RE NXT and running multiple reports

Teresa Markowitz
Teresa Markowitz
Ninth Anniversary Participant Facilitator 1 Loyalty Badge
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussions
Hi there, we are trying to prepare ourselves for a migration to NXT. We currently use a self-hosted version of RE. Our biggest concern right now is being able to run multiple reports and having multiple constituent records open at the same time. Our reports are pretty complex and can take hours to run, so right now, we open another instance of RE so we can continue working as usual. Doing this sames a lot of valuable time. We're finding out that this function doesn't work in NXT - that you can run one thing at a time. Does anyone have any experience with this? If so, what workarounds do you use? 

Comments

  • Christine Adams
    Christine Adams
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Facilitator 1
    We are hosted and I normally have at least two sessions open at one time.  I've never had an issue.
  • Teresa Markowitz
    Teresa Markowitz
    Ninth Anniversary Participant Facilitator 1 Loyalty Badge
    That's good to hear. What kind of things are you running on both? My boss observed a friend's NXT and when they tried running some reports, it was pretty clunky. Also, when you're working in NXT and have multiple windows open in one instance, is it easy going back and forth between windows?
  • Christine Adams
    Christine Adams
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Facilitator 1
    For Advancement Services, most of our time is spent in database view and using the reports in there.  I've replicated some reports in NXT for viewing by DOs and AF.  Because list creation in NXT is currently static, we spend time creating in database view so they can upload certain lists. And, we have multiple database view sessions open but not NXT windows - currently not a need.  We are rarely looking up/editing/adding information in NXT.
  • Dariel Dixon
    Dariel Dixon Community All-Star
    Seventh Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply PowerUp Challenge #3 Gift Management
    You can open more than one window of either view (web-view or database view). However, I've noticed that some reports do take longer than from self-hosted environments, but that also depends on the performance of your equipment in your self-hosted environment.  


    With that said though, I don't think that there many times when I would want to open more than one DB view window.  I think it might be better to start to use the web view for searches just to get a good understanding of how if works and its limitations, at least to start.  And obviously, it's much less confusing.  
  • Tom Klimchak
    Tom Klimchak
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant
    We were also self-hosted and scared to death of going to Blackbaud hosting with NXT.  The forum is filled with my gripes about Queue, but we've actually found most of the reporting to be pretty easy to use once you get used to what you're doing.  We actually eliminated the use of a lot of Crystal Reports/Custom Reports.  When we converted I warned everyone there might be a month or so of "transition" before I could make sure all their reports were "ready"... I didn't base this on anything in particular, but wanted to set their expectations low.  


    After that month I started talking to people about the reports they had "desperately needed" so much before the conversion and a lot of them were not longer needed.  NXT has a lot of simple features for the Development Officers to use and get info from. 


    Another big help:  I made some basic dashboards with the default Insights they provide and they were well liked.  We invested in the Insight Designer which gives you a little more flexibility and options and I've made some pretty useful dashboards.  They're much more flexible and easier to modify than the old database view dashboards and they're usually clear-cut enough that I don't get many questions on them.  They aren't perfect, but they're a solid start... 


    Good luck!

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