It’s time to start thinking about OrangeCon2012!

This year we thought we would get our clients involved in the structuring of the conference. The conference will be held over two days, one day for MPX and one day for Orange Leap On Demand. We are weighing the options of the seminar based conference structure from previous years, and modeling OrangeCon2012 after the new trend of un-conferences.

What is an un-conference?
An un-conference can be described as an open forum atmosphere where clients have direct interaction with not only our developers, but each other concerning best techniques and strategies for using Orange Leap to grow their non-profit. This is not to say that we would be stepping away from the administration of the conference, but moderating and guiding the discussion topics you choose.

Get involved!
We encourage you, the client, to participate in this decision because you can benefit most from the outcome. Take a look at videos from our previous conferences, and research other un-conferences. Simply click to vote on our group, or join the conversation and Tweet your ideas and responses under #OrangeCon2012. For more information visit our conference page.

The Third Quarter Release of MPX is Available for Your Production Environment!

Version 10.2.4288 is the official PCI Compliance release. All credit card numbers are now tokenized and are no longer stored in the database. Now when a credit card is entered into MPX, that number is sent to the payment processor for storage.

There were also over 60 enhancements made in this MPX release including the ability for the MPX user login process to use integrated Windows security. To enable this you need to set the following config setting both in the client and the server. Other highlights include distribution list updates, forms for postal code validations and exceptions, report enhancements, as well as a variety of donor and transaction screen updates that improve efficiency.

There is a change to downloading the MPX Release Version 10.2.4288 and it’s release notes. These can now be downloaded from Confluence, which requires a login. If you do not have a login, you can self-register. After you register, please email support@orangeleap.com and let them know your credentials so you can have the access to the MPX folders. Once you’ve signed up, you can access Confluence anytime or for a complete list of all changes and enhancements go directly to the MPX 10.2.4288 release files.

Orange Leap On Demand v14 is Here! What’s New?

We have made several improvements and incorporated new features throughout the product.  The following list highlights some of the major features and enhancements included in this release:

Redesigned user-interface 

A major improvement with Orange Leap On Demand has been the user interface.  All of the functionality is still available, however, how you access the information is redesigned to be easier and more user friendly.

Search Functionality

The search functionality is located in the same place — on the top right in the title bar area.  However, there are a couple of key improvements:

1. Search Auto-complete — As before, the default search is a fuzzy text search, however, as you type results will start to display records that match what you are inputting.
2. If the record you are looking for appears in the list, you can click on it to navigate directly to it.  If an exact match is not found, the constituent search results will display.

Import Functionality

The import functionality provides an auto-cleanse option to automatically cleanse the data and to resolve common formatting issues, such as dates and check box values, with imports. The check box associated with this feature is checked, by default. If you do not want to use the auto-cleanse feature and allow the import to work similar to how it was previously, you will need to uncheck the associated check box.

Events Module

Sections called Event Goals and Event Details have been added.  There are Event Goal Category and Event Attributes associated picklists for you to input the types of goals you might have for the event; there are also Event Goal Category Items and Event Attribute Details that have values dependent upon the Event Goal Category or Event Attribute Details that you selected. 

Sponsorship Module

Additional attribute grids are available on the sponsorable record, program, and home screens.  Their setup is similar to the additional constituent attributes.  There are picklists associated with each attribute list and attribute details can be added based on the selected attribute.

NEW Modules!

• Prospect Research: We have a new module, Prospect Research, the purpose of which is to give you tools to help you understand your donors and potential major donors and their ability and probability to give.  This module will often be used in conjunction with complementary products such as Wealth Engine or Donor Tools.  If the module is enabled, it renders as an item under the Constituent’ Profile menu.

The Guru

• Enhanced Charting: For all charts, you can now add a Title, Subtitle, an X-Axis Label, a Y-Axis Label, There are several new chart types supported, including 3D charts.
• Enhanced Postal Radius Criteria: The Postal Radius custom filter criteria is now available on the Constituent & Primary Contact data source.

