We spoke about the concept of a household record, a record that allows one to see a household grouping with a primary address and contact info. One address to mail, one address for email, one group for overall giving - one way to identify a group of constituents and note the primary contact person for that group - what we saw during RE8 discovery - what is included in the CRM product.
I'm conflicted by the opportunity I've had to speak with such influential people at Blackbaud. I'm human, so of course, I feel good about the chance to give my opinions. However, I am one person, one set of opinions based on mostly my needs. You all have a voice in what you need and want in the solutions from Blackbaud. There are many ways to speak out. I know you are busy, but doing your job well depends on these products. Somehow, our message is getting confused when it reaches Blackbaud or we are not speaking out enough on what we really need. I also realize that there are too many places to let Blackbaud know what you need. Hopefully, that will be somewhat remedied in the future by Blackbaud creating one community online for RE users similar to the newly offered BBNC Community. Here are some ways to get involved and communicate what you want and need:
I don't know what is coming after RE7. I've heard the term "bluebird" - a new product that Blackbaud is not ready to discuss in detail at this point. We've seen the solution, Altru, for those in the Arts and Cultural venue. But, I will be the first to say that I wanted the enhancements that I saw in the discovery process for the now debunked RE8. Along that line, prior to speaking with Jana Eggers, I spoke with Jenn Mercer,the RE Product Manager at BB. We spoke about the concept of a household record, a record that allows one to see a household grouping with a primary address and contact info. One address to mail, one address for email, one group for overall giving - one way to identify a group of constituents and note the primary contact person for that group - what we saw during RE8 discovery - what is included in the CRM product.
I'm conflicted by the opportunity I've had to speak with such influential people at Blackbaud. I'm human, so of course, I feel good about the chance to give my opinions. However, I am one person, one set of opinions based on mostly my needs. You all have a voice in what you need and want in the solutions from Blackbaud. There are many ways to speak out. I know you are busy, but doing your job well depends on these products. Somehow, our message is getting confused when it reaches Blackbaud or we are not speaking out enough on what we really need. I also realize that there are too many places to let Blackbaud know what you need. Hopefully, that will be somewhat remedied in the future by Blackbaud creating one community online for RE users similar to the newly offered BBNC Community. Here are some ways to get involved and communicate what you want and need:
I really enjoy the discovery process offered by Blackbaud and highly encourage you to get involved with it. I am currently taking part in the pre-release of FE and the beta for RE certification. I recently took part in the mobile app release. If you don't know how to get involved or need to know more, contact your account managers. If your account manager doesn't respond, email me. Blackbaud is working on the account manager program to bring about improvements in communication.
There is a great Raiser's Edge User Group on Facebook. There are over 500 members in this group. You can share and learn and I do know that Blackbaud looks at this group.
There is a Blackbaud Users Forum on LinkedIn. There is also a Blackbaud Fan Club. The use of LinkedIn is really fired up these days.
I'm learning to tweet. I have been slow to go to Twitter but I realize that I can learn more and reach out to more people in a short amount of time. It is like having a finger on the pulse of the topics that interest you. Start by following Blackbaud. See what is tweeted there and you may want to join in on conversations in the future.
Just as an aside, I use Tweetdeck to get an overview of my Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.
If you are not ready to speak out online, contact your account manager. Express your requirements, your suggestions to him/her. Ask that your account manager make sure your voice is heard. Blackbaud has indicated it wants to hear what you need in the products they offer, let's tell them.
I'm learning to tweet. I have been slow to go to Twitter but I realize that I can learn more and reach out to more people in a short amount of time. It is like having a finger on the pulse of the topics that interest you. Start by following Blackbaud. See what is tweeted there and you may want to join in on conversations in the future.
Just as an aside, I use Tweetdeck to get an overview of my Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.
If you are not ready to speak out online, contact your account manager. Express your requirements, your suggestions to him/her. Ask that your account manager make sure your voice is heard. Blackbaud has indicated it wants to hear what you need in the products they offer, let's tell them.
