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I was told recently that the Director of Technology where I work wants to switch to Mac's. I have always been told that Blackbaud products aren't very compatible. Does anyone have experience with this? We use EE, RE, FE, Faculty Access, and Student Billing. We are looking into adding NetCommunity to the list and possible hosting by Blackbaud. Can anyone tell me one way or the other whether this will work?
We have always used Mac computers with Raiser's Edge, its been about 6 years since we converted to RE. I don't know much about the behind the scenes technical aspect, but from a user point of view for the most part it's not a problem. We started out using Citrix to access the server and I would recommend it. We were recently down-graded from Citrix to Remote Desktop and some of us are not happy with it. There are some outstanding and frustrating issues with it, but it does work.
currently use macs with intel processors so that we can use parallels to run a virtual windows environment. Works pretty well. Sluggish sometimes when updating but otherwise seems to work.
Out IT department is switching also. I requested they (IT) install RE on a test machine to make sure it works. With the new DuoCore Intel processers, our Macs will be fully compatible with current PC software and with Mac software. and boy did RE look clear on that lg Mac flat screen. Our change also includes a move from Mozzila Thunderbird to Outlook and we will finally be able to use the interface between Outlook and RE, Can't wait to make the change.
I would highly recommend a product called 2X Application Server (2X Thin client computing software: deploy & manage thin clients) It is a citrix substitute which has a universal print driver, mac client and linux client. It does desktop publishing so you only have to see the application versus the whole desktop. It is very cheap and extremely easy to setup. They also offer a 5 user FREE license. If you have any questions feel free to contact me.
Thanks,
Chris Brower, MCP, VCP
Network Architect
Salesianum School cbrower@salesianum.org
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