From NetCommunity to Online Express - your input is appreciated

Catherine Avena 2

Hi all,


Our organization is in the process of transitioning from a NetCommunity user to Online Express because we are moving to RENXT.  Your recent posts are very helpful resource as we move along the process. The main reason we moved from BBNC was the cost and really do not use the bells and whistles that come with the system.  We don't use it like other organizations do such as using the profile registration feature to build online community among alums for example rather BBNC was only used as a landing page to get to the forms. For this reason, Online Express seemed to be the solution. So far the greatest limitations I found out from this community that will impact the procedures we have in place are:

• Limited fields in personalizing email in OLX
  
   
• Unable to use import files to send email blasts and this impacts us greatly.  Our organization is very event driven and event guests do not get their records since we only have a name and email. The only way to contact them and re-engage them for future events is to export a participant query to use as an import file in BBNC. What really frustrates me though is that this limitation should have been disclosed to us. I do appreciate being able to send more than one email per record but I would not have given up the option to use import lists as well.
  
   
• I have been trying to get an answer as to what happens to the NetCommunity TAB when we disconnect BBNC from RE where we can see that the constituents opened, clicked or email bounced back. How is this being tracked in OLX?

I'm also frustrated at the very least that as a new RENXT and OLX customer I get thown in to this barrage of videos, links, and white papers as a resource but no personal direction from Blackbaud except 3 phone conferences @ 1 hour each from our Activation specialists (don't get me wrong, she's doing a great job but that's all she is - an activation specialists).  I am capable of showing gift officers how to login to RENXT, customize fields to show and all other technical aspects but from the analytical side of things and for the financial investment that a non-profit organization has put in, I would have thought that BB would sit down and take a moment to talk to our leadership team and just go over the main points of RENXT and OLX.


Thank you for your time and am grateful for any information you can share to make this transition seamless as possible.


Catherine Avena


 

Michele Stender

Hi Catherine! We do realize that Online Express is a more simple tool (compared to BBNC) that is coupled with RENXT. I am sorry that the difference in capabilities wasn't fully disclosed to you. That said, we are in the process of designing some new capabilities to our next generation of email coming in 2017, like importing list and more fields.


Once you start using Online Express and sending emails, we have a button in Online Express titled "Send this data to RE" which will place all the good information on the appeals tab of your constituent record. The appeal will include email subject, date, response (opened, clicked, gave, bounced).


Also, I wanted to mention the awesome program that my co-worker runs for new RENXT customers. It's live webinars where she shows you aroudn RENXT.  Sign up here

Michele

Stephanie Crawley

Catherine Avena:

Hi all,


Our organization is in the process of transitioning from a NetCommunity user to Online Express because we are moving to RENXT.  Your recent posts are very helpful resource as we move along the process. The main reason we moved from BBNC was the cost and really do not use the bells and whistles that come with the system.  We don't use it like other organizations do such as using the profile registration feature to build online community among alums for example rather BBNC was only used as a landing page to get to the forms. For this reason, Online Express seemed to be the solution. So far the greatest limitations I found out from this community that will impact the procedures we have in place are:

• Limited fields in personalizing email in OLX
  
   
• Unable to use import files to send email blasts and this impacts us greatly.  Our organization is very event driven and event guests do not get their records since we only have a name and email. The only way to contact them and re-engage them for future events is to export a participant query to use as an import file in BBNC. What really frustrates me though is that this limitation should have been disclosed to us. I do appreciate being able to send more than one email per record but I would not have given up the option to use import lists as well.
  
   
• I have been trying to get an answer as to what happens to the NetCommunity TAB when we disconnect BBNC from RE where we can see that the constituents opened, clicked or email bounced back. How is this being tracked in OLX?

I'm also frustrated at the very least that as a new RENXT and OLX customer I get thown in to this barrage of videos, links, and white papers as a resource but no personal direction from Blackbaud except 3 phone conferences @ 1 hour each from our Activation specialists (don't get me wrong, she's doing a great job but that's all she is - an activation specialists).  I am capable of showing gift officers how to login to RENXT, customize fields to show and all other technical aspects but from the analytical side of things and for the financial investment that a non-profit organization has put in, I would have thought that BB would sit down and take a moment to talk to our leadership team and just go over the main points of RENXT and OLX.


Thank you for your time and am grateful for any information you can share to make this transition seamless as possible.


Catherine Avena


 

 

You may also want to read this post, which addresses these kinds of concerns.  The title is a bummer, but there are actually good tips and contacts in there.  https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewtopic/213/26260