Purple Patch Blog

The sincerest form of flattery

We are delighted to hear that Blackbaud has followed Purple Vision’s lead by offering a health check service.

They are right to identify this as a valuable service for users. We have been offering our own Database Healthcheck for many years and our clients regularly report great value for money from the immediate and practical help that it delivers.

Quite often we arrive on site to hear strong criticisms of the database. But typically it is quite capable (with a bit of reconfiguration, restructuring or training) of delivering most, or all, requirements. The Database Healthcheck is a great way to demonstrate where, why and how the database can do its job. So, if you are annoyed with your system, think again – it may not be its fault!

And it’s not just about The Raiser’s Edge. Being independent, we are not limited to any particular vendor or technology. By working with all major CRM and fundraising tools, we suggest and implement best practice – regardless of the system in question.

Iris – The Next Generation (and no Klingons in sight!)

The IRIS NFP World conference this month was the Launchpad for software vendor Iris NFP to finally unveil its new-look range of CRM systems for non-profit organisations. And they look good, with potential to challenge strongly in the middle and upper end of the market. On the other hand, the cost to upgrade could prove to be too high for many existing users.

Having spent several years buying up various smaller developers, Iris has finally settled on a three pronged strategy. For the medium to large charity there will be IntegraNG and CareNG. Integra will deliver membership functionality with Care having a stronger focus on fundraising. Meanwhile, for smaller organisations who don’t have such complex requirements (or big budgets), there is Donor Strategy, which comes in various versions for charities, membership organisations and schools.

There has been much speculation about if and when Iris would choose to bring together its two main products in a single technology platform, and now we have the answer: the new NG product range is an updated version of the Iris Care. This decision is not a surprise since Care is already a more modern and flexible solution than the ageing Integra. So now, although they are the same behind the scenes, the two NG systems sport different features, depending on whether you are looking for charity functionality (donations, sponsor me, legacies, financial processing) or membership tools (CPD, subscriptions, examinations).

As many Iris customers know, support has been a problem in the past 12 months or so. The scale and simplicity of a single technology base and a vendor committed to development and support is an encouraging step forward. Martin Carter, the new Head of Support for IRIS, said he has been hiring staff and building capacity so that there is now a single integrated team handling queries for all of their products. Let’s hope things continue to improve. If you are an Iris user please let us know if you’re feeling the benefit of these changes yet?

For anyone interested in the technology, Iris has selected the latest implementation of Microsoft’s .NET framework – version 4. The NG software should be easily accessible via web services, which means that other developers, in particular web developers, should be able to access the data in the NG system and integrate it with a wide range of third party applications. Interestingly, by shifting further towards .NET Iris has followed their rival Blackbaud who announced their commitment to the same technology (their so-called Infinity Platform) back in 2009. However, don’t assume that the gap is as great as it may sound, because Iris has the advantage of many years of Care development in earlier versions of .NET, and Blackbaud has been slow to bring to market the new version of its market-leading product, The Raiser’s Edge.

So, this all sounds like good news. Iris has got its act together and the playing field has been levelled for anyone considering a new CRM system. But what about the options if you already have the current versions of Care and Integra? Happily, there is no charge to adopt the new versions of the software – they come for free, as long as you are up to date with Iris’s annual licensing and support scheme. However, the process of upgrading will not be free, with various costs (and risks) associated with planning and managing the migration to a new system. The migration path will be much easier for existing Care clients as they are already familiar with the .NET framework. For Integra users, it will be a much steeper learning curve, with a lot of work to translate, import and restructure. Estimates for the amount of consultancy time needed to upgrade start at around 30 days for smaller implementations, which is not a low cost upgrade!

With all the operational changes and retraining, for many users this will feel like an entirely new system, with all the associated headaches (and the benefits of course)! This may not be an entirely attractive prospect, but ultimately you have no choice! Iris has announced that their current products will be supported until 2015, but after that they plan to progressively withdraw support from the old Care and Integra, with clients expected to move across the new platform.

Overall, we think this is a welcome development. Iris NFP has staked its future on NG, which appears to be a much better product with vital improvements to integration and flexibility. New customers have an good option and existing customers can lok forward to the prospect of significant enhancements. We look forward to seeing the products in more detail and we will keep you posted here.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck … it must be The Raiser’s Edge!

The Raiser’s Edge version 8 revolution is coming (in 2010 we hear).

Using an all-new ‘Infinity’ platform based on Microsoft’s .net technology, Blackbaud’s flagship product will be transformed into an open and accessible tool that integrates with a growing range of third party solutions, especially online tools.

When (and if) existing users choose to accept the upgrade to version 8 they will automatically adopt the new technology, but to ease this transition it will be built to look and feel (and quack) much like the current beloved product.

But the big change comes for larger players. The same Infinity platform will be used for a new product called Enterprise CRM. This will enable Blackbaud customers to mix and match different solutions to suit the needs of the whole organisation – including back office, local branches, head office, web, service delivery, marketing – all in one joined up architecture.

This is important because it takes a big step towards the holy grail of the 360-degree customer view and total relationship management. In future, you will be able to look at an individual and see not only their recent donations and communications preferences but also their history of services used, online interaction and any other relevant links to your organisation.

Our sources at Blackbaud liken their new technology to lego!  Buy the simple model and it comes out just like the picture on the box; buy the big kit and you can build it the way you want.  Crucially, it all fits together all the time.

“Bring it on” I hear you cry!  But Blackbaud are not planning to launch these new products until they have credible anchor clients up and running successfully.  We have all read that Oxford University is the first high profile early adopter, and we hear that others are likely to be announced in the next few weeks.