Web Sitings

Chat Success Story - November

2009-11-19T15:07:00Z

It's time for another Chat Support Success Story! If you haven't used Chat Support already, it's a new way to contact support that is currently available to organizations who use The Raiser's Edge, Target Analytics, P!N, and Data Enrichment Services. If you use one of these products, you can access Chat Support by going to case central and clicking Chat Online. Chat works a lot like AOL Instant Messenger or Microsoft Office Communicator; it allows you to communicate with an analyst in real time.

Making two software programs play nice with each other isn't always easy. This week, a user had to replace a hard drive on a workstation running The Raiser's Edge. In the process, he installed Office 2007. When he logged into The Raiser's Edge, he got an error message that Office Web Components needed to be installed. After researching the issue, the user found that Office 2007 does not have a Web Components feature. The user tried to install the Office 2003 Web Components, but this did not resolve the issue. In need of a quick resolution, he turned to Chat Support.

The user was immediately connected with a Raiser's Edge analyst, who was able to diagnose the issue based on the information he provided when he initiated the chat session. The analyst told him that issue could be resolved by installing the Microsoft Office XP Web components. The user had come across this over the course of his research, but had assumed Office 2003 would be sufficient. Thanks to chat support, the issue was clarified speedily and the user was able to move forward.

To initiate a chat session, click Chat Online on case central and enter your name, organization name, and question. An analyst will type a response that displays on that web page, and you and the analyst will continue the text chat session until either your question has been answered or you feel a phone conversation would be more productive.

December Webinar: Making the Most of Your eSupport Resources

2009-11-17T21:46:00Z

On Tuesday, December 8, we'll host a complimentary support roundtable webinar to discuss how you can make the most of your resources on our award-winning support website. We hope you can join us from 2-3 p.m. ET to learn more about Knowledgebase, forums, Case Central, newsletters, and blogs.

There will also be time for you to participate in a live question-and-answer session about our website. To top it off, you will receive a 20% off coupon for Blackbaud Forms as a thank you for attending.

You can now register online, and we encourage you to let us know if there are specific topics or questions you'd like us to cover by emailing supportroundtables@blackbaud.com. We're looking forward to it!

Chat Success Story - October

2009-10-09T18:11:00Z

Earlier today, a customer used Chat to contact Support about moving The Raiser's Edge to a new server and updating to The Raiser's Edge 7.91. If you've ever moved your database to a new server or updated to The Raiser's Edge 7.91, you know that those are pretty heavy duty tasks. Specifically, the customer wanted to know if they would need to purchase full SQL for The Raiser's Edge 7.91 or if they would be able to continue to use SQL 2005 Express. The analyst was immediately able to tell them that they would be able to continue using SQL Express, as well as share a Knowledgebase solution that detailed all the steps necessary to move the database to a new server. Thanks to chat support, the customer was able to get an important question answered in moments and get started on her database move.

New Customer Support Video

2009-10-02T13:38:00Z

Our vice president of customer support, Jeff Malmgren, recently made his "small-screen" debut in our new Customer Support video, which is featured on Support Overview. In the video, Jeff highlights some of our online resources, including Knowledgebase and our forums user community. He also reminds customers to review our Customer Support Guide, which provides an up-to-date overview of Support.

We're planning to incorporate more short videos on our Support website, and we welcome your feedback. Please add a comment to this blog post or email feedback@blackbaud.com to let us know if there are topics you’d like us to cover. We look forward to hearing from you!

Knowledgebase Survey Results

2009-09-29T18:21:00Z

Several weeks ago, we sent a survey about our new Knowledgebase to more than 5,000 customers who’d used it in the month of August. We asked them how satisfied they are with our new Knowledgebase, whether they’d recommend it to a colleague, what they like, what they don’t like, and any additional comments.

We’re pleased that 90% of respondents are satisfied with our new Knowledgebase: 51% are very satisfied and 39% are somewhat satisfied. Here are respondents’ likes and dislikes and our plans to address them:

Font: Customers’ main point of dissatisfaction is the legibility of search results because of the light blue and gray fonts and bolding of key words. We’re changing the links’ font to a standard blue (like Google) to improve readability, and we’re removing the bold and gray fonts from search results. You’ll see the changes in a few days.

Search results: While most customers said they’re able to find the information they’re looking for, others complained about poor search results. Our new Knowledgebase has a much more powerful search engine than our previous Knowledgebase and gives us more capacity to optimize search results, which we’re still in the process of doing. Your specific solution or search feedback helps us improve search results, and we value your input. If search results seem too focused on a particular word, reword your search to remove the popular word, and complete the feedback form to let us know which word was problematic.

Most customers appreciate that search results are now automatically filtered according to your organization's products, which reduces the clutter. Most like not having to select their product prior to searching, but some mentioned that they wished they could. Our goal is for the results you’re looking for to be returned without having to select a filter, which is the main reason it’s not required before searching anymore. Once your search results are returned, you can select additional filters such as your product on the left side of the screen if you need to drill-down into the results.

