We're pleased to let you know about two new Case Central enhancements that will make it easier for you to view, print, and save your case notes. Now when you use Case Search to review a case online, two links display beneath the case number that you can click to generate a printer-friendly and PDF version.
We've also made some improvements to the overall layout of your case notes; we hope you like the changes! As a reminder, your cases are confidential so only members of your organization who have Blackbaud.com accounts can view your cases. For more information about Case Central, take a look at Case Central Help.
We're excited to announce that we've just published our 2009 Customer Support Satisfaction Report! We compile this report annually to share our survey results and let you know about improvements we've made in direct response to your feedback.
We're pleased that our support satisfaction rates in both our case and annual surveys have continued to increase. In 2009, 89 percent of case survey participants indicated they were very satisfied with the service they received for a particular case (compared with 88 percent in 2008). Similarly, 67 percent of annual survey participants expressed they were very satisfied with the support they received throughout the year, which was an increase of 2 percent from 2008.
We're also excited to let you know about changes we've made to better meet your needs. Our major improvement was implementing a new Knowledgebase to make it easier and faster for you to find answers to software questions. Select Knowledgebase from our website's Support menu to start searching, and visit Knowledgebase Help for an informative overview, including short video demonstrations.
Take a look at the report for details, and please continue to share your feedback about our solutions and your support experience by emailing feedback@blackbaud.com, adding a comment below, starting a forum discussion, or contacting a member of our management team (page 12). Your satisfaction is what it's all about, and we look forward to hearing from you!
It's a new year and time for the first Chat Support Success Story of 2010! If you haven't used Chat Support already, it's a 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 now using IM. Chat works a lot like AOL Instant Messenger or Microsoft Office Communicator; it allows you to communicate with an analyst in real time.
In The Raiser's Edge, constituency codes are categories you assign to constituents in your database. These codes help you identify the relationship a constituent has to your organization. In other words, they tell you why the constituent is in your database. The more specific constituency codes are, the more they help you easily identify records.
Earlier this week, a user was working on cleaning up constituent codes. The user needed to delete a large number of constituency codes, and nearly every record in the database would be affected by these changes. After creating a chat session, the user connected with an analyst who was able to quickly point her to the Knowledgebase solution that would get her started. Thanks to chat support, the user was able to get the information she needed to complete her project.
To initiate a chat session, click Chat now using IM 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.
The year is almost over, but there's still time for one more Chat Support Success Story! If you haven't used Chat Support already, it's a 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 now using IM. Chat works a lot like AOL Instant Messenger or Microsoft Office Communicator; it allows you to communicate with an analyst in real time.
Import can be a grueling process. You can put loads of information in a single import file, but that means that you need to very carefully align all of the fields and values in your file with the fields in The Raiser's Edge. This increases the chances that you'll get exceptions when you validate your import. Importing on a deadline can be particularly stressful.
Earlier this week, a user was running an import and facing a deadline. She used chat to contact support because of an exception that was holding up her import. If you've done an import in The Raiser's Edge before, you know that the names of field names in import files (e.g., IRPrimSalEdit) aren't really made for spoken communication, so chat made it easier for the user and the support analyst to discuss the fields in the import file. After walking the user through a quick test, the analyst was able to determine that the speediest way to get the information imported was to break the process into two separate imports. Thanks to chat support, the user was able to meet her deadline.
To initiate a chat session, click Chat now using IM 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.
Thank you again to everyone who joined our eSupport roundtable yesterday afternoon! We hope the information we discussed will be helpful as you take advantage of Knowledgebase, forums, blogs, Case Central, and newsletters. As a thank you for attending, we'll send you a promotion code in the next few weeks so you can receive 20% off your next Blackbaud Forms purchase.
If you'd like to review what we covered or share the information with your coworkers, you can view and save a copy of the PowerPoint presentation, as well as a recording of the webinar. We've also documented your questions below with the corresponding answers for your reference.
If you have more questions or suggestions for future webinars, please leave a comment on the blog. Thanks for your feedback and participation!
Questions & Answers
- What is the difference between the User Guides and Knowledgebase?
User guides are tutorials that explain how to use the software, whereas Knowledgebase includes "how to" solutions as well as resolutions for errors or other software issues. Support analysts document every question they're asked and the solution they provide in Knowledgebase. We're beginning to incorporate user guides in the Knowledgebase search to make it easy for you to find the information you need.
