United Way IT Collaborative

Learn for Free

2010-07-08T15:40:00.003-04:00

Have you ever been interested in a topic and wanted to take a college level course in that topic, but couldn't find the time in your schedule or willing/able to pay for the course?

University level educational materials are available online at Open Courseware Consortium. The Consortium is comprised of hundreds of universities around the world. The course information is free and open to anyone with an internet connection.

Check it out here.

iPhone Coming to Verizon?

2010-07-01T16:42:00.001-04:00

According to an article published by USA Today on June 30th, Verizon will supposedly begin offering Apple's iPhone in January 2011. The newspaper received this information from two people familiar with the plans who asked to remain anonymous since this information is not yet public. USA Today was unable to independently verify this claim since spokespeople from Apple, Verizon, and AT&T all declined to comment. I have read many articles recently speculating about Verizon and the iPhone, though so far no sources have been able to confirm any of the rumors. If these rumors prove to be true, Apple will drastically increase the amount of iPhones it sells since so many consumers have been dissatisfied with the quality of AT&T's network, which is undergoing a $2 billion upgrade this year. Analysts estimate Verizon customers would purchase 3 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2011, bringing Apple's iPhone sales for 2011 to 15 million units. I switched from Verizon to AT&T when I purchased my first iPhone three years ago and have been generally satisfied with their service and coverage. I have noticed that AT&T's service is definitely not as reliable as Verizon's, though I would be in no hurry to switch back to Verizon if it begins offering the iPhone next year.

How to be Great

2010-06-24T16:14:00.001-04:00

I ran across an interesting article today on CNNMoney.com. The article discusses greatness and what it takes to achieve great success. According to the author, recent research findings show that practice and hardwork are a much greater indicator of success than natural talent. As someone who feels driven to constantly learn more and try to improve my existing skillset, it was a liberating and empowering read.

Click here to view the article. What's your opinion? What do you think?

Secrets of SQL Server Webcasts

2010-06-17T16:20:00.001-04:00

A few months ago, a co-worker recommended the monthly SQL Server webcasts hosted by Idera. So far I have joined two webcasts - one on SSRS 2008 and another on SQL security mistakes - and have found the webcasts to be informative and easy to follow. The webcasts are usually 1-hour and are scheduled on Wednesday afternoons. You need to pre-register to join the webcast, which is free, and after the webcast concludes you will receive an email with a link to the PowerPoint presentation used during the session. The next webcast is entitled "Introduction to SQL Server CLR Extensibility" and will be held on Wednesday, July 14th from 3:00 through 4:00 EST. Click here for more information and to register for this session. An archive of SQL Server webcasts is available on Idera's website.

iPhone or Android phone?

2010-06-10T10:17:00.008-04:00

I have a 3G iPhone. I love it as a mobile computer, but I have occasional issues with the phone element of the device (calls going straight to voice mail, text messages sent/received hours later, unable to get a reliable signal, etc.). The issues aren't frequent, but they do happen. After two years, many falls, and the occasional visit into my baby son's mouth, the computing device has recently become less responsive. I'm now in the market for a new smartphone.

There are many options out there, but I've narrowed my selection down to two devices: iPhone 4 on AT&T or HTC Evo 4G on Sprint. Both seem like great choices, but I'm undecided. I've come across three comparisons of the two phones:

* Wired
* Lifehacker
* CNET

It's close. It seems like the iPhone 4 might be slightly better for my needs, but the Sprint network might be more reliable.

Coffee Break

2010-06-08T11:24:00.003-04:00

Many of you probably receive the regular Friday morning "Coffee Break" E-mails from Real at Helix. For those who might not, we are happy to start sharing important information, news or updates from those E-mails on the IT Collaborative blog.

Bandwidth?

2010-06-02T11:24:00.002-04:00

Ever wonder how much bandwidth you really have available? Not just what the cable or fios company says you have, but what you actually have to your PC. Well there are a few websites out there who give you an easy way to find out. Just run a simple test and they will let you know what your download and upload speeds are from your PC. Speakeasy.net lets you choose the closest location to you for testing, while other sites like bandwidth.com and bandwidthplace.com choose for you. Couldn't be easier, give it a shot.

United Way of Chittenden County

2010-05-25T22:37:00.007-04:00

I just wanted to thank Monica Weeber and the rest of the United Way of Chittenden County staff in Burlington, Vermont, for their hospitality over the past couple of days. They officially transitioned from their local servers to the United Way IT Collaborative network over the weekend and I was there on-site to make sure things were as smooth and seamless as possible.

