Quick Takeaways from the Raiser's Edge PUB

 Hey you guys!

Just a few quick takeaways from the Raiser's Edge Product Update Briefing last week...

Overall, I commend Blackbaud for finally articulating its clear vision for its flagship product. I believe that nonprofits new to Blackbaud will find a wealth of valuable resources. However, long-standing customers may not be as pleased with the new bold direction.  


  • The total RE web view solution is not for long time Blackbaud customers. Blackbaud hopes they come along for the ride, but it clearly wasn’t made for them   
  • While Blackbaud will offer an array of products, as far as extending the abilities of RE goes, this will largely be up to third-party services
  • Blackbaud offers many tools to extend the abilities of RE (some might argue not enough) but it demands end users pick up skills they didn’t have during the classic era
  • Almost no mention of Insights Designer. This is interesting given how Blackbaud has shackled the product with very limited fields and no calculated fields ability. I wouldn’t be surprised if this feature is killed in favor of the partnership with Microsoft (Power BI). 
  • RE is a fundraising platform first, and a CRM second. Despite all the features and improvements(some might bristle at the latter) it’s ability to manage relationships still pales compared to some competitors 


I think over the next few months MANY Blackbaud customers will engage in serious existential discussions about the future of Blackbaud at their organizations - if they haven’t already.  


As always....


Yours in Data

-Dave

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