- How can I add a few additional Knowledgebase user logins for our organization?
Knowledgebase is included in your support resources as part of your organization's maintenance plan, so any user who has a Blackbaud.com login can access Knowledgebase. Your organization's site administrator(s) can add new users to our records and invite them to create a login so they can use all of the secure support resources, including Knowledgebase.
- What's the difference between using Knowledgebase through Case Central or through Knowledgebase directly?
Creating a case through Case Central will return the top 10 solutions that correspond with your question or issue, but we recommend using Knowledgebase directly because it will return up to 50 results (10 per page). You can also use the product or document type filters in Knowledgebase to refine your search. If you need support assistance, you can then click Create a Case in the Additional Assistance box to the right of your Knowledgebase search results.
- When I go to Knowledgebase I don't see the same products that I see on your screen. Am I missing products?
No, you are not missing products. The products under "Filter Your Results" automatically correspond with your organization's product record so your results will not include irrelevant solutions.
- I used to get support newsletters but I haven’t received any for the past few months. Do you know why I'm not getting them anymore?
You may need to double-check your subscriptions in your profile to verify you're still subscribed to the newsletters. If you are subscribed and stop receiving your newsletter, ensure your organization's ISP isn't blocking it, and if you use a spam filter, add "@subscriptions.blackbaud.com." Then email subscriptions@blackbaud.com so we can revalidate your email address.
- How frequently do you send newsletters?
Most of our newsletters are sent monthly; their frequency and recent issues are listed on the Support Newsletters page.
- I have a new email address and think Blackbaud has the old one. How can I update it?
You can update your personal profile to change your contact information as needed, and it will automatically update our records.
- Is there a place to type in your search in the forums? When I use the search box at the top of the screen, it seems to search all of the Blackbaud website, not just the forums. Sometimes the tags do not have what I am looking for.
There is a Forums search box at the top of the forums page that searches all forums posts. You can limit your search by first going into one of the forums categories or subforums, such as The Raiser's Edge - Query, so the results will include only posts from that section. Note: If you use the Site Search box at the top of other Blackbaud web pages (i.e., not the forums), it will search the entire Blackbaud website, so we recommend searching within the forums or using Knowledgebase for product questions.
- Are the forums reviewed/managed by Blackbaud staff?
Blackbaud staff do review and reply to posts periodically, but the forums are not moderated and they are available to everyone on the web.
- I am on the Forums page but I do not see a Shortcuts box/Forum Guidelines.
The Forum Guidelines are in the Shortcuts box at the top right of the forums page, but you will need to be signed in to view it.
- Is there a file size limit for forum attachments?
Yes, 1-2 MB.
- When I click my name at the top of the forums page, the information that comes up is different from when I click my name at the top of other Blackbaud pages. Why is that and which one should I access?
Clicking your name at the top of the forums page opens your forums profile, which is what other forum users can see. If you click your name at the top of other Blackbaud web pages, you'll access your Blackbaud personal profile, which corresponds with the information we have for you in our records. Other website users cannot view your Blackbaud profile.
- In my profile, what is the Default Organization section for?
If you are associated with more than one organization in our records, you may need to change which one has been selected as your default organization in your website profile. The default organization you select determines the information you see on Downloads, Case Central, Alerts, and Knowledgebase.
- Where is chat support? I don't see it on Case Central.
Chat support is currently available for The Raiser's Edge, RE:NetSolutions, Target Analytics, P!N, and Data Enrichment Services. If you have one of these products, you can access chat support from Case Central or Contact Us from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET Monday through Friday.
- On the Case Central page, can I see only my cases when I go to Case Search and not my coworkers'?
Case Search will display all of your organization's cases. Click the Contact heading to sort your cases together and find them more easily.
- How should I access my FTP folder, and which FTP method do you recommend?
You can access FTP from your profile or from Case Central. We recommend using one of the following secure transfer options, which will encrypt your data: Web-based Secure FTP, Mozilla Firefox, or FTP software.
We're excited about this afternoon's support roundtable, "Making the most of your eSupport Resources," and the fact that lots of customers have signed up to learn more about Knowledgebase, forums, Case Central, newsletters, and blogs. After the webinar, we'll post the PPT here along with the answers to the questions we're asked.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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 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.
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.
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.
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!
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