Good Moves & Navigation

In 2016, after extensive research, Blackbaud announced plans to relocate our global headquarters to a new site, since we'd outgrown our location at 2000 Daniel Island Dr. in Charleston, SC.  Recently, employees in our Research, Development, and Operations department moved to one of the new buildings (about a mile down the road). We packed up on a Friday, a professional crew handled our things, and on Monday we walked into the new building and simply plugged in.

The new building is still receiving its finishing touches. Many employees and employee services will remain at the other, older location for some time. For those of us who switched locations, we have a lot to be happy about (including ample natural light and larger outdoor areas). We also need to adjust and learn our new environment (such as where to find extra cords and the names of new conference rooms).

After a few days of periodic exploration, we're getting the hang of navigating the areas that matter most to our daily activities.  Even with changes, much remains the same (the new cafeteria is still on the first floor and we have the same model of coffee machines).

Summer 2018 Navigation Updates

In many ways, schools who are participating in the Early Adopter Program for Summer 2018 Navigation updates are like our early movers. You learn your way around early and your feedback is especially valuable to the teams who manage later changes.

As for schools who will receive the navigation updates in July (as part of the general availability), we're putting the finishing touches on things for you. You expect all facilities to be fully operational and expect an accurate map with all areas properly labelled before you arrive.

For Parents and Students, who typically only have a single "constituent persona," the upcoming navigation changes will not impact their daily activities.

For many users with multiple personas (such as the Faculty "constituent persona" and an "application persona"), they'll notice a change after logging in. Specifically, the menu you use to select a “constituent persona” (such as Faculty, Parent, Student) or “application persona,” is now located in the upper left corner of every webpage for users who have multiple application personas. Previously, it was in the upper right corner. 
Administrators and school staff will notice additional changes for application personas. The menu no longer includes the product names. Instead, most content and tasks you need are now grouped by “capabilities,” which include Academics, Enrollment Management, Extracurricular, School Website, and Core.

In many cases, these capabilities are like the original application/product personas. For example, you’ll find most onBoard information under Enrollment Management.  Instead of focusing on the names of the products you purchased, the user interface now focuses more on what you do as a user.

However, some items have been moved to new menu locations or renamed. For example, a variety of items are now consolidated under the new Academics capability.  Changes like these bring related concepts into closer proximity. This saves you time and “clicks,” since you’ll no longer need to regularly navigate between multiple locations to accomplish related tasks. 

If you want a sneak peak at what's coming, have a look at this webinar recording.

For additional details, please stay tuned. We're working on a searchable "map" to help you get around. Sure, you could find your way around with exploration, but if you're in a hurry, it's always OK to ask for directions. We're making sure that you can find what you need, when you need it!

(Update: The map is now live!)

We hope you enjoyed this brief look at the upcoming Summer Navigation changes! Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more details on this topic, and don’t forget to come back next week as we take a look at what’s coming in the second May release. We'll see you right back here next week. See you then!