Has anyone heard or used this type of setup where multiple Raiser's Edge Databases are integrated with One Financial Edge Database? We are two hospital foundations under the same parent company. We have been running separate Raisers Edge databases on one server and now we would like to add the Financial Edge - General Ledger. Because we have only one server, we cannot run two Financial Edge databases - design problems will not allow this because data "bleeds" between the two Financial Edges via interfaces with Raisers. Fortunately the two Raisers Edge databases do not have this problem on the same server and can function independently. We cannot afford another server at this time.

I know that running two organizations on the same Financial Edge requires a "special" Chart of Accounts setup to keep the records separate for each group - this is fairly easy to develop in coding these accounts for the separate entities. That way records and reporting can be performed independently for the two orgs. I also think we must be cautious about Not posting batches from the two Raisers Edge databases at the same time - which could create a potential conflict when the data posts to the General Ledger. This must be coordinated between the two database managers.

Has anyone tried this approach with one Finaical Edge? Does anyone have any comments/recommendations? THANKS!

Robert,

I can't help you with the integration piece, as we haven't integrated Raisers Edge and Financial Edge here.

However, I can tell you that it is possible to run multiple Financial Edge databases on the same server.  We're doing it here.  We've got four different corporations (three not-for-profit, one for-profit subsidiary) all running on the same physical server.  They're each in a different database.  Works great (other than the hassle of having to wait while Financial Edge switches databases every time someone comes in my office to ask a question---invariably, it's about a different corporation than the one I'm working with!).

Of course, you have to pay a licensing fee to Blackbaud for each additional database.

Paul

Thanks for your quick response Paul,

Apparently the problem involves the interface between Raisers and Financial Edge. The interface is not designed to recognize more then one Financial Edge. If there are multiple Financial Edge databases, then Raisers tries to interface and read more than one Fin Edge, resulting in mixed data. Blackbaud has this recorded as a problem but no immediate plans to address it.

We were trying to run two separate Raisers Edge interfaced with two separate Financial Edge databases on one server, But the interfaces could not distinguish which Financial Edge. We have been planning to merge the two Raisers databases and interface with one Finaicial Edge. Recently a Blackbaud consultant told me we could run the two Raisers databases intefaced with the one Financial Edge. So I am checking to see if anyone else has been able to do this successfully.

Thanks for you input! Rob