We’re still working on doing a better job of incorporating user guides. The titles of PDFs aren't displaying properly, which is why you may see "Table of Contents" instead of the actual name of the guide, and PDF versions of the user guides include their tables of contents and indexes, which clutter the search results. We’re in the process of testing the search with shorter segmented user guides in HTML format, which include more targeted contents and don’t contain tables of contents. In the meantime, you can use the “solution” Document Type filter if you want to exclude guides from displaying in your search results.

A few customers said they wish they could still access solutions about products or maintenance levels their organization doesn’t have. By tying Knowledgebase to your organization’s products and maintenance subscription, we’re able to provide information specific to your organization. Solutions about products such as The Raiser's Edge and The Financial Edge display based on the products you own. Solutions about other related products and optional modules, such as NetSolutions and Accounts Payable, display under the product family umbrella (e.g., The Raiser's Edge and The Financial Edge). VBA, API and RODBA solutions are slightly different; they display based on a combination of the product and maintenance level you're subscribed to because they're so specialized. So in order to see VBA Raiser's Edge solutions, you'd need to have The Raiser's Edge and either the Advantage Priority or Advantage Professional support plan.

Speed and availability: Customers are very pleased that Knowledgebase returns results quickly and is always available; we are, too!

Navigation: Most customers said that Knowledgebase looks better, is more intuitive, and easier to use. Top features customers highlighted are the history of their recent activity, the recent and popular solutions about their products on Knowledgebase Home, integration with Case Central, the ability to enter the solution ID directly in the Ask a Question and New Question fields, the ease of asking a new question, and being able to use the Back browser button.

On the other hand, overall busyness was a point of dissatisfaction, so we’re making some formatting changes to simplify the layout during the next few days. Unfortunately, our Knowledgebase software prevents us from adding page numbers, a relevancy rating, or a “Next” button to scroll through results.

Subscriptions: Customers like being able to subscribe to solutions to be notified when they’re updated. A few mentioned they subscribe as a way to consolidate their favorites instead of marking them as favorites in their browser.

Feedback forms: Customers appreciate being able to rate specific solutions and provide comments, and we appreciate receiving this information, which we use to improve our solutions. Currently, several hundred solutions are rated each week and we review feedback about each one.

Thank you to all the survey participants and to all of you who have used our new Knowledgebase. Please continue to share your feedback with us on the Knowledgebase feedback forms. We will keep working to improve your online experience and look forward to hearing from you!

Profile Image Update

2009-09-29T13:17:00Z

In response to feedback we’ve received, we recently removed the image that displayed at the top left of your website profile. You can make changes to your profile, but there aren't options to personalize it or upload an image because it's not intended to be a social networking tool and other software users can't view it.

If you aren't already on our forums, we encourage you to join our Blackbaud user community, in which you can customize your profile and upload a personal avatar. We are also on Facebook and Twitter, and we'd love for you to join us online to connect with other Blackbaud users.

Thanks to everyone who provided feedback! Please continue to share your thoughts by emailing feedback@blackbaud.com, posting on the forums, or commenting on the blogs.

Chat Success Story - September

2009-09-11T19:26:00Z

Chat Support is a convenient way to contact support, and is currently available to organizations who use The Raiser's Edge, Target Analytics, P!N, and Data Enrichment Services. If you use one of these products, you can access Chat Support by going to case central and clicking Chat Online. Chat works a lot like AOL Instant Messenger or Microsoft Office Communicator; it allows you to communicate with an analyst in real time.

Recently, a customer used Chat to contact Support regarding an import in The Raiser's Edge. The customer had already created a case regarding this import, and the analyst was able to get caught up on the case notes without putting the customer on hold. Chat made discussing the cumbersome Import field names easy, and the chat session remained open (with the analyst standing by) each time the customer ran the import. Troubleshooting the import exceptions over chat created a comprehensive log of events that can be referred to later in the customer's case search. The chat session concluded with a successful import.

New Knowledgebase Feedback

2009-08-26T17:16:00Z

Almost 6,000 customers have used our new Knowledgebase since we implemented it earlier this month. We're excited that initial feedback has been positive, and to gather more feedback, we've just sent a survey to a random number of new Knowledgebase users. We'll share the results in a few weeks.

If you've used the new Knowledgebase but didn't receive a survey, please share your feedback by posting on the Knowledgebase Feedback Forum, filling out search or solution feedback in Knowledgebase, or simply adding a comment to this blog post. We'd love to hear from you.

Knowledgebase has a completely new search engine, which we're continuing to hone to improve search results. If you don't find the information you're looking for, we'd appreciate it if you'd add search or solution feedback.

For tips to make the most of our new Knowledgebase and an overview of its features and benefits, visit Knowledgebase Help.

New Knowledgebase Released!

2009-08-17T14:20:00Z

Roll out the red carpet and get the cameras ready: Our new Knowledgebase has arrived! We know Knowledgebase is your number one resource when you have questions or need to troubleshoot software issues, and we are excited to improve your experience!

