Trying to find out if anyone has made the conversion from stubent billing version 6 to version 7. How did it go? I heard there were some problems with the data, can you give me an idea how difficult the process was? Any info at all would be helpful.

Hi Lynn, Are you planning to do the conversion yourself or will Blackbaud do it? We are getting ready to do it also. I think we will use Blackbaud to do the conversion as I have also heard there are issues with it.

Not sure yet, I wanted to see if anyone had made the conversion and what types of issues were encountered before I proceed.

We made the conversion from 6 to 7 back in October of 2005. My experience with it can only be summed up in one word: horrifying. And I'm not kidding. I went from a perfectly working AFN6 Student Billing database to 8 months (and continuing) of instability, inconsistencies, unreliability and irritating slowness. I actually long for the days of 6.4. Where to begin... We encountered numerous issues with 7.52 on our conversion. many had to do with the bizarre (relative to SB6) way BB chose to handle student billing. Bear in mind that little of what you know from v6 will translate to v7. The long-awaited upgrade to v7.6 solved some but not all our problems. At this point, having been on v7 for 8 months, I still don't trust the software to properly bill everyone or to generate an invoice for every student. We installed a high-end dedicated Blackbaud server on our network in June 2005 and bought higher-end desktops for the offices. It ran v6 smoothly & quickly. But v7 runs like a turtle. We have student records default to the activity tab. Searching for, opening up a student, & populating the activity tab can take upwards of 10-12 seconds. That may not sound long but compared to the 2 seconds under v6 it is. Pretend a parent is on the phone and wants to know their child's balance. Start to count off the seconds. By the time you hit "six" the parent's going to ask if you're still there. I could go on on & on about the numerous issues we faced and still are facing (I still have 4 open cases) and the lack of responsiveness from Blackbaud programming. Their management team is always apologetic, but the fixes don't come fast enough and there's still many issues outstanding. About 20 schools in NYAIS (New York Assoc. of Independent Schools) have gotten together and demanded a face-to-face with BB regarding Financial Edge, and especially Student Billing. My advice is to stay on v6 until BB forces you off. I don't expect any improvement in the near term. email me if you have specific questions: [Email Removed]

We converted GL and AP to FE7 in spring of 2006. We have been holding back on SB7 hoping that the program will be more stable. We are planning to convert SB6 to SB7 soon. Can you share any feedback on your experience with SB7: * system response time issues * critical outstanding issues * BB support on conversion effort * Timing of conversion * Lessons learned * Integration with EE and RE Greatly appreciate your feedback. Sophie Bendush St. Margaret's Episcopal School [Email Removed] [i]--- Edited at 10/26/2006 12:09:26 PM by Sophie Bendush[/i] [i]--- Edited at 9/18/2007 1:05:07 PM by Sophie Bendush[/i] [i]--- Edited at 9/18/2007 1:06:18 PM by Sophie Bendush[/i]