Does anyone have any feedback, pros and cons, etc., regarding having Blackbaud host RE rather than hosting it ourselves?

Thanks in advance.

Carol

In a word - don't. Just don't.

Ok that's 3 words...

Unless you really have no IT support in house it is not all that hard or expensive to host RE internally. The hosted (OnDemand) environment is a great idea in theory but the implementation is pretty lacking.

- No plugins
- Slow to load and use
- Complicated (beyond anything that is rational) Outlook integration
- Complex and cumbersome file storage and movement
- You need to run two sets of MS Office

Our shop started with OnDemand as it was being promoted heavily in Canada in 2009. At the time I was working with the consulting firm that did the implementation. Now that I am the RE DBA (among other duties) we are actively planning to bring it back in house and chalk it up to experience.

The only caveat I would give to this is if you or your staff are using Macs. It may be a viable option then.

That good, huh?! I was mainly considering it since we are looking at NetCommunity Spark, and apparently some of the set-up fees are a bit less if they host. Not sure why.

Thanks very much for the quick feedback.

if you have Spark, they only offer it as a hosted solution. That's the Spark side, not the RE side. The theory is that they work better together if both are hosted by BB. The alternative is they charge you a hefty chunk of change to add an extra layer to integrate them if you host yourself.

The biggest reason for the fee cut is they are trying to promote the hosting service. They go so far as to offer free RE hosting for a 3 year contract on Spark.

Keep in mind that hosting when it was released cost tens of thousands of dollars per year. Why they would then start to give it away would give me pause.

My biggest recommendation is really ask BB as many questions as you can. Also - paying the price they quote you is like paying the sticker price for a car.

Thanks so much Peter. We're taking it slow, but I am leaning away from the hosted option for now.

I agree with Peter. I know that Blackbaud have changed their hosting centre and there are supposedly changes in the works. However I am yet to be convinced.

Do check out BeyondNines. They also do hosting but give you your own environment so that you have a lot more flexibility.

David