Designer skills for BBNC

For most customers, there is very little need to customize BBNC. They are able to configure the product using the system settings and tools.



It might be helpful to clarifying terminology. The word "customization" gets used a lot but often has different meanings depending on the context.



Blackbaud NetCommunity allows for both configuration and customization. Only about 2% of BBNC customers ever actually develop or add customizations. Let me explain why:



Configuration: This is all of the things you can do to build layouts, stylesheets, templates, pages, parts, etc. That covers all the things you need to build website(s), forms, send email, etc from functionality that is in the product. 98% of BBNC customers configure the out-of-the-box product.



Most users who edit content are fine using the Content Management System (CMS) tools. We have provided lots of help videos inside the application that cover the most common tasks. The interface for editing content is very similar to most word processing applications.



Users with a need to do more advanced configuration you might use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These users often design graphics outside of the system using commercial tools like Adobe Photoshop or similar applications.



Customization: This for when you or someone else wants to build functionality that does not exist in the product. You need experience programming in ASP.Net, familiarity with APIs, and understand the basics for writing and compiling application code. Only about 2% of customers have chosen to build or use customizations for the product.



It's also worth noting that we see less customers having the need to write customizations for BBNC. We've spent a lot of time over the past few years developing functionality or configuration flexibility that can now be done in-the-box. For example, the form builder in BBNC is now better than a custom part that customers previously used and most customers use the out-of-the-box functionality.

Debugging skills are also important. BBNC pages have a lot of CSS, and some parts are comprised of a lot of tables. Being able to debug the code using a tool like Firebug is an essential skill along with HTML and CSS. (I'd say this is especially important if you're creating a responsive website.)

I'd agree this would be a good idea to prepare customers for the work involved. We were offered a solution to a very specific breif, only to find that the product and parts supplied were very basic and (for a novice) quite cumbersome to manipulate, or in some instances not even appropriate for our original outlined ideas. Having battled for over 6 months our original brief has now been met, with many things compromised. I already had experience with css, java and design, but this was an unexpected amount of extra work.



I get the feeling the package is sold with the idea that they will then sell the designer time to make a bespoke solution for any given brief. It is very much a 'one for all' package, which is obviously going to be basic and may even appear 'unfinished' in some respects given that the variety of possible requests for execution must be vast.



Depending on exactly how you envisage your sites will work (and look) you should tread carefully in the original stages of scoping work and signing contracts. We were very specific; even providing mockups for page layouts and functionality, very little of which was actually executed due to the extensive extra costs outlined after original contracts were signed. I have actually had to look to third party companies for jobs since this, who often quoted work at a fraction of the price.



I'd say either have someone experienced in java, CSS etc (and with plenty of time available) or look carefully in to exactly what blackbaud will offer you in terms of a redesign before signing anything, and i will say it again... *carefully*. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of highly skilled people ready to help, but it comes at (in my eyes) a highly disproportionate cost.



Just my 2 pence, "rant over" you might say....

Tom,


We had a similar experience. But we do have staff that are good with coding, plus we had a pretty tight contract.



i will say BB fulfilled the contract. As Tom mentions, it is hard to know every possible place a change could affect a form, data etc.



So the only advice I could give would be to ask BB to provide some sort of documentation that lists all the tables, forms, data lists etc. that could be affected.



we also found that in reality, BB had limited experience with BBIS customization.

Steve MacLaughlin:
For most customers, there is very little need to customize BBNC. They are able to configure the product using the system settings and tools.



It might be helpful to clarifying terminology. The word "customization" gets used a lot but often has different meanings depending on the context.



Blackbaud NetCommunity allows for both configuration and customization. Only about 2% of BBNC customers ever actually develop or add customizations. Let me explain why:



Configuration: This is all of the things you can do to build layouts, stylesheets, templates, pages, parts, etc. That covers all the things you need to build website(s), forms, send email, etc from functionality that is in the product. 98% of BBNC customers configure the out-of-the-box product.



Most users who edit content are fine using the Content Management System (CMS) tools. We have provided lots of help videos inside the application that cover the most common tasks. The interface for editing content is very similar to most word processing applications.



Users with a need to do more advanced configuration you might use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These users often design graphics outside of the system using commercial tools like Adobe Photoshop or similar applications.



Customization: This for when you or someone else wants to build functionality that does not exist in the product. You need experience programming in ASP.Net, familiarity with APIs, and understand the basics for writing and compiling application code. Only about 2% of customers have chosen to build or use customizations for the product.



It's also worth noting that we see less customers having the need to write customizations for BBNC. We've spent a lot of time over the past few years developing functionality or configuration flexibility that can now be done in-the-box. For example, the form builder in BBNC is now better than a custom part that customers previously used and most customers use the out-of-the-box functionality.

Steve,


In our experience, we executed our contract for BBNC well over a year ago and are still not launched. 75% of this is due to the fact that we are simply stretched too thin for project completion. 25% of that is due to the fact that there are still some design issues that need resolution, and we are now being told, in so many words, "Oh, that's extra." We have no one on our staff proficient in HTML or CSS, and the fees that Blackbaud charges for hourly design work are just impossible for us to bear.

Steve MacLaughlin:
For most customers, there is very little need to customize BBNC. They are able to configure the product using the system settings and tools.



It might be helpful to clarifying terminology. The word "customization" gets used a lot but often has different meanings depending on the context.



Blackbaud NetCommunity allows for both configuration and customization. Only about 2% of BBNC customers ever actually develop or add customizations. Let me explain why:



Configuration: This is all of the things you can do to build layouts, stylesheets, templates, pages, parts, etc. That covers all the things you need to build website(s), forms, send email, etc from functionality that is in the product. 98% of BBNC customers configure the out-of-the-box product.



Most users who edit content are fine using the Content Management System (CMS) tools. We have provided lots of help videos inside the application that cover the most common tasks. The interface for editing content is very similar to most word processing applications.



Users with a need to do more advanced configuration you might use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These users often design graphics outside of the system using commercial tools like Adobe Photoshop or similar applications.



Customization: This for when you or someone else wants to build functionality that does not exist in the product. You need experience programming in ASP.Net, familiarity with APIs, and understand the basics for writing and compiling application code. Only about 2% of customers have chosen to build or use customizations for the product.



It's also worth noting that we see less customers having the need to write customizations for BBNC. We've spent a lot of time over the past few years developing functionality or configuration flexibility that can now be done in-the-box. For example, the form builder in BBNC is now better than a custom part that customers previously used and most customers use the out-of-the-box functionality.

Just an update, because I feel Blackbaud (and, particularly, Ben Wong) deserves it. Since my post a month ago, Ben Wong and his colleagues have helped us get our outstanding design/coding issues resolved and have been extremely pro-active and helpful with getting us ready for launch. Hats off to Ben and his colleagues. The resources needed to get our issues resolved came from a "repurposing" of Blackbaud resources intended to assess the effectiveness of our website quarterly. So it didn't cost us a thing. We are extremely grateful and very impressed.