May 2014
enews
Foundation Solutions Team Lou Attanasi President Steve Bare Professional Services Barton Dyson Sales Nora Langolf Consultant Melissa Wolfe Consultant Leslie Amirault Support Graham McCulloch Support Upcoming Webinars Webinars are every 3rd Thursday of each month
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June Microsoft Reporting 2 Expanded
July Designated Grants
For complete list of topics go to events at fusionlabs.net
Dallas, Texas (May 8, 2014) PRNewswire--Fusion Labs,Inc., the Dallas based technology holding company announced today that its Nonprofit Solutions Division (NSD) company has joined the Blackbaud Partner Network as one of Blackbaud’s providers of software and services for the community foundation marketplace. This new agreement allows NSD to market, sell, implement, host, and support Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) and NSD products that comprise the solution set for these charitable organizations. The Blackbaud Partner Network is composed of a group of leading technology and services firms providing nonprofits with the solutions, applications and strategies they need to make a difference in their local communities and worldwide. Through this new partnership, NSD joins a network of companies that provide applications and solutions that extend Blackbaud product functionality in new ways. Mark A. Hall, President and CEO of Fusion Labs said, “We have been Blackbaud’s marketing and development partner in this space since 2005. Together we have created the premier technology solution that exists in the market today for nonprofit entities that do grant making and provide scholarships to qualified recipients throughout North America. Being selected for this partnership with Blackbaud will allow us to focus our investment to a much higher level in new products and enhanced features specifically designed for the complex business functions that take place in a charitable foundation.” Fusion Labs is also investing in senior leadership to lead the division. Lou Attanasi, former Blackbaud executive overseeing product design and development from 1986 through 2011 has joined the company as President of NSD and joined Fusion Labs Board of Directors. “Lou’s experience at Blackbaud and his vast relationships throughout the industry will ensure our ability to deliver solutions that exceed the expectations of our clients,” continued Hall.
Driven by the market “We are very excited to continue to evolve and strengthen our partnership with Fusion Labs, “said Heiko Henning, Blackbaud’s vice president of business development. “Fusion Labs has a proven track record of effectively serving the community foundation market and ensuring customer success. Continued on page 4
6 Tips To Prepare Your The FSD User Group is an instrumental source of feedback from the users to our developers.
AlexTiscareno,Chairman
Team For A Smooth Transition For New Software.
The San Diego Foundation
Amy Strom The St Paul /Minnesota Philanthropy Partners
Ann Puckett Grand Rapids Community Foundation
Bryan Tait The Pittsburgh Foundation
Carol Nieves
Managing
your
business
interactions and relationships with donors plays an integral role in your success. One popular way to do this is with
The Community Foundation of Northern Florida
our GE or Spectrum software,
Cheryl Kaneshiro
processes
Hawaii Community Foundation
entry. This type of software is
which
helps
streamline
such
as
donor
beneficial in the long run, but
Gina Gerhard New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
making the switch isn’t always easy. Here are six tips to have a smooth transition.
Judy Chan The Silicon Valley Community Foundation
1. Keep it simple
Nick Munday
The
Santa Barbara Foundation
Vicki Jones Foundation for the Carolinas
goal
of
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grant
2. Explain the benefits.
most cases, employees can Many
employees
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will
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stay
within a session or two, and unnecessary complications.
can
avoid
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embrace the change is to demonstrate
how
your
organization will benefit. This
4. Don’t overwhelm employees
might include showing them
how this will improve overall
In
organization or make their
management
tasks easier. Try to prove
involves numerous changes
tangible benefits that are
and is complex, you should
specific to your foundation.
break down the transition
Designate
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for
California Community Foundation
learn the software. Part of
tempting to jump in and learn
the cost is training your
everything at once, but stick
designated team. If your
with sections of the software
staff
that are intuitive and practical.
course or you have new
This should make it easier for
hires,
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the transition and quickly put
remotely.
the software to use.
will walk everyone through
we
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overly complex. It may be
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3. Hold a training seminar
Tom Megale
Fusion Labs, Inc 5420 LBJ Frwy, Ste. 850 Dallas, Texas, 75240 214.739.5454
fundamentals
ways to get the skeptics to
employees to sit down and
Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region
the
you
away from anything that is
Kelly Randerson
learn
software. One of the easiest
management software is to improve efficiency, so
hands-on demonstration. In
training
consultant
the software and provide a
back on errors and shortens the learning curve. Give employees as much notice as possible so they can adequately prepare. Each staff member should be relatively familiar with one aspect
of
the
software
before moving to the next. You
may
provide
also
want
to
one-on-one
instruction
with
any
employees
who
are
struggling with the switch
experience difficulty. You
We Are Updating Our Database We want to ensure we have your correct information.
