Raiser's Edge - the next generation?

So, the cat is semi-officially out of the bag.

The next generation of The Raiser's Edge - called 'Raiser's Edge 8' by those interested in such things - isn't actually going to happen. There are, according to Jana Eggers, a Blackbaud VP, no "active development plans" for RE8.

Now, for those of us interested in Blackbaud's products, and there are enough of us, this is big, big news, and something of a change from what we've heard in the past.

Two years ago at the Blackbaud conference in London, then Chief Technical Officer Shaun Sullivan talked about RE8 but admitted that he was struggling to be able to announce when it would be ready for release. Similar conversations with Blackbaud people positioned the new RE8 as providing 'functional blades' within the wider BB Enterprise CRM solution, built on the 'Infinity' platform.

According to the video, RE7 customers will be offered solutions ranging from BB Enterprise CRM for larger organisations, Altru (a SaaS solution) for arts and cultural, and etapestry and RE(i) for smaller nonprofits. Or they could stay with RE7 which Blackbaud say will feature new bits of kit to support mobile giving and social CRM in early 2012.

All food for thought - and with increased competition in the non-profit technology sector in 2012 - it'll be interesting to see what happens to all those organisations currently on RE7.

Comments

[ugg boots best]

All food for thought - and with increased competition in the non-profit technology sector in 2012 - it'll be interesting to see what happens to all those organisations currently on RE7.

[Jim]

I'm using the new enterprise CRM and it's HORRIBLE! Newer things are supposed to make work easier and have more functionality. This is the complete opposite. Way more work and less functionality. Steer clear! I wish we could go back to RE

[John]

Interesting this video has now been removed by the user, eh...

[Paul Morriss]

I'd like some technical detail on all this. I wonder how they can do RE(i) and call it like a hosted RE7 when RE 7 seems to be tied to the desktop - client/server model - and not on the Infinity platform.