Monday, October 8, 2012
BBCON 2012
I enjoyed a trip to BBCON 2012 last week. With Convio being part of the family now (or should I say Luminate), the Blackbaud conference was combined with the Convio conference. For me, there were some high points and confusing low points. I've been to many BB conferences - I can't even remember how many. This is my take on this year's conference - I'm sure many others saw it differently.
I wasn't keen on the conference starting on Sunday. I'm traditional enough to think that Sunday is a day many choose to keep special in some way. I thought three days was going to be pretty short, but actually the days were jam packed with sessions and lots to do.
As I mentioned, I've been to many BB conferences. Nothing compares with the ones that were held in Charleston - especially for having a good time. We were truly wined, dined and entertained in a huge way. Over the years, this has been toned down a bit. This year, the dining and entertaining kind of hit bottom for me. The food was pretty unremarkable. We ate breakfast the first morning in a foyer with our plates leaning on a window frame while we stood to eat (or sat on the floor). BB made a point of being into health this year with morning yoga, runs and walks; however, we were served a greasy croissant with (I think) egg on it. We did have a choice of yogurt and fruit also. The lunches were pretty much soup (mine was broth with one noodle) and salad (iceberg lettuce, yuck) - on the last day, lunch in a box was probably the best: sandwich, apple and cookie. We did get to sit at a table for most of the other meals. At the first night's reception, I enjoyed some risotto in a plate eating on a tray balanced next to the trash can. Couldn't get near the slider line - one line and lots of people. Blackbaud, if you are going to host 2,000 people we need more seating and more space.
The sessions were just ok to me; however, I'm not a CRM or Luminate (Convio) customer. The highlight was on these two products in my opinion. In fact, I erroneously went to a Best Database Practices session only to be told that the information was specifically for CRM clients - nothing for RE clients there. Over 3/4 of the room cleared after that statement. Hmmm.... sounds like we RE customers would have liked to have this type of session also.
The big failure at this conference, in my opinion, was that there was no roadmap for The Raiser's Edge. The RE roadmap session followed a fabulous BBNC roadmap session. I was so excited by what was happening and what was coming in BBNC! The RE roadmap session was a q&a session on RE7.92. This version was touted as what we clients asked for; I'm sure it suited many but not me. The ideas sound good: a way to indicate some classification of donors, a query list that allows you to add and remove people, and a duplicate checker that uses a new advanced algorithm. For me, I use Research Point, the query list doesn't allow for adding things like a constituent id or other pertinent info, and well, should we talk about the duplicate checker? There's been a lot of buzz about it on the social sites - it just doesn't work. We are told it will be fixed soon. This session was so obviously NOT a roadmap that the twitter echoed the disappointment and there was astonishment from many who attended or heard about the session.
I was very surprised and honored to spend a good 30 minutes with Marc Chardon. I'm not going to repeat the conversation because it's open for interpretation. However, I can say that I was told there would definitely be no RE 8. I also was told that there would be solutions for the RE clients and they may not be The Raiser's Edge. I had a pretty big reaction to this that got noticed. I was then truly privileged to spend a few minutes with Jana Eggers. I was assured by both people I spoke with that a roadmap will be given to the BB RE clients. My access to such influential people at BB I believe is directly related to the successful user groups we have in our area. I'm proud of that because it means we're a viable group who can help shape our own future.
I wanted to end this with the highlight of the conference for me. I met some wonderful people. It started the evening before the conference with a great dinner with friends. It continued with many happy moments hugging Blackbaud employees that I feel are friends after knowing them for years and meeting new friends and seeing "old" friends. I met a new "best friend", Janet. A big shout out to Melissa and Sage. A huge hug to the wonderful Harriet. I hope you are feeling better, Jenn. It was so fantastic to spend time with really special people at the conference.
