We are considering purchaing the Prospect Management Module and have some questions for those of you who use the Prospect Management Module. We currently have Researcher's Edge/WealthPoint, but I'm finding it very cumbersome to work between the two databases because there are many fields that don't export from RE7 to Researcher, and I'm having to work back and forth between the two and do rather more manual entry than anticipated. So my question to those of you out there who have just the Prospect Management Module is: What have you liked best about using it for holding prospect research information, and for prospect management. What have you liked least, i.e. what are the things you wish you'd asked about before purchasing the module. How do you find the reports/reporting aspect? For those of you out there with both the Prospect Management Module AND Researcher's Edge, how good is the interface between the two? Again, I'd like to hear about what has worked for you and what doesn't, what questions I should be asking, etc. Thank you for your help! Please feel free to contact me offline if you prefer, and if there is interest, I'd be happy to share the responses I get. Michal Mugrage Humboldt State University [Email Removed] Michal Mugrage Development Coordinator Humboldt State University

My main issue with TRE (researchers edge) is the lack of ability to transfer information between the systems. My boss wants all of the info in one system or the other. Having to flip between the two is extremely annoying... I think I'm going to end up trying to figure out the TRE tables and trying to get the information out of there and into RE through imports... Should be fun stuff! FYI, for anyone that wants to do this, import ID's are stored in TRE that match up to RE... You don't HAVE to match on name, like it forces you to do from the front end... As far as the actual prospect module, it is pretty well done, there are certain things I would change because of our situation (a system with multiple development offices), and I wish I could change the criteria on the total giving because it doesn't match what we use. For reporting, I write all of our reports because of the way we need things broken down by campus, so I'm afraid I can't help you there... Hope this helps! Doug Doug Creek University of Alaska Database Administrator [Email Removed] Visit the RE User Forums! http://www.reusers.server-planet.com/

Thank you Doug! So if I understand what you are saying, even if I have the prospect management module, it is still difficult to export the WealthPoint information from TRE and import it into that prospect management module so that all that information can be stored in one place? (We, too, would like to store all the info in one place - seems so inefficient to have to bounce back and forth between RE7 and TRE like that.) Is it because there is no "place" in the prospect management module to import too? Thanks for the tip regarding the import ID's in TRE. Michal Mugrage Development & Prospect Research Coordinator Humboldt State University [Email Removed] Michal Mugrage Development Coordinator Humboldt State University

That's the wierd thing, there are places to store the information, but getting it from TRE into RE is the culprit. I'm thinking about actually dumping all the information into access (since we couldn't get TRE to attach to the SQL server, it installed to an MSDE version), and trying to work something out that will pull the information into a usuable form. I really want to be able to move the financial information over (properties, companies and that sort), but I flat out haven't had time to dink with it lately and try to get it to work... My guess is that it will take a couple passes to get everything that I want out in a way that's usuable. Maybe I'll get lucky and BB will put out another new revision of TRE. The last one did boost some of the information we could transfer over (I think properties were added, haven't had time to go play with it yet). Doug Doug Creek University of Alaska Database Administrator [Email Removed] Visit the RE User Forums! http://www.reusers.server-planet.com/

What does TRE do that Prospect does not? Currently we have Prospect, but NOT TRE; we are reviewing our needs regarding tools for research... I posted this to the forum because the feedback is so much more robust than the marketing information found on the website. Thanks! Elaine Elaine Tucker Stewardship Coordinator St. Mark's School of Texas www.smtexas.org  [Email Removed] another great forum: http://reusers.server-planet.com

This is all interesting to me. We have just purchased RE:Search and TRE. We do not have a research program yet so I am starting it up. From what I understood when purchasing them both, is that TRE holds all the information, and RE:Search just holds the summary of that information. So you can determine who needs to see what. My sole job is going to be research and my boss decided that I would the one working in TRE but exporting the summary information to RE (Prospect tab). The BB consultant said it was very easy... basically a push of the button... to get the data over to RE from TRE. RaShell Peterson Coordinator of Advancement & Research Services Oregon Institute of Technology 541-885-1131

RaShell - I'm really interested in hearing more about your experiences with these 2 products, but you didn't include your email in the post. Could you please contact me off-forum? Thanks! Tracie Cassidy Database Coordinator Seattle Children's Hospital Foundation (206) 987-6833 [Email Removed]

I had filed away responding until I had finally documented how we use the Prospect Module at St. Albans. Well, I finally did it and you can see the whole process at the following link if you think it might be helpful: http://REsolvedLLC.com/screencast.html  Please note, the presentation is long, but once it loads, please do fast forward to some of the 'live demonstrations'. Cheers, -graham _________________________________________ Graham Getty Director, Development Information Systems St. Albans School Washington DC