I'm not sure this is the right forum to post this to, but I couldn't find anything else that seemed to fit either, so I'll give it a shot here.  Is anyone using Blackbaud's "On Demand" service?  Our rep contacted us recently to let us know that they have lowered their cost for this service significantly, to the point where it might now make sense for us to consider allowing them to host our BB products for us, rather than maintain our own BB servers in-house.  When our IT guy asked for references, of course the one BB gave us had nothing but great things to say about the service, but I'd be happier if I could get some unbiased feedback from current (or past) users of the service.  Any information you could share would be helpful.

Thanks

Netta Kowalski

Controller

Every Child's Hope

Hi Netta,

Our organization is hosted, and I would say the best thing about being hosted is that you don't run the risk of losing your data due to failure to back up your system.  If there is a problem, support can "look" at your database and analyze it.  Another plus is that you don't need as much operating space since it's not stored in-house.

One of the minuses is that I lost my connection once though, and the support person didn't know why.  Those things always seem to happen at the worst times.  Also, the hosted environment is rather expensive, so you'll need to weigh the cost against your potential benefits.

Hope this helps,

Evelyn Balsiger, Director of Business Operations

United Ministries, Greenville, SC 

Netta,

We also use Blackbaud Application Hosting (as it's now called) and it works really well for us.  About half of our staff travel often so it's easy for them to access RE from the road.  It seems to run just as quickly as when it is hosted inhouse.  There are some quirky things that you should be aware of going into it (such as having to save your exports on BB's server first and then copying the file over to a local drive) but overall the pros outweigh the cons for our organization.

Feel free to get in touch if you have specific questions I can answer for you.

Good luck,
Josh

 After you started using the Blackbaud Application Hosting, did this reduce your annual RE Maintenance fee that you were paying prior to using this Hosting feature?

 We are trying to determine if it would be cost effective for us to do this.

Any info you could provide me would be greatly appreciated!!

 Thanks,

Gayle

No, Gayle, it doesn't reduce the maintenance fee.  We asked the same question... 

Netta

We have been using OnDemand for about a year and up until yesterday, it has been working like a dream.  Something was done on Tuesday, 6/1, that has made it completely useless and nobody is responding to my emails, postings or voice mail messages.  Not sure what is going on with this. 

Susan

Seattle Public Library Foundation

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