This conference was tough for me. I usually embrace change, but I really love the Blackbaud products. I'm not convinced that clients like me will have their issues addressed or see RE enhanced any time soon. Luminate and CRM address the issues of the larger clients. We RE clients compose the heart of Blackbaud's client base - at least in the past. I hope we won't be forgotten or compartmentalized in the future.
I wasn't keen on the conference starting on Sunday. I'm traditional enough to think that Sunday is a day many choose to keep special in some way. I thought three days was going to be pretty short, but actually the days were jam packed with sessions and lots to do.
As I mentioned, I've been to many BB conferences. Nothing compares with the ones that were held in Charleston - especially for having a good time. We were truly wined, dined and entertained in a huge way. Over the years, this has been toned down a bit. This year, the dining and entertaining kind of hit bottom for me. The food was pretty unremarkable. We ate breakfast the first morning in a foyer with our plates leaning on a window frame while we stood to eat (or sat on the floor). BB made a point of being into health this year with morning yoga, runs and walks; however, we were served a greasy croissant with (I think) egg on it. We did have a choice of yogurt and fruit also. The lunches were pretty much soup (mine was broth with one noodle) and salad (iceberg lettuce, yuck) - on the last day, lunch in a box was probably the best: sandwich, apple and cookie. We did get to sit at a table for most of the other meals. At the first night's reception, I enjoyed some risotto in a plate eating on a tray balanced next to the trash can. Couldn't get near the slider line - one line and lots of people. Blackbaud, if you are going to host 2,000 people we need more seating and more space.
The sessions were just ok to me; however, I'm not a CRM or Luminate (Convio) customer. The highlight was on these two products in my opinion. In fact, I erroneously went to a Best Database Practices session only to be told that the information was specifically for CRM clients - nothing for RE clients there. Over 3/4 of the room cleared after that statement. Hmmm.... sounds like we RE customers would have liked to have this type of session also.
The big failure at this conference, in my opinion, was that there was no roadmap for The Raiser's Edge. The RE roadmap session followed a fabulous BBNC roadmap session. I was so excited by what was happening and what was coming in BBNC! The RE roadmap session was a q&a session on RE7.92. This version was touted as what we clients asked for; I'm sure it suited many but not me. The ideas sound good: a way to indicate some classification of donors, a query list that allows you to add and remove people, and a duplicate checker that uses a new advanced algorithm. For me, I use Research Point, the query list doesn't allow for adding things like a constituent id or other pertinent info, and well, should we talk about the duplicate checker? There's been a lot of buzz about it on the social sites - it just doesn't work. We are told it will be fixed soon. This session was so obviously NOT a roadmap that the twitter echoed the disappointment and there was astonishment from many who attended or heard about the session.
I was very surprised and honored to spend a good 30 minutes with Marc Chardon. I'm not going to repeat the conversation because it's open for interpretation. However, I can say that I was told there would definitely be no RE 8. I also was told that there would be solutions for the RE clients and they may not be The Raiser's Edge. I had a pretty big reaction to this that got noticed. I was then truly privileged to spend a few minutes with Jana Eggers. I was assured by both people I spoke with that a roadmap will be given to the BB RE clients. My access to such influential people at BB I believe is directly related to the successful user groups we have in our area. I'm proud of that because it means we're a viable group who can help shape our own future.
I wanted to end this with the highlight of the conference for me. I met some wonderful people. It started the evening before the conference with a great dinner with friends. It continued with many happy moments hugging Blackbaud employees that I feel are friends after knowing them for years and meeting new friends and seeing "old" friends. I met a new "best friend", Janet. A big shout out to Melissa and Sage. A huge hug to the wonderful Harriet. I hope you are feeling better, Jenn. It was so fantastic to spend time with really special people at the conference.
This conference was tough for me. I usually embrace change, but I really love the Blackbaud products. I'm not convinced that clients like me will have their issues addressed or see RE enhanced any time soon. Luminate and CRM address the issues of the larger clients. We RE clients compose the heart of Blackbaud's client base - at least in the past. I hope we won't be forgotten or compartmentalized in the future.
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