New Applicant Portal - who will create the new forms and requirements?

Liz Gearing

Is anyone else out there concerned that they will have to rebuild all their application forms and requirements in order to use the new portal?

It appears that Blackbaud has chosen not to migrate all our existing forms and requirements into the new portal, so the cost and time to re-create them will be a billable service that their customers have to bear.

We have less than 20 forms, but some organisations have many more.

Is it just us who is concerned?

Bobbi Jo Eisenreich

@Liz Gearing this is definitely a concern. I'm pretty much a one person show when it comes to the system work. From the November 2023 Product Update Briefing, I was under the impression we'd have the opportunity to work with existing forms or adopt the new. I don't know that a time period was provided during which that dual opportunity would be available.

Nikki Pirain

@Liz Gearing I really hope this ISN'T the case! I, also, am the sole person creating/responsible for all the forms/templates, etc. The idea of having to recreate all of them seems overwhelming and more work than necessary.

Is Blackbaud saying WHY they can't just move our stuff over???

Garry Haack

@Liz Gearing
I understood it to be a separate portal for now. You keep the current one and can develop new forms on the new portal. In the webinar I thought they mentioned they are working on a way to migrate your existing forms

Brenda Noiseux

Garry is correct. We're working on ways to help customers adopt and migrate forms as mentioned in the November Product Update Briefing. Since the new forms offer lots of new functionality, it won't be an exact match but it's anticipated to reduce the majority of the effort.

Liz Gearing

@Garry Haack

no, Blackbaud are not providing any way of migrating across the existing forms. I have confirmation from then that this will definitely be a billable expense that customers will need to bear..

Liz Gearing

@Nikki Pirain

They have chosen not to migrate across the forms, the reason given to me was so as not to cause any disruption to the existing forms, although this could have been avoided.

I can assure you that it definitely IS the case!

Nikki Pirain

@Liz Gearing That seems ridiculous! They SHOULD provide some way to migrate these forms over. I have way too many forms that will have to be recreated (in my spare time - as if!) for this to even be functional for my organization or our users.

Liz Gearing

@Bobbi Jo Eisenreich
This is true, there will be a period of time when you can keep using the existing forms whilst you create the new ones.

my point of concern is that the cost and time that is required to recreate the forms and requirements will be up to customers to bear.

Brenda Noiseux

@Liz Gearing Hi Liz, please see my note below. We are working on a way to migrate/import forms to make adoption easier.

Nikki Pirain

@Liz Gearing That's just DUMB and horrible customer service! I am one person running this, I can't be expected to figure out how to build all new forms, applications, etc. It's very frustrating that they roll these things out and don't think about this kind of stuff.

Nikki Pirain

@Brenda Noiseux honestly, this is something that should have been considered before this new system was even rolled out.

Liz Gearing

@Brenda Noiseux

Hi Brenda, I appreciate you replying to my post.

Perhaps you might be able to clarify who will be responsible for the cost and time resources that are required to recreate forms and requirements in the new portal?

I would love to hear that I am in fact, incorrect, and that having chosen not to migrate the forms, costs related to the recreation of forms will be covered by Blackbaud?

Brenda Noiseux

@Nikki Pirain We are working on ways to help customers adopt and migrate forms as mentioned in the November Product Update Briefing. Since the new forms offer lots of new functionality, it won't be an exact match but it's anticipated to reduce the majority of the effort.

Leslie Goddard

@Liz Gearing
Can anyone share how to get a copy of the briefing on this? I wasn't aware of this update and can't find it anywhere.

Liz Gearing

@Nikki Pirain
I totally agree. Our charity was decimated in Covid and we are only just getting back on our feet. We do not have the money or staff available to take time off their job raising money to do this work. We will have to outsource it.

Liz Gearing

@Brenda Noiseux

if you had migrated the forms across, there would have been no effort!

Garry Haack

@Brenda Noiseux
Will the current portal live on, or is there a timeline to stop supporting it?

Liz Gearing

@Brenda Noiseux Hi Brenda, I wonder if you could give us an update on form migration/import. I'm keen to understand what steps Blackbaud is taking to make this adoption easier for your clients.