Ok, so I've been given a query from The Management™ which basically goes like this :

"When I'm in a meeting defending the use of Raiser's Edge over other software, such as Banner (We're a University), what can I say to persuade people that RE is the better choice?" 

Essentially, can someone give me a breakdown of the real-world advantages of using Raiser's Edge over other offerings in the market, and consequently justify the total cost of ownership?

Thankyou :)

Pete
 

Just for anybody else who has this question, this is what I got back:

There are a variety of reasons University IS teams consider this; mainly cost, CRM requirements or consolidating systems. There are of course advantages to having all contacts on the same system, but the reasons Universities tend to decide against this is in the nature of Raisers Edge compared to Banner… 

Banner is primarily used as a student records system within most Universities and market the system to also handle alumni, finance and online portals.

Raisers Edge is a CRM, alumni and development database and has been developed over the last 26 years to encompass all needs of a Higher Education institution. >From my understanding of how the University could potentially use Banner, the system would not have the flexibility required for annual fund, mailings (including conditional mailings directly from the database), fundraising (including recurring giving and legacies), major donor management, grant applications and gift aid. Of course these benefits are mostly around fundraising so it would be useful to know how much fundraising the University undertakes now, and in future.