For a more in-depth review of all the product and feature enhancements log on to confluence and view our Orange Leap On Demand and Guru Feature Release pages.

Orange Leap Introduces Orange Leap Donor Widgets and Launch of Beta Program

DALLAS, TEXAS (November 11, 2010) – Orange Leap announced today the successful demonstration of Orange Leap Donor Widgets to customers and partners last Thursday at OrangeCon, Orange Leap’s annual conference for users and developers.  As part of the demonstration, Orange Leap announced the formation of a Beta Test program that will run into early 2011.

Orange Leap provides a highly innovative and easy to use software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that strengthens relationships between an organization and its constituents and donors. Used by organizations around the world, Orange Leap On Demand is a powerful, full featured, constituent relationship management solution designed specifically for nonprofits.

Orange Leap Donor Widgets provide organizations with the ability to literally “cut-and-paste” snippets of code into their existing websites that extend the power of Orange Leap On Demand directly to donors and constituents.  Orange Leap Donor Widget capabilities initially include:

• Website Registration – the ability for a constituent to register to enter a private area of an organization’s website.
• Donate Now – the ability for a new or existing donor to make a one-time or recurring donation through a simple and secure form.
• Sponsorship – the ability for a new or existing constituent to enter into a sponsorship relationship.
• Donor Profile – the ability for an existing donor to look up their contact information and donation history and update their contact information.

Coming in the next release:

• Event Registration – the ability for a new or existing constituent to register to participate in an organization’s event.

“Organizations have been struggling with the flow of data between their offline database and their online database as long as the Internet has been around.” Said Randy McCabe, CEO of Orange Leap.  “Syncing and ETL (extract, transform, and load) processes work fine for some organizations.  But those usually operate one-way, they’re not real time, and there is a high probability for errors.”

He continued, “Extending the power of Orange Leap On Demand to the web, giving donors and constituents a direct connection to real data in real time, is the ultimate solution.  Orange Leap Donor Widgets not only complete the communications loop between an organization and its constituents, but also ensures appropriate treatment of all constituents through the consistent application of business rules regardless of how their data enters Orange Leap On Demand.”

About Orange Leap

Orange Leap energizes nonprofits, making it easier for them to achieve mission success. The Dallas-based company offers innovative yet simple to use software-based solutions that strengthen relationships with constituents and donors. Orange Leap’s ever-growing community collaborates on advanced technology and smarter practices. Nonprofits big and small, with a wide range of missions and constituencies, choose Orange Leap to move their organizations forward. For more information, please visit www.OrangeLeap.com.

MPX Journal Entry and Pledge Screen Delay Hotfix 10.2.3932

This October Hotfix, MPX Version 10.2.3932, is being released to resolve two issues. The first is an issue where journal entries were not being created correctly at batch posting (MPX-5474). The second was an issue with delays in opening the donor pledge screen for databases containing a large number of active pledges (MPX-5821).  This hotfix is located on Source Forge.

The next scheduled MPX release will be delivered in November 2010. If you chose not to upgrade to this hotfix, all of these changes will be included in the November release as well. Please check the release notes to see if you need to upgrade before November.

101 Open Source Apps for Enterprises: Orange Leap is on the List!

54. Orange Leap

Orange Leap claims to be the first full-featured CRM package aimed at non-profits (in this case, the C stands for “constituent” not “customer”). It’s Web-based and includes profile personalization (to make it easy to tell donors from volunteers), correspondence and payment history, and built-in reporting and scheduling. Operating System: Windows. Commercial Support Available? Yes

Check out the whole article: 101 Open Source Apps for Enterprises

Data Conversions: How We Clean-Up Data During the Conversion Process

We’ve recently implemented new ways to do data conversions from legacy systems into OrangeLeap.

