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Sponsored by: A Service Of: What To Do When Your Vendor Kills Your Fundraising Software Cheri Weissman September 25, 2012
Sponsored by: A Service
Of:
What To Do When Your Vendor Kills Your Fundraising Software
Cheri Weissman
September 25, 2012
Sponsored by: A Service
Of:
Protecting and Preserving the
Institutional Memories of
Nonprofits Since 1993
www.cjwconsulting.com
(866) 598-0430
Sponsored by: A Service
Of:
www.mission.do
Sponsored by: A Service
Of:
Today’s Speaker & Host
Cheri Weissman President
CJW Consulting & Services, Inc. Assisting with chat questions: Jamie Maloney, Nonprofit Webinars
Reselecting Fundraising Software
8331 Central Avenue Morton Grove, IL 60053
800/977-6377 www.cjwconsulting.com
Presented by
What to do when your vendor kills your software
Where are you in the process?
Just committed and paid vendor
Data conversion and implementation in process
Within three months of going live
Live for longer than six months
Define your options
Determine your action
Just committed
Switch to another product provided by vendor
Request full refund and begin search for another solution
Conversion and implementation in process
Request full refund and begin search for another solution
Switch to another product provided by vendor IF vendor will waive costs of aborted conversion
Within three months of going live
Data conversion and training costs fully refunded
Live with software
Use the sunsetting period to prepare for another solution
Determine your action
Things to avoid
Taking the first option offered
Give yourself some time to consider before jumping at another solution
Sticking with the vendor because its easier
Really? The vendor that just killed your product?
Taking your second choice
How distant a second was it?
Be Better Informed
Release date of product
Fundraising software takes time to develop well. In general, don’t consider a product that’s been on the market less than 5 years
Number and frequency of upgrades
With Software As A Service becoming the norm, it’s easy for vendors to “upgrade” their software very often. From an end user perspective, the best case scenario is no more than 4 upgrades a year.
Ownership history
You’re better off with a product that has been developed by one source
Number of users
If a product has been around more than 5 years and has less than 200 users, you have to wonder
History
Initial release date, # of upgrades, size of staff overall, # support staff, training staff.
Be Better Informed
Talk to references
Discuss at length things like quality of support, ease of upgrade process, knowledge shown by support staff, etc.
Get names of people who switched from a product you are considering and ask why they chose to switch
Vendors will be happy to give you names of people who dumped another product for theirs
Decide to be proactive
Starting Over
Platform
If you decided to go with a hosted solution (SAAS), restart your search in that arena
Don’t consider in-house software unless you are unable to find an online solution that will meet your needs
Budget
Do your best to find an alternative you can afford
Dig Deeper
Search for information about a possible vendor and product.
Google the software and actively look for articles in which they are mentioned, news releases, etc. that are NOT found on the vendor’s website
Tech Soup (www.techsoup.org) is a great resource for information
Find published software comparisons to see where your next choice might fall
Dig Deeper
Look for forums on vendor websites and see what other users are saying (pro and con) about their experience. Unmonitored forums can provide valuable information
Decide to be prepared
What else do I need to think about?
Staff time needed
Who will be involved in conversion
Training
Where is the training
In what format is the training
Project timeline
Recreation of output
Costs (known and hidden)
Costs vary widely for products and services, so it’s not feasible to consider this question until the desired solution is found. Then, consider:
Conversion
Implementation
Training
Hardware
Time
Ongoing costs Support
Decide to be prepared
Keep your options open
Frequently when products are sold or sunsetted, vendors will reach out to you, sometimes offering the ability to buy into another product at a discount.
Consider these options carefully, remembering that a lower price for a product that won’t meet your needs isn’t worth anything.
Sponsored by: A Service Of:
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