In order to keep our data base up to date, please send us name and title changes so we can
experience difficulty. You
analytics to determine how
ensure our contact list is
until they are comfortable
may also have our support
well your initiative is going.
current. Please email
with the new software.
specialists readily available
struggling with the switch
5. Be flexible
lnally@fusionlabs.net with
to answer questions and
This will vary from software
updates or additional
provide
This
to software, but you will
people.
assistance.
way, a few curveballs won’t
need measurable statistical
You want your initiative to
throw you completely off
data to show your progress.
go off without a hitch, but
track, and you can maintain
From there, you will know
this isn’t always the case,
normal business operations
which adjustments need to
which is why it helps to
throughout the process.
be
anticipate flexible
them
and
enough
be to
made
to
maximize
efficiency and keep both
6. Test and tweak.
happy.
is allowing additional time to
Finally,
make the entire transition in
important
the event that workers
some system of metrics or
error message “Organization Name could not be found or you do not have rights to view the record” when trying to create an invoice in FE? Have a Technology Tip that would be helpful to pass along? We would love for you to share. Contact Lisa Nally at lnally@fusionlabs.net
4.1.8
customers and employees
counteract them. One idea
Q: How come I get the
Latest Software Upgrades/Patches
it’s
extremely
to
implement
For More Information Custom Training Course Contact Lisa Nally
A: This is usually caused because records have been merged in FE, but not in GE. You can use the Constituent Utility in GE so you can merge the records in GE while keeping them linked to the records in RE and FE. If you need assistance please email gesupport@fusionlabs.net
Our latest production version of GrantedGE is 4.1.8. Users can log into SharePoint and download the latest version.
Have a question regarding your software? Contact gesupport@fusionlabs.net Have a topic or information for the Foundation Solutions enews? Call Lisa Nally at 214.217.9753.
1 2
experience difficulty. You con Continue from page 1 “We believe Fusion Labs’ focus on this market and deep domain expertise will allow them to deliver the combined offering of best-of-breed software and services and enhance the value it delivers to our joint customers. Blackbaud is firmly committed to serving community foundations and a deeper, more integrated approach with Fusion leading the charge, will allow us to do this more effectively than ever.”
From the smallest to the largest
Did You Know? •
•
•
Last year Fusion Labs grant support software processed aver 2.5 million transactions. Spectrum grant making users ranges in size from $4.0 billion to $20K in terms of assets under management.
There are over 72,000 U.S. based grant making organizations with Assets Under Management (AUM) in excess of $670 Billion.
"We've witnessed explosive growth in the number of foundations that required web-enabled interaction with their constituents, fund holders, Boards, committees, and recipients in the past year," said Lou Attanasi, President of NSD. "While there are numerous software applications that can offer online functionality, the GE/Spectrum suite can fully integrate with Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge, Financial Edge, and Blackbaud NetCommunity, the most utilized nonprofit software in the world, and allow for an organization to truly achieve a single source of truth in their business process. Together we have designed a platform that provides continuity in our offering, from the smallest startup foundations to the largest in the world. Having the ability to scale, without sacrificing usability or unique process flow, is the major differentiator for the Blackbaud/Fusion Foundation solution.”
About Fusion Labs, Foundation Solutions Division Fusion Labs, Non Profit Solutions Division,(NSD), specializes in enterprise level professional IT services, application development, product enhancement, package integration, and solution-based managed services for Blackbaud’s suite of products. NSD provides service and support for charitable organizations throughout North America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. Fusion Labs NSD is the category leader in the Foundation marketplace, and co-markets its comprehensive grant management solution(s) exclusively with Blackbaud. GrantedGE, PROFFER and Spectrum are fully integrated with The Raiser's Edge, The Financial Edge, Blackbaud NetCommunity and extensible to full lifecycle, on-line interaction with donors, grant seekers, scholarship applicants, Board Members, committees, and affiliates. The Fusion’s Spectrum Portal can be deployed as a SaaS offering or as an on premise solution with open API’s.
About Blackbaud •
Fusion Labs offers hosting for your organization. To Learn More contact Barton Dyson .
Serving the nonprofit and education sectors for 30 years, Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) combines technology and expertise to help organizations achieve their missions. Blackbaud works with more than 29,000 customers in over 60 countries that support higher education, healthcare, human services, arts and culture, faith, the environment, independent K-12 education, animal welfare and other charitable causes. The company offers a full spectrum of cloud-based and on-premise software solutions and related services for organizations of all sizes including: fundraising, eMarketing, advocacy, constituent relationship management (CRM), financial management, payment services, analytics and vertical-specific solutions. Using Blackbaud technology, these organizations raise more than $100 billion each year. Recognized as a top company by Forbes, InformationWeek, and Software Magazine and honored by Best Places to Work, Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina and has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.