United Way of Washtenaw County

2010-05-21T10:23:00.002-04:00

I just got home from a couple of days at the United Way of Washtenaw County in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Those are some great people up there! And they are doing a lot of good things... including integrating various forms of social media into their existing web site in order to effectively establish a well-defined and cohesive presence across all web platforms. I look forward to helping them in this endeavor.

News from Google

2010-05-20T20:34:00.003-04:00

Here are a few updates from Google that I thought some readers might find interesting --

1) On Wednesday, Google announced it would open an app store for its Chrome web browser and operating system later this year. The app store would allow developers to create and sell applications for web browsers and would be the equivalent of Apple's app store for the web.

2) Also on Wednesday, Google announced that Wave (its relatively new communications tool) would be available to everyone. Up until now, Wave was available by invite only from Google. Google has made several improvements to Wave and is encouraging those users who found the tool lacking in a few areas to give it another try. I am one of those people who plan on checking it out again.

3) Chrome is finally available for Mac! I've been using Chrome on Windows for awhile and really like it, so I'm hoping the Mac version will be just as good (if not better). If you haven't yet tried Chrome, I would highly recommend it.

Goggle does DNS

2010-05-07T21:48:00.001-04:00

If you are like me, you are always trying to find a good reliable DNS server on the internet. Today I found out (thanks to Rich from IPCOMIT) that Google offers public DNS servers. The first is 8.8.8.8 and the second is 8.8.4.4.

Translate with Google Goggles

2010-05-06T22:09:00.004-04:00

Last year Google released an application called Google Goggles that allows Android mobile phone users to take a picture of any object with their mobile phone and then search for that image on the Internet. For example, you could take a picture of the Statue of Liberty and then use that image instead of typing text to search for information about the Statue of Liberty. Today Google announced that they are integrating Google Goggles with Google Translate, which means you can take a picture, using your Android mobile phone, of some text in a foreign language and Google will translate it for you. All you need to do is point your phone camera at the item, draw a rectangle around the text using the phone's touchscreen, press the shutter button to take the photo, and then select the language into which you want the text translated. Currently the text recognition service can read English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German and translate the text into several other languages. Google is planning on adding additional Latin-based languages and eventually including Chinese and Arabic. Check out Google's blog for more information on Google Goggles and Google Translate.

Donorschoose.org

2010-05-05T16:26:00.000-04:00

Back in February I wrote a post about a project called ALL FOR GOOD that aggregates volunteer opportunities from many popular volunteer sites and I expressed my opinion on how great the service is.

Today I'd like to point out another great site (www.donorschoose.org) which allows people to easily give to specific school projects that teachers pitch on the site. Last year this site raised $17,000,000 for projects.

The business model of the site is brilliant and directly in contrast to what I see many United Ways doing.

They allow people who need the money to compete in the marketplace of ideas to win your support.
They give the donor complete freedom in picking what projects would be best to support. They don't tell the donor to give the money to them and allow their organization to allocate their gift to those projects that are most deserving and will make the biggest impact (although they will do that for you if you want).
When you donate to a project you receive feedback from the charity and the school classroom that received your gift on how they used it.

This site is great and I suggest you check it out.

Fix it

2010-05-04T19:21:00.002-04:00

As an I.T. professional, I can't tell you how many times people have come to me and said something to the effect of: "When I try to print at home, nothing happens." or "My PC at home freezes when I browse the Internet." or "When I put the CD in, nothing happens." And it's always followed by: "What's wrong?" To which I give my standard answer: "I don't know." Really, I don't know. While this may confuse some, ("I thought you were in I.T."), the truth is no one can know without being at the PC to troubleshoot. So it's always frustrated me that Microsoft doesn't provide a simple tool for home users to troubleshoot common problems. Well they finally do. Fix it Center (beta), is suite of troubleshooting tools to diagnose common problems on home PCs. You can use a Windows Live ID to personalize your install using the Online Center. I tried Fix it Center, but as it turns out, there are no issues with my laptop. Go figure. Well at least I can give people a better answer than "I don't know." Try Fix it Center and now you'll know what's wrong, which is one up on me.

What TCP port is open?

2010-05-02T19:36:00.000-04:00

This weekend I was working on one of my ANDAR servers that has a few dozen ANDAR environments and I needed to know what TCP ports were open on the server. There is an easy way to figure this out. Simple open a command prompt and type NETSTAT - AN

That gives you a list of every TCP and UDP port that is in use on the server.

