[jwsmith]

One of the BB acct reps sent me an email about a custom call center solution that ties into RE and BBNC. The official title for the application is "Blackbaud NetCommunity Call Center Custom Solution." Has anyone purchased this? If so, what is your opinion? I would like to talk to a few clients directly, if you don't mind.

Thanks,
John

[Peter Gulka]

that would be awesome. No offense to the Ruffalo Cody folks, but that
application is ugly as sin.

[Matthew]

sorry, it's friday, and i must have left part of my brain on the subway..entirely possible given how i had to wait for a train this morning.... i don't know what you're talking about

[jwsmith]

You are in the same boat I am. The acct rep asked if we were using a commercial telefund system. I responded that we were not, but that I would like for BB to develop one that integrates with RE. Then, WHAM! He sends me screen shots of a custom solution they have built. My guess is a client asked BB to develop something like this and now BB is willing to share (for a price, I'm sure). I plan to call my acct rep on Monday to get more information. I will share what I find with the group.

John

[Jonathan2]

has anyone bought the application anyway? im looking fwd to buy it, but still doubtful

[SwannSong]

It is real. I think we saw the same demo.

Our telefund people looked at Ruffalo Cody. No integration to RE would make my staff gift entry a nightmare. We just cleaned up our Convio data horrors.

Putting the data into RE without more licenses makes it worth it alone. Planning to squeeze it into the 2009 budget.

[Matthew]

can someone please tell me what this thread is about? i don't know what a custom call center is and what it would have to do with Raiser's Edge. Thank you!

[Cygnet]

A call center is a generic term for a center that is taking either a ton of inbound calls ( like your technical support team, customer support, red cross diaster response donations, etc) or outbound ( ie alumni phone-a-thons, etc)

It's a very complex industry with layers and layers of technology. It's a huge industry on it;s own. My guess is the Red Cross or another large organization paid for a customization, and (as someone else mentioned above) Blackbaud is now offering it as a product to its current client base.

Does that make sense why one would use a call center application? basically it dials for dollars either in or outbound and then captures the information and transmits it back to RE after the phone call with updated constituent information and gifts, etc. being recorded.

I haven't seen the demo, but used to work in the call center industry.

[asnoah]

We use another vendor for our call center but we export out of RE the constituents and info we want and import into the call center software. The callers then see the info they need, don't have to learn RE, they make notes, etc. Then the information we want retained in RE, actions, pledges, etc., get imported back into RE. It takes a little time to setup all of the export/import files but once that's done it goes pretty smoothly.

Most of our calls are to thank first time donors when we do acquisitions but we've also used it for solicitation campaigns to lapsed donors.

[dshearer]

We're about to implement BB's call center plugin (one of two "trial" clients I believe). I don't have all the data in front of me (and I just started here a few weeks ago) but I'll be happy to share what I know if people want the info.