Our organization is currently doing research into this Blackbaud service.  Has anyone out there had any expierence using OnDemand and can speak on its pros and cons?  Has anyone out there reserached it and come up with their own pro/con list?

Many thanks!!

Steph

Stephanie,

 We have been OnDemand users for about 2 years now. At first we had some difficulties with speed, but that has been resolved in the past 6 months or so with the addition of more servers on their end. Our only complaint is not being able to take full advantage of some of the bells and whistles in RE, such as notification via email, because of being a hosting client. If you would like, you can contact me directly.

 Happy Holidays,

Shannon Giessel
IT Director
Wichita State University Foundation
shannon.giessel@wichita.edu

Stephanie,

Just saw your question.  We have been hosted for two years and the only complaint I have is similar to Shannon's, we don't have integration with Outlook.  I understand that the problem lies on our end and may be solved with an additional server for email, but at this time the two systems do not "talk" to one another.  The hosted environment has taken some of the users a while to understand the need for two logins, but that only seems to happen with the ones who used it before it was hosted.  Our remote users love it, as do I, since I can work from home now when needed.

Shirley Platt

Episcopal Diocese of Texas

Diocesan Center, Houston

Hello, Stephanie.  We have been thinking seriously about OnDemand with Blackbaud.  I wonder whether you decided to use that service.  If so, what has been your experience?  

We use Financial Edge with 10 users including our view only group.  We are in the process of outsourcing our payroll.  After that transition, we will  be using the general ledger, budget management, accounts payable,cash management and fixed assets modules.   

I would certainly be interested in any comments that other Blackbaud customers may have. 

Thanks,  Dianne

DO NOT DO IT IF YOU HAVE ANY INTEREST IN ACTUALLY USING THE SOFTWARE. FUNCTIONALITY IS NOT STABLE AND MANY DAYS - 3 THIS WEEK - YOU CANNOT EVEN WORK BECAUSE RESPONSE IF JUST DEAD.

Hi Steph,

I have experience in both platforms OnDemand & our own software not hosted by Blackbaud.  I don't see many differences with the program itself except for the ones outlined above and speed can be an issue as well.  The other issue that I have is saving files receipts etc are exported to the hosted folder and they have to be moved to your own desktop if you choose to save them that way which I had some connection issues with.  You can't save directly to your own computer or server, which at times can be cumbersome but other than that it runs with mostly the same functionality.  There may be ways around this I am not aware of though.

 Good luck!