RE7, Luminate Online and ImportOMatic

If your plan is to migrate to NXT for everyone at some point, I would recommend that you go ahead with that now.  Then grant access to staff/offices as needed.  So your remove office could start using NXT now, and the main office can continue working in RE:7 as normal (just don't send them invitations to NXT).


There will be a learning curve for everyone, because since you say your remote users connect via VPN, I assume you are not currently Hosted by Blackbaud.  Your database must be Hosted for NXT to be available.  That was the bigger learning curve, in my opinion.


NXT can just be turned on; it's another user interface to the same database...just a very robust interface (and growing moreso every week).  I've explained it to coworkers this way: the database is a room filled with data.  RE:7 looks in at this data thru a window on the west wall of the room.  NXT looks in at this data via a window on the north wall of the same room.  Different view, same data.  Right now, that NXT window is smaller...there are many things (particularly for data entry or DBA folks) that are not accessible or are view-only currently.  But progress is made continually, and with a lot of input from customers about how everything should look and function in NXT.


OLX (Online Express) comes with NXT, but is currently accessed from RE:7.  However, with being Hosted, you can also access RE:7 from any computer with an internet connection (without a VPN).  NXT is accessible from any device with an internet connection...great for looking up information before walking into a meeting with a donor or during a meeting with other staff, and great for adding Notes and Actions on the fly.

Hey Carla, 


I used to work at a Chapter that had a similar set up to yours - we had our database hosted onsite at our main office and had remote staff that used the VPN to remote into the system. We also used ImportOmatic to import and export data between Luminate Online and RE7. 


I will say that it can be done... however, it was a serious headache! The VPN was VERY slow and often it would take so long for our remote staff to get into RE that they would end up just reaching out to me to request I pull data or import data on their behalf because I was located in the physical office. We did end up switching over to being hosted, and it was worth every ouce of energy and every penny. I have since changed over the the National Office for our organization, but I still work closely with that Chapter. More of their team are now utilizing the system then before, and the processing time is much quicker. 


You are still able to use ImportOmatic if you are hosted and all the updates and patches are done automatically, so you don't have to worry about any of that anymore. 


I'm more than happy to chat more if you have specific questions. Hope this was helpful!


-Stacie