4th Quarter Update
The Community Foundation Technology Initiative
Quarterly Report
January 2007
Seamless Processing
Seamless processing solutions allow community foundations to expand the number of investment managers with whom they work, supporting development strategies, easing the stress on back office systems and staff and allowing growth without exponential growth in staff.
Officially, our last quarterly report represented the final report of the Seamless Processing committee. Within it we reported that the TSC had completed acceptance testing of the AST/ MicroEdge Financial Institutions Interface, an action which allowed the TSC to complete its funding for the initiative.
But the story is not over. The collaboration between AST Trust and the TSC built a system that is agnostic as to the accounting system that a foundation uses. Instead of drawing custom point-to-point interfaces for each system, AST's FoundationPartner uses the latest techniques (web services and xml) to build a universal connector. That is why it was relatively easy to hook up both FIMS and FoundationPower systems.
Since last September, work has started in order to connect the AST FoundationPartner with Blackbaud's Financial Edge and Stellar Financial's NorthStar 500 platforms, with one client scheduled to go live this quarter. Current clients include the Marin Community Foundation, the New York Community Trust, Community Foundation of New Jersey, the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, the Foundation For The Carolinas, and the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, the Community Foundation for Great River Bend and the Pittsburgh Community Foundation. Three other FIMS clients are close to signing. AST reports that the new platforms will add another 4-5 foundations as strong candidates.
If you would like more information please contact Mike Flinn at AST (mflinn@asttrustco.com).
API and Development Standards
APIs will provide the behind-the-scenes programming necessary for different systems to talk to each other. They will open community foundations core systems.
Phase Two of the Atlas Data Bridge has been in progress since September, 2006. This phase is known as the phase in which "write-back" capability to FIMS is completed, but it is more than that. In order to have data to write back, the data bridge needed to interact with another system. It is designed to work with any system, but the test system was Kintera Sphere CRM.
Testing of Phase Two of the data bridge is now in progress and is expected to be completed by mid-February (see table, next page). Selected other early FIMS adopters will be implemented throughout the spring to refine rollout strategies.
Phase III of the Atlas Data Bridge will extend the platform to the FoundationPower platform. Negotiations are underway with the early adopter for this project. This adopter should be complete by April and a second FP candidate will be selected at that time.
The specification process for Phase IV of the Atlas Data Bridge where third party data is added to the system is underway and expected to be complete by March. This phase is key to fulfilling the promise of the data bridge as a framework for integrating multiple vendors for a foundation. Broad commercial availability is expected in Q3 2007.
|
Phase/Activity |
Status |
|
Phase I: FIMS Extract/ publish to Data Bridge |
Complete August 2006 |
|
Phase II: Update from Data Bridge to FIMS |
|
|
Ø Atlas interacts with 3rd party database (Sphere) and queued to local adapter |
Completed through November 2006 |
|
Ø Updates and Inserts made to FIMS database |
In TEST as of 12/06. ETA 2/15/07 |
|
Ø Implementation at limited FIMS sites |
March-Q2 2007 |
|
Phase III: Foundation Power Adapter |
|
|
Ø Selection of Early Adopter |
In negotiation |
|
Ø Completion of Early Adopter |
April 2007 |
|
Ø Availability For 2nd Adopter |
May-June 2007 |
|
Phase IV: Non Core System Data |
|
|
Ø Specifications & Vendor selection |
March 2007 |
|
Ø Completion & Delivery |
July 2007 |
|
Broad Commercial Availability (5-6 foundations in production prior to rollout) |
Q3 2007 |
Those interested in understanding more about the data bridge can access an on-line session conducted by TSC Project Manager Doug Yeager on the topic at www.CFTech.org.
Customer relationship management solutions will increase foundation capacity to target, reach, cultivate and service high-net-worth individuals; will also improve staff ability to cultivate and serve nonprofits, including an improved grant-making process and online grant application capabilities.
Kintera is progressing in efforts to configure its core CRM system for effective implementation by community foundations. They are currently focused on "look and feel" templates and table selection, and mechanisms to quickly deploy these customizations.
The outstanding contracts with Neulogic consist of projects to integrate its platform to the Atlas Data Bridge and they are currently on hold pending release of the initial product.
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