Meeting Blackbaud

I've just come back from a Blackbaud seminar at their new London offices. We got a presentation from the new guy at the top showing that he's finding out what's going on in the "third sector". The last time I went to a similar thing from the then new guy the thing I remember was, "we're working on improving our support". The thing that stood out from this presentation is "we're going to make sure we add value, rather than consultants doing the same old thing". Both are good to hear of course.

Then we had a presentation on 7.81, some of which I'd spotted in the release notes, some which I hadn't. Then we got the Infinity presentation that was given at the US conference, with some differences - no demo, but a timeline.

There were some dates on the timeline slide, but we were told that they will be removed when we get sent it. From memory we're looking at the first product on the new platform at the end of 2007 (Bullseye - direct marketing) and RE 8 at the end of 2008. So lots of warning about how they may change, but one of the things they will change is being more up front about the future. I think we're grown up enough not to complain if they do change, so it's good to have an idea of what may be round the corner.

tags: Raiser's Edge
Blackbaud