Q2 2024 Product Update Briefings: Leave Feedback & Earn a Badge!

Jaclyn Whitelock

@Crystal Bruce from the limited demo of query, it looks decent and I look forward to seeing and testing it once it is released.

I remain curious about the specifics of the direct mail and email enhancements shown on the roadmap. I'm curious if the email enhancements will address things such as the ability to send an email to a contact at an org, and also the drill down of more in depth opt in/out abilities in NXT marketing emails. The ability to opt into event notifications, but out of newsletters, for example would be a great one- with the only option at the moment being “unsubscribe” 'from all, this can lead to losing the ability to communicate with a donor completely, when a more nuanced approach would have allowed us to communicate to them the information they were truly interested in.

Elizabeth Becker

@Nyree Henderson Me too. For example in database view you can see when an email or phone number was added. You do not see that information in NXT which can be important.

Jill Hempfing

@Nyree Henderson
I agree!

Jill Hempfing

@Joe Moretti I am more than worried about the phasing out of database view. Database View is a workhorse for those of us doing all the data entry, reports, queries, etc. Not sure why we can't improve it and still continue to use it in conjunction with NXT. I am so very worried.

Joe Moretti

@Jill Hempfing I really cannot seem them phasing out Database View since there are things in there that cannot be done in RE NXT. Currently there is not such thing as Action Reminders to Users in RE NXT, something I use much. Currently RE NXT is still very limited and it has been around for at least 10 years.

Jill Hempfing

@Joe Moretti I am fairly certain that it was said eventually all of database view will be merged into NXT exclusively. I hope others will chime in with what they know.

Joe Moretti

@Jill Hempfing Yes, the functionality will be put into RE NXT, but I doubt that database will be removed. I have not quite heard that,but the opposite.

Pat Phillips

@Jill Hempfing
I agree. Is it possible to do a gift batch in NXT? And a recurring batch?

Austen Brown

@Pat Phillips - Yes, you can even do those today. However, there is a new and improved batch headed our way for web view and I recommend waiting until that arrives before you start moving all gift entry processes to WV.

Pat Phillips

@Crystal Bruce
I am most excited about retiring in 27 days. Who knew DB view and I would be retiring together - almost. Blackbaud, I do hope removing RE DB view isn't a mistake. To all database managers and gift processors, good luck!

Tatiana Tuccio

@Crystal Bruce
I am looking forward to seeing a more robust RENXT.

However, I do think there is a lot of functionality in Database view that is currently just not available in RENXT.

I would be interested in seeing a migration schedule of when certain features and capabilities plan to go live in RENXT.

Suzan Swartzentrover

@Crystal Bruce

I'm looking forward to queries, wondering about imports, and the availability of support.

Darlene Mathisen

@Tatiana Tuccio I agree I try reading the what's new but sometimes have to get right to work and can only skim them- then the next time I go into NXT it's different or the new thing just shows up- I will be sure to pay closer attention to continued product updates.

Phillip Shipsides

@Crystal Bruce I understand the need to move dbv but it's scary as NXT just doesn't seem ready yet.

Tom Dickinson

@Crystal Bruce
I wasn't able to attend this but I gather some significant updates were shared regarding the progress on transition from db to web view. Is there a way to watch a recording of the presentation, or is this this information available in some other format?

Anne Sappington

@Tom Dickinson
You can still register to watch all of the Product Update Briefings on demand here. Just use the agenda tab to watch the recording once you're on the webinar page.

Keith Wilson

@Crystal Bruce I finally found some time to watch the RENXT PUB. Lot's of great info and excited about seeing the new features roll out. The 2025 date for full web view functionality seems very ambitious! Some new features already released like the constituent review for online donations and the enhanced Security Roles in Admin are great, but take a lot of getting used to. So as more functionality is added to web view, I hope we will have time to adapt to those changes and adopt new process work flows as those changes will have a big impact to each organization's internal operations.

Audrey Morris

@Crystal Bruce I'm most excited about the Common Records Engine to hopefully replace the (completely non-functional and unreliable) REConnect feature - as a school maintaining both databases manually with few hands available to do so has been challenging and obnoxious. I'm also really hoping the pledge on standard donation forms hits soon - that is a huge miss for us and part of why we don't use NXT forms more, we need to have the ability for our donors to pledge, not just an open ended recurring payment. Also excited to see Query coming to NXT, as that is yet another reason NXT is not very useful from a data management POV. Really hoping the actual functionality of those features is fleshed out and dependable… and that they arrive soon! They'll have a huge impact on NXT's usefulness to our school.

Faith Murray

@Crystal Bruce
I am wondering if you can tell me more info about the AI-generative portion of the roadmap. I've been impressed with the ease of the AI generative email acknowledgements in webview that have already been released. However, it is almost useless for us since we snail-mail all of our thank-you letters. If this tool could be allowed to export to pdf or Word for printing, it would be tremendously helpful and possibly replace our existing conditional letter merge. Is that in the plans do you know?

Sara Niemiec

@Crystal Bruce, I am looking forward to more functionality being made available in NXT. While I love DB view, I understand that change and progress are inevitable and that adapting to it is the only way to thrive. I recently took the Blackbaud University training called “Selecting the Right Tool,” in which we were given real-life scenarios to solve using either or both DB view and NXT view. It was interesting and fun to see how the two views can work together to accomplish things. I'm keeping an open mind regarding web view. If it allows me to do what I need to do without too much hassle, then I'm all for it.

Susan Fioribello

@Faith Murray
I completely agree with you about snail mail. Online donations are automatically acknowledged so when we are writing letters it is for printing and snail mail.

Is there an idea in the idea bank for this? I would vote for it!

Whitney Shelton

@Crystal Bruce I am excited about the new functionality being added to donation forms in webview! I manage our database so I spend most of my time in there. I have been playing more and more with reporting and other parts of webview recently and the product update briefing got me even more motivated to work more in webview. The most recent update of having options on how we deal with unmatched constituents is *insert chef's kiss here*

Sherry Aldrich

@Crystal Bruce As admin, almost my entire day is working in the database view. NXT has many wonderful features that are not in the database view. But likewise, the database view has so many functions / features that are not even close to being replicated in NXT yet.