Want to learn how to develop iPhone apps?

2010-04-30T12:54:00.003-04:00

As someone with an iPhone and with a background in application development, I've been curious about developing iPhone apps. How easy is it to develop an iPhone app concept, design it, code it, test it, and bring it live? Looks like Apple and Stanford University have read my mind. Stanford University and Apple are providing free educational materials (syllabus, slides, and video recordings from 10-week Stanford computer science class) on iPhone application development.

Check out this article on Wired.com for more information. I'll take the course and give it a shot. I'll post a follow-up when finished to let you know how I do and what I think.

Welcome United Way of the Cape Fear Area

2010-04-28T22:48:00.000-04:00

We would like to welcome the United Way of the Cape Fear Area in Wilmington, North Carolina as our newest member! To see all of our members click here.

Office 2010 Non-Profit Pricing Available Now

2010-04-28T22:38:00.000-04:00

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 is now available for pre-order at $80 per license (or $127 with Software Assurance). You can order now and use Office 2007 until Office 2010 is officially released.

Want to get a sneak peak and try the software now? Visit the Microsoft Office Beta Site.

Fast Company "Slacktivism: Helping Humanity With a Click of the Mouse"

2010-04-27T13:30:00.000-04:00

Check out this article in Fast Company about Slacktivism (defined as doing good without having to do much at all).

PCI Compliance

2010-04-27T09:52:00.001-04:00

At the 2010 Andar Conference, there was an excellent presentation regarding PCI Compliance. Several people suggested that they would like to hear Helix speak to that subject and discuss how Andar meets the current compliance standards. For those that may not be aware, there is information about that available on the Helix web site. You need to log in first, then scroll over "Andar" in the top menu and select "CCAP" from the sub-menu that appears.

On the credit card and ACH processing page, scroll down to the Online Documentation section. There is a full list of the PCI standards available as well as documentation created by Helix that specifically addresses their compliance.

Our Colocation Facility (Hosting.com) highlighted on Juniper's website

2010-04-16T18:04:00.000-04:00

Check out this video to get a glimpse into our colo facility and the networking technology they use.

Blog This!

2010-04-16T10:13:00.002-04:00

While browsing Google Chrome's Extensions, I came across Blog This! Just click on the Blog This! Extension, and the page your viewing is automatically posted to your blog. So I thought it would make sense to Blog This! to the Blog This! page. Strangely enough, it wouldn't post. I wanted to keep the Blog This! post in the Google Chrome family, so instead I went to the download page of Chrome 5 BETA, and with a single click created this blog with the link below. Of course I have to add my own text, at least until Google comes up with something to do all the work for me. Until then I'll check out Chrome 5 BETA and let you know what I think.

Google Chrome (BETA)

Thanks Jim. Great Job!

2010-04-14T23:16:00.000-04:00

Jim Burns, our senior blog editor, has moved on to the Finance area at United Way of Delaware where he will be working with the UWD ePledge / processing team so he will no longer be able to work on the UWITC blog. Jim has done a great job in organizing the daily blog posts and I personally appreciate all he has done to keep the blog updated.

Taking over responsibility for the blog will be Jeff Robleto (who also happens to update our public website www.UnitedWayITCollaborative.org). I know Jeff will be as diligent as Jim has been and I'm looking forward to reading all of the content he comes up with.

Additionally we are changing up our blog contributors a bit and giving Sally Hickland, Tom Crispo, and Susan DiSantis a break while others take on some more of the writing duty.

Apple iPad

2010-04-08T14:37:00.009-04:00

On Saturday, April 3rd, Apple released the Wi-Fi version of the iPad and sold 300,000 units on that day. Another 150,000 have been sold so far this week, bringing total sales to 450,000. To date, users have downloaded 600,000 books and 3.5 million apps. I have read several reviews over the past few days and those reviews have been mostly positive. David Pogue, technology columnist for the New York Times, reviewed the device from both the "techie" and "everyone else" perspectives. He concludes that the iPad is not a laptop substitute but is a great device for content consumption - web, email, books, music, videos, etc. Cons include limited book selection, too heavy to hold for extended reading, difficult-to-use keyboard, and no Flash support. Pros include rotation-lock switch, killer apps, 10+ hour battery life, fast processor, bright and responsive screen, and easy-to-navigate software. One common complaint, which Mr. Pogue also mentions, has been the lack of multi-tasking (which has also been a criticism of the iPhone). However, Apple announced today that multi-tasking will be available with the release of iPhone OS 4.0 on the iPhone 3GS in the summer and the iPad in the fall.

