GoRaise Mobile Review

I recently had the opportunity to preview Electric Plum’s GoRaise Mobile application.  Electric Plum was founded in 2011 by Shaun Sullivan, the former CTO of Blackbaud.  GoRaise Mobile provides a simple, intuitive mobile interface for The Raiser’s Edge® (RE).  Those of you who are familiar with Shaun know his passion for all things mobile, so it’s no surprise that his first consumer product is a mobile interface for the software he shepherded for more than 20 years.

In general, mobile functionality for RE feels a little like a no-brainer, and some on our team were wondering why this wasn’t available through Blackbaud sooner.  Well, here it is, so let’s take a look.

Make your website perform!

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s website accounts for more than half of the organization’s revenue, and 85% of new patron interactions start on the web site. Clearly, the web site is crucial to OSF’s revenue and success. OSF’s web site was hosted and maintained by a long-time vendor who controlled the web site programming and server environment. OSF’s IT Director, Bruce Wand, made a strategic decision to empower OSF with more ownership and accountability for their site. As a result, Bruce was on the hunt for a new vendor who could act as a true development partner; someone who could coordinate and collaborate with his in-house development team.

The web site had been stable for four years and had not been significantly changed or moved since its launch. Any changes had been handled by the vendor. Though the web site was reliable, this meant that no one at OSF had intimate knowledge of the web site’s configuration or programming. There was some uncertainty about what was ‘under the hood,’ which presented a unique challenge.

A Few Tools of the Data Archeologist: Tips for Preparing Data for Cleanup or Conversion

Examining a client’s database, whether in preparation for a data conversion or to plan an in-situ data cleanup, is a little like an archeological dig.  When we plan a conversion to or from the Blackbaud® software The Raiser’s Edge® , for example, we dig down through layers of historical strata to prepare for mapping.  This work can be very revealing as we work together to interpret the meanings of various records, create maps of where important clues may be, and wade through decades of an organization’s informational history.

In order to do this with our clients, we have developed tools that help us unearth and find patterns in the layers of information.  Let me share some of my trade secrets.

One of the most useful reports that JCA has developed to assist with system analysis and data conversion and cleanup is a Code Frequency Report.

Welcome!

Hello, I’m John Jakovich, Chief Information Officer at JCA.  I’m pleased and excited to share our experiences working with non-profit technology with you in this blog under the “JCA Innovation” category.  At JCA we work on an assortment of projects including systems integrations, data migrations, custom applications and internet development. Generally we utilize a Microsoft “stack” including SQL Server, Reporting Services, Analysis Services, ASP.Net and the .Net platform. The JCA Engineering group is composed of 9 talented engineers with a wide variety of experiences.