Mail Module Question

Antanella Tirone 2

Good morning everyone!

I've posted here before under a different account with a different organization, but I have a sort of weird question for everyone. While speaking with the lovely woman who took over my job role at my previous organization, she mentioned that they had switched to using an Export sheet for their acknowledgement mailing rather than use the Mail module. She said that an instructor in one of her courses said that the Mail tab would be going away soon, so she had been encouraged to make the switch to Export now so it was less troublesome when the change happened.

I have not heard anything of the sort in the few classes I've taken since starting at my new organization, nor can I find any sort of documentation online that confirms it. I don't particularly mind the change, but I've been tasked with updating a lot of processes in the database, acknowledgement procedures included, and I wanted to at least get some sort of confirmation before I started either way.

If anyone knows anything about this or can point me in the right direction, I would very much appreciate it!

Dariel Dixon 2

@Antanella Tirone Welcome back. I'd suggest watching the RE NXT product briefings from last week. They can be watched on demand. There are quite a few changes coming, and this might be the best place to start.

Antanella Tirone 2

@Dariel Dixon
Oh, fantastic! Thank you ?

Alex Wong

@Antanella Tirone
I think the context of what the instructor said is missing.

Mail Module will go away when Blackbaud remove access to it from database view of RE, but that is the same with Export Module, when Blackbaud remove access to it (b/c it has been replaced with functionalities on webview), Export module will go away as well.

Mail Module already not allow (when hosted by Blackbaud) directly doing mail merge within RE. So using mail module to create export csv file that then is to be used with your LOCAL computer's MS word to do mail merge is the only way (without adding any complexity with automation and webview acknowledgement).

There are “things” you cannot use the Export module to get you, for example Reminder for pledge installment to invoice. YOu will not be able to do what the mail module does in the calcuation of how much is due with a “due date” selected using the export module.

Antanella Tirone 2

@Alex Wong

Thank you for your response! I had a feeling it was missing context, but when I tried asking for more information, that was all she would tell me. I'll look into the functionality of gift acknowledgement in NXT and go from there, thank you!

Tatyana Leifman

@Antanella Tirone Was the instructor from BB? Unfortunately, the most recent PUB did not address the Mail module at all. And, as reported on the FB RE User group discussion, they did not answer a direct question posed to them regarding Segmentation in the Mail module, that is, when and how will that be moved to web view. I hope the comment was an awkward reference to what Alex explained and, as he mentioned, there are several things that the module can easily do that is impossible to do using other methods.