[Allison L.]

Hi everyone, please forgive my noobishness. I'm trying to figure out how our RE and Outlook are integrated. If I create an Action and set reminders for myself and 3 other accounts (notify using RE AND Outlook), the Action shows up on my Outlook calendar and my ED's--but not on my Development Director's calendar. Does this mean her Outlook or RE accounts are set up differently from the ED's?

Also, when I set a reminder in Actions is there a way to get more info to show up in the Outlook appointment that is created? My ED doesn't like these RE appointments that show up on his Outlook because all they say is "Name of Constituent--Date--Phone call." He hardly ever uses RE so I can't expect him to open up RE, look for the constituent, and look on the Actions tab to see what exactly I'm asking him to do (make a phone call to set up a visit, for example). Can I set it up so that the Action notes will import into the body of the Outlook calendar invite?

It's really hard to keep track of all the actions and things that need to be done when I'm the only one getting all the reminders!! I want to use RE to assign actions to people and have some expectation that they'll be completed, but that's pretty much impossible right now. Also my ED went to a workshop on moves management and he's excited about using action tracks--but all I can think is it won't do us much good unless the staff members and solicitors actually report back to me on what actions they've completed!

[Jo Ward]

Hi Allison,

I may be able to help with part of your problem. If others are getting the Outlook actions, but your Director of Development is not, try looking at Blackbaud soultion BB78494.

Some people in our group recently got new computers. When they did, our IT people neglected to reset the Outlook synchronization and they couldn't add emails as actions. The instructions in the BB solution show what to do for Outlook 2003 and also for Outlook 2007. We are on 2003, but I had to use part of tthe instructions for 2007 in order to add the Outlook Add-in DLL. It worked just fine.

I don't think you can change what gets added to Outlook, but I'm not sure of that one.

Good luck!

Jo

[Melissa Siobhan]

Yes, Raiser's Edge only works with data if the data is input and input
correctly. It takes a lot of management (more than most expect) to use
all of the functions and use them properly.

Keeping track of actions can be a bear. I thankfully now have a
Campaign Director who absolutely expects solicitors and staff to
maintain their own actions and keep them up to date (including herself).
They currently are not meeting that expectation but at least the
back-log is not my fault. Her belief is that the person with the most
knowledge should simply be typing it in as they can also review the
entire record for accuracy, update proposals, add notes, follow up
actions, etc. while they are there.

I do not use the Outlook integration but my understanding is that you
can not get anything else to come through from actions. My users are
expected to use RE to get the details and then also input their notes
and close the action so I actually prefer that not everything comes
through or they would use RE even less.

For someone who hardly uses RE maybe a weekly action report would be
more appropriate for them. You can create the report and even put a
shortcut directly to that report on their windows desktop so all they
need to do is click on the icon, enter their RE login info and the
report opens with up-to-date info (actions this week, this month, etc.
not completed for example).

For the user whose actions are not coming through have you checked
security and made sure her outlook user name is entered (and correct)?


Melissa S. Graves
Director of Development Services
The Village for Families and Children

The mission of the Village for Families and Children is to build a
community of strong, healthy families who protect and nurture children.

"You cannot motivate people; they are already motivated, and your job is
to find out what motivates them and construct the right environment in
which their motivation will flourish." Kay Sprinkel Grace.

[Allison L.]

Thanks for the replies--I will get with the person in our org who sets up the RE and Outlook accounts and take a look at solution BB78494.

If it is indeed impossible to get more info to pull from RE into the Outlook reminders (sounds like it is, boooo), then at least I'll feel comfortable telling my ED he needs to be confident opening records in RE and updating Actions.

I like the idea of a weekly action report with a shortcut! A year ago when our ED came on, he was given a list of people to meet within 30, 60 and 90 days (a possibly unrealistic list of ~100 people). I got all excited and created Actions for all those people in RE. Six months later I was so frustrated trying to get the info on who had actually been met and who hadn't. It put me in a weird position of seeming like I was nagging the ED about all the people he hadn't met, when really all I was trying to do was get the data so I could make all the freaking Action reminders go away! A weekly report would help with situations like that!

[kspitler]

We just started (about 3 months ago) really using actions. I started putting them into outlook, but people were quickly getting confused. Instead I do weekly and monthly reporta. Weekly I send them those actions marked as priority and monthly all the actions.

Just recently (last month) we have started reporting to our volunteers (board and committee members) their actions. For that report it is just those actions that are past due or due in the next two weeks.

For the internal reports they are emailed a link to the report on our shared drive. For the volunteers they are emailed a pdf version of the report. Along with a fact sheet, directory of their constituents' contact information and blank call reports. (The directory is specific to only those prospects with actions they are assigned to.)