Prospect Status in the Proposal Module

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Tracy Forkin
Tracy Forkin
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in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
Does anyone use the prospect status field to record moves management? Any suggestions for tracking the history of moves management for a constituent? We'd like to be able to report how long a record has been at a level. For instance, someone has sat at the approachable stage for 180 days, what are the next steps.The limitations with the prospect status field is that you cannot enter a date. 
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  • shani traum
    shani traum
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    We use it more for where they are on the assignment continuum - to be assigned, assigned, disqualified etc.



    But you could use for moves management, and use a note of note type "status" in which you track the moves, updating the Note Date to the effective date of the current status.  When you export a portfolio or the like, you can pull this date and calculate from that the length in that stage.



    We do something similar, only through Proposals.

    Our notes look something like this:

    (although I can't paste in a screenshot , so you'll have to use your imagination!)



    Note Type: Status Note

    Note Date: 10/1/15

    Description: Completed

    Note:

    Cultivation: 1/1/14

    Pre-solicitation: 1/9/15

    Solicitation: 7/5/15

    Pending: 9/1/15

    Completed: 10/1/15



    Does that make sense?
  • Karl Craven 2
    Karl Craven 2
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    I wish there was an automatic change history connected with this field.
  • shani traum
    shani traum
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    I'll second that!
  • Jacki Balon
    Jacki Balon
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    We looked at and decided against using the Prospect Status as our record of the status of the ask, as we have different proposals in different status.... so we do this directly as a Proposal Status and then add an attribute on the Proposal to indicate when the proposal record "moved" into that status.  



    Cheers,

    Jacki
  • Bill Connors
    Bill Connors
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    Folks, this has been added to RE NXT already and is in release.  You can record when you change a Status and why.  Also, you can specify what's the maximum time that prospects should be in a stage, and if someone exceeds their time in a stage, RE NXT will start warning users when opening the record. 
  • Karl Craven 2
    Karl Craven 2
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    Are there any plans to mirror this functionality across to regular Raiser's Edge? We're a self-hosted client, and I can't see us ever switching to a cloud-based DMS.
  • Christine Cooke 2
    Christine Cooke 2
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    If you are not RE NXT, then I would suggest putting that info in Actions, that way you would be able to keep track of the status and date(s).  And Actions link to Prospect Module so if you have a Prosal, you can link the appropriate Action
  • Karl Craven 2
    Karl Craven 2
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    Thanks Christine. We actually tried recording prospect status changes in Actions for a while after we went live, but the burden of the data entry was too high, and people didn't like the clutter it caused.



    I'm thinking we may just have to do some training with the DOs on when to use the appropriate move codes on their own Actions, so then we can calculate accurately how long a prospect was in a given stage within a custom report. We cannot perform the calculation currently because of a lack of consistency in how the codes are used.
  • Bill Connors
    Bill Connors
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    Karl, I can't speak for BB, but my guess would be that no, this will not be added to RE 7.  The future of RE is NXT and I doubt we'll see much serious development on the RE 7 platform any more.  I'm sure BB will continue to support RE 7 for years to come and will make any  needed changes so it runs on the latest Windows and Microsoft Office, but all the development software vendors have moved to the cloud and it appears to be the future for everything.  Thus my educated guess is that almost all of the new functionality development will be on NXT as organizations move that direction (1,000+ so far for NXT).  Why can't you move to the cloud, if I may ask?  Open to a conversation here or you can message me directly.  Thanks.
  • Karl Craven 2
    Karl Craven 2
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    Oh, I can't say for sure that we will never switch to a cloud-based DMS, but I think it's unlikely for at least a few years, since we made a concious decision to self-host (and invested money in the equipment needed to do so), and we've only been live for 16 months.
  • Tracy Forkin
    Tracy Forkin
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    Same for us, Karl. We have made some significant investments to self-host. I don't see us moving to NXT in the near future. I have to say that I am a little concerned about the thought that RE development will be minimal. What happened with 7.94 really troubled me. That could have been a disaster for us, as it was for others.
  • Bill Connors
    Bill Connors
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    Thank you both for replying to my last message.  I guess we'll keep an eye on things and see where it all goes.  I found out yesterday that 1,500 organizations have already signed up for NXT, so it does seem to be getting a lot of very positive reception, and Blackbaud has talked about a lot of exciting things that are coming with it.  Hopefully your concerns will subside and the benefits it offers will eventually justify your moving forward with it.  If I can help at all, let me know.

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