We've implemented our new Knowledgebase in direct response to your feedback to provide you with:

An improved search engine that lets you search on key words, a phrase, or a sentence, and see solutions only about the product or document type selected
An enhanced infrastructure to ensure Knowledgebase is always available
Highlighted solution excerpts that display in the results like Google, making it easier to identify the information you’re looking for quickly
Solution subscriptions, so you can be notified automatically when we update solutions that are important to you (for example, when an issue has been resolved in a patch)
Search and solution feedback forms through which you can rate the effectiveness of the search and specific solutions and we can take action accordingly (i.e., acknowledge staff for a job well done and make any necessary improvements)
Integration with Case Central to automatically search Knowledgebase when you begin creating a case so you can potentially resolve your question or issue on the spot

To start searching, select Knowledgebase from the Support menu, describe your question or issue (or enter the solution ID) in the question box, and click Ask. For an informative overview, including short video demonstrations, visit Knowledgebase Help.

We'd also like to thank the 1000+ customers who participated in our Knowledgebase preview since May to help us test the system. Special kudos to those who gave us their feedback, which we based further enhancements on.

Please let us know what you think about Knowledgebase by posting on our Knowledgebase Feedback Forum or adding a comment to this blog. We hope you like it!

New Knowledgebase is Back!

2009-06-11T15:26:00Z

Our Knowledgebase maintenance is complete, and we're wrapping up the final stages of our Knowledgebase Replacement Project. We encourage you to preview our new Knowledgebase before its final release!

We hope you like it and look forward to your feedback! You can post comments or questions on our Knowledgebase Preview Forum or email knowledgebase@blackbaud.com (instead of contacting our regular customer support team).

Thanks for your patience!

Note: Our new Knowledgebase may be intermittently unavailable between 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. ET as we conduct nightly maintenance.

New Knowledgebase Maintenance

2009-05-18T17:49:00Z

We're continuing to conduct maintenance on our new Knowledgebase and apologize for the delay in preview testing. We will let you know on the Web Sitings blog and Alerts when the new Knowledgebase is available again for testing.

In the meantime, you may want to visit Knowledgebase Help for an informative overview of the new features in Knowledgebase, including short video demonstrations:

We appreciate the feedback preview testers have shared about the new Knowledgebase, and we also welcome any questions or suggestions you may have after reviewing Knowledgebase Help: Simply post a comment on our Knowledgebase Preview Forum.

Thanks again for your participation and patience!

Take a Look at Our New Knowledgebase!

2009-05-11T13:31:00Z

We’re making progress on our new Knowledgebase, and we'd like to invite you to try it out! Visit Knowledgebase Preview for instructions and preview testing guidelines.

We appreciate the feedback we've received from our current group of preview testers, and we'd love to hear what you think about the new Knowledgebase. Please post your comments or questions on our Knowledgebase Preview Forum or email mailto:%20knowledgebase@blackbaud.com instead of contacting our regular customer support team.

Note: Our new Knowledgebase may be intermittently unavailable between 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. ET as we conduct nightly maintenance.

Blackbaud Winner of "Ten Best Web Support Sites" Competition!

2009-05-08T14:35:00Z

We are thrilled to share the news that our support site is a winner of this year's "Ten Best Web Support Sites" award! The top ten support sites are selected each year by the Association of Support Professionals (ASP) to recognize "excellence in online service and support."

The 2009 winners include (in alphabetical order) Ariba, Articulate, Blackbaud, EMC Corp., Hewlett Packard (consumer), Juniper Networks, Mentor Graphics, Novell, TriZetto, and Verizon. Among the performance criteria, judges reviewed our Knowledgebase, customer experience, interactive features, and our website's overall usability, design, and navigation.

We're honored by the award, and we look forward to raising the bar even higher as we complete the final stage of our Knowledgebase replacement project. (The finish line is in sight!)

Forums Cleanup Poll

2009-05-05T20:30:00Z

To make searching the forums more efficient, we are considering deleting unanswered forum posts that are more than six months old.

A consequence of this project is that members whose posts are deleted would lose points, which would lower their contributor rankings.

We are asking the user community for feedback on this proposed project. Please take the poll and participate in the discussion to make your voice heard.

New Knowledgebase Preview Update

2009-04-22T18:29:00Z

We're pleased to announce that we're beginning to invite a small number of customers to preview our new Knowledgebase and share their feedback about their experience! The goals for our Knowledgebase preview are to gather customer feedback, ensure its stability and effectiveness, and assess its readiness for release.

If you have previously requested to try our new Knowledgebase before its release, be on the lookout for an email during the next week or so. If you're interested in participating and haven't given us your name yet, just add a comment to this post or email knowledgebase@blackbaud.com. We'll be happy to invite you, too, and we appreciate your help.

The Knowledgebase preview will likely last about four weeks. We'll let you know when we've determined the release date for the new Knowledgebase here in the blog and in our support newsletters. In the meantime, take a look at a previous post for more information and screenshots, and if you have any questions, just add a comment. Thanks!