Thanks to everyone who was on the update webinar today. Amie did a great job of explaining the process and showing the new features, and we heard some really good questions. With that in mind, I wanted to go ahead and post the information so those of you who missed the webinar can still catch the highlights.
When will Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 be compatible?
There is not currently a timeline for compatibility with Windows Server 2008 or Windows 7.
What are the implications for PE/RE/FE integrated clients?
There are no special requirements for The Financial Edge. If you integrate with The Raiser's Edge, ensure that you are running 7.85 or higher and that you disable the integration while updating Patron Edge.
Is The Raiser's Edge 7.85 still compatible with Patron Edge 3.400?
Yes, 7.85 and 7.91 are compatible.
How soon do we need to run the update?
This will depend on your merchant services provider. However, it is important to note that on July 1, 2010, Visa will stop working with acquirers whose clients do not use PA-DSS certified applications. See this link from Visa for more information.
Will custom PEO design elements still work as expected (i.e. free text, images, menus)?
I always recommend setting things up in a test system to ensure everything works as expected. There are no known changes to Patron Edge Online that would affect design elements like screens, screen parts or menu items.
Is the upgrade process different if we're on 3.340 than if we're on 3.310?
The main difference is that there will be fewer steps, since PCCharge, Windows Server, SQL Server and The Raiser's Edge are already on the required versions.
Can we update PCCharge to 5.8 now if we're on Patron Edge 3.310?
Absolutely. As part of the call with your account manager, we can arrange to put the required PCCharge version in your FTP folder.
Is Moneris Canada now supported?
Yes, PCCharge for the US and Moneris for Canada are the two standard credit card interfaces.
Is PCCharge 5.8 Client still incompatible with Patron Edge?
Yes, this is a known issue. At this time, PCCharge 5.8 Client and Patron Edge cannot be installed on the same machine. PCCharge Payment Server does not have any conflicts with Patron Edge and continues to work normally.
Whose IP addresses will have to change for hosted clients?
These are done on a one-off basis. Generally, an organization currently running Patron Edge Online 3.2.5 or below will receive a new IP address. As part of starting the update process, Blackbaud will let you know several weeks in advance if the IP address for your website will change. This will allow plenty of time to coordinate with your domain name provider to schedule the change on that end.
Does each product have to be on its own server to be PCI compliant?
I don't have any information about this. Please refer to the PCI Security Standards Council website to see the full set of PCI rules.
Have Packages changed since 3.340?
Coupons can now use both alpha characters and digits. The remaining Package features are the same as in version 3.340.
Are we planning digital signature capture?
I have not seen this on any product roadmap for the next year.
How long should we plan to be down?
This can vary greatly. To be safe I would plan for at least half a day. If the only thing you have to update on the big day is Patron Edge and Patron Edge Online, and you have carefully read the PE and PEO update guides, you'll be able to keep downtime to a minimum. There may be additional steps to perform for Patron Edge Online after the update, but those steps are based around new features and won't prevent you from having a working website.
If you are hosted and your IP address requires a change, the length of time it takes for that change to be recognized can vary. This Wikipedia article explains the technical bits about what happens when an IP address changes and why it can potentially take a while to propagate. In my experience (please take with a grain of salt), most of these changes take effect within a few hours.
If you feel the update is more complex than you can handle or you want to minimize downtime by having Blackbaud to perform the update for you, just let me know and we can set up a call with your account manager and I to work something out.
Other update questions? Leave a message in the comments!
Not too long ago, I got a really interesting Raiser's Edge question. "How can I find a constituent's longest stretch of consecutive years given, for my giving clubs?" You may have a great donor who gave from 1995-2005, missed a year, and then started giving again. He wouldn't show up in a Consecutive Years Giving report due to that one missing year, but you still want to send the right ask letter and amount.
I was intrigued by the problem. Intrigue being my greatest motivator, I was in the lab for a little while coming up with a good solution and thought I'd share it with you, my faithful readers. Just download and run this query, save the results as an import file, and import it as a constituent attribute called Max Consecutive Years. Now the field is available in queries, exports and mailings!
You can download the query here and run it against your Raiser's Edge database in SQL Management Studio. The result set will serve as your import file with all the required fields pre-filled. Now just perform a quick constituent attribute import and you're done!
Max consecutive years given
As with any stuff I give out on The Spotlight, this isn't a core
piece of the product; it's custom so that means it is unsupported. My
analysts (or Raiser's Edge analysts) cannot help run the query or take questions on it. RE support can definitely help if you're stuck on the import side of things, however. If you
have any problems with it, please leave a comment, hit the forums, or
send me an email.