Introduction

My name is Andrew Payne.  I am Blackbaud's product line manager for financial solutions.  For my first post, I will briefly introduce myself, share my vision for this blog, and very soon start sharing my thoughts...

For those of you that are long time Blackbaud clients, we may have met.  I am nearing my 10th year of employment with the company and have served in a number of roles (Sales, Support, PD, and Marketing).  My collective experience combined with my previous experience in academia, standard setting, and public accounting have prepared me for this position--that is, I am confident that my collective experience will help me interpret your needs into high quality requirements that our team will use to deliver our financial solutions. 

I want to thank those of you that sent your well wishes while I was out of the office for an extended period of time.  Your words of encouragement were most appreciated.  What a wonderful peer group!  For the record, I am back and as energized as ever and look forward to reconnecting with you.

My vision for the blog is quite simple.  I would like to use this forum as a means for us to share our thoughts as they relate to the finance function in governments and not-for-profit organizations.  For example, we may discuss the impact of social networking concepts on financial reporting (not a crazy thought, right?), the impact of the new 990 on AIS, or general process automation...  Meaty stuff, but very applicable to function.  From time to time, I will share my observations--those of a technology product manager--that you might find interesting.

I will start blogging this week, so come back by, let me know what you think, and join in the conversation.