The first way, for simple data sets, is to use the import option in the UI to bring in Constituents and Gifts.

For more complex source data, previously we had populated database tables directly using scripts, which relied on a number of complex data relationships being constructed correctly, and manual implementation of business rules.

The new process starts with population of a set of intermediate conversion tables.  These tables are fairly simple and straightforward, and vary sightly based on the customer since they include separate columns for custom fields.  The data is run through a first pass of sanity checking and scrubbing at this point by an analyst or dba.  The second step is where the program is used to take the data from the intermediate tables into the program using the same application service layer that the UI uses to process the data.  This results in all the business rules being executed and the relationships and internal structures being populated correctly and consistently.

Another advantage the new conversion process provides is the ability to import many-to-one data sets such as multi-line gifts, and to associate the gift lines with pledges, soft gifts, and events.  The associations are made using references to the original legacy system’s identifiers, so that the original data links can be brought over in many cases.

We are also able to import many more complex relationships in a two step process, where all the constituents are brought over first using the ‘add’ function, then the complex relationships between the constituents are constructed afterwords using a ‘change’ function.

By Dan Meany

Dan is a Senior Developer at Orange Leap

58 Open Source Replacements for Commercial Communications Apps (Orange Leap Listed)

Datamation has a list of Open Source replacements for widely used applications.

21) Orange Leap Replaces: Blackbaud, Convio Orange Leap offers a different type of CRM—”Constituent Relationship Management.” This app aims to help non-profits simplify their communications with donors and other stakeholders.

See article here 58 Open Source Replacements for Commercial Communications Apps

What are the Benefit’s of Open Source?

Since Orange Leap is an Open Source company we often get asked “What are the Benefit’s of Open Source Software”. We often talk about cost, choice, freedom, etc… but there are actually great resources available on the web that clearly articulate the benefits to an organization. Here is one that I often refer people too. http://open-source.gbdirect.co.uk/migration/benefit.html

Dirty Data: What is it, how does it cause problems, and what is the solution?

Dirty data is a huge problem during implementation. It slows performance, causes crashes, and is an overall nightmare for our developers. What is it, how does it cause problems, and what is the solution?

Dirty data is data that is riddled with inconsistencies:

• Misspellings
• Numbers and letters in the same fields
• Data in the wrong fields (for example, phone numbers in postal code fields)
• Invalid data (for example marking a donor as a lapsed donor when they gave a gift last month)
• Duplicate data
• Format errors (such as a comma in an email field)
• Incorrect, inconsistent, or misspelled titles

The main problems associated with dirty data are:

• Slowed performance
• Invalid reports
• Inconsistent donor communication (for example, sending a lapsed donor letter to a current donor or failing to recognize a major donor as such)
• Software crashes and freezes

What’s the business impact of dirty data to a non-profit?

Dirty data can cost a non-profit 10′s of thousands of dollars!  How?  It increases implementation costs.  It loses donors (failing to properly recognize a donor can result in donor’s not giving to your organization again). System crashes or freezes cause unnecessary down time and generate unwanted maintenance costs for an organization.

What is the solution?

Our developers have created a program to automate the clean up and conversion of data in order to facilitate a cleaner implementation. The process locates and fixes all of the mistakes in the data before conversion.

At Orange Leap, our software prevents users from creating dirty data by limiting the amount of access they have. We use a variety of strategies to prevent the mistakes that lead to dirty data:

• Pick lists eliminate input errors by forcing the user to make a choice
• Automatic format verification (using regular expressions)
• Business rules ensure that you don’t accidentally create a duplicate constituent or manually mark a donor as “lapsed” that has recently given a gift.

Our short term goal is to facilitate cleaning up of the data during implementation and our long term goal is to prevent the data from getting contaminated to begin with. Once our software is installed and tested with clean data, hopefully our strategy to keep data clean will prevent the data from becoming corrupted in the future. Find out more about Orange Leap here.