Has anyone out there purchased an iPad or is maybe thinking of purchasing one? What are your thoughts on this "magical and revolutionary product"?

New and Improved Document Repository

2010-04-07T10:56:00.003-04:00

I’m very excited about some recent improvements we’ve made to our document repository system! These changes make the document repository system easier to use and more attractive to look at:

Folders can now be added to organize and store documents.

Graphics are displayed next to each document or folder name to better indicate what kind of item it is (folder, word document, excel spreadsheet, PDF document, image, etc.).

A breadcrumb trail is displayed at the top of each folder to make navigating folders and subfolders easy.

The document uploaded can display the name of the file or a title entered by the user.

Any description of the document added will be displayed in parenthesis next to the document name.

All documents uploaded are now stored in a relational database management system instead of on a file server for an extra layer of security.

The overall look and feel of the system has been simplified.

CompUSA

2010-04-05T10:48:00.002-04:00

A couple of months ago I spied a CompUSA mega-store in a shopping center in Newark, DE. I did a double-take. It felt like only a few years ago that all the CompUSA locations in New Castle County Delaware were liquidating their inventory and closing their doors forever. I remembered walking into their "Philadelphia area" Superstore in North Wilmington in the mid-90s to make my first computer purchase...a black Compaq desktop running on Windows 95.

I was curious about this new CompUSA and decided to do some digging today to see what changes they may have made to keep from repeating the mistakes of the past.

Seems in early 2008, a company named Systemax acquired CompUSA. Systemax also is the parent company to TigerDirect, where I, personally, have also made purchases. Retaining the branding of CompUSA, Systemax is slowly rolling out more retail locations. The one here in Newark opened in February. In perusing the Company's press release, I found the following interesting:

All three stores are fully integrated with Retail 2.0, CompUSA’s pioneering concept which empowers shoppers by placing the internet at arms’ reach on nearly 300 screens throughout the store, from laptops to desktops to HDTVs. With a single touch, consumers can access full product information including image galleries, product manuals, customer reviews, price comparisons, compatible products available in-store, and even video demonstrations. Customers are also free to browse competitor sites and comparison shop as if they were in the comfort of their own home or office.

I've yet to go to the new store, but I look forward to my first visit.

How to Choose a Website Content Management System

2010-04-03T19:35:00.003-04:00

Inc Magazine Article by Theresa Regli published on Mar 19, 2010.

ZoomIt

2010-04-01T14:56:00.003-04:00

If you're like me, when you create a document, especially 'how to' documents, you like to include screen shots. There are a lot of times where the full screen shot isn't needed, or the detail gets lost because the shot has to be small enough to fit into the document. I also find it useful to be able to write notes on the screen shots. I stumbled across ZoomIt, and found that it is the perfect solution. With ZoomIt, you configure hotkeys and then everything is just a mouse click away. Zoom in on any part of the screen, make notes by drawing or typing on the screen and then you can simply copy and paste the shot into your document. Or, if you want to create individual shots, just click Ctrl-S and save your capture separately. ZoomIt is great for presentations too. You can use the same functionality live on any screen you are sharing. Zoom in, mark up the screen then simply click out and everything erases and you can move on to the next screen or slide. While there are more robust screen capture tools out there, this one has a feature that can't be beat, the price. Download ZoomIt for free, what have you got to lose?

Easter Egg Hunt

2010-03-31T23:49:00.004-04:00

Is searching for data in Andar a bit like looking for Easter Eggs in tall grass - in the dark? Today I have just one tip for you. Clean up your Tables! In Table Maintenance, there are two features that are underappreciated by many United Ways.

First, there is the Obsolete checkbox. Use it! Keep your tables slim and trim, and staff won't be overwhelmed by the volume of items in the table. The fewer to select from, the more likely they can pick the most appropriate type.

Second, take advantage of the Preferred Sort. This is especially handy if one entry should be the default selection - the lowest number shows up first. Make it a habit to put the most common choices at the top - Preferred Sorts 10 and 20. After that, leave them all at the same number and they'll just sort alphabetically. If you are assigning a specific sort number, make them increments of 10 so you can always slip one it.

It's also a good idea to assign a Preferred Sort of 999 to any entry you make Obsolete. (Now that you can sort the table by the Obsolete field in Table Maintenance, this is not so critical.)

If you're feeling especially adventurous this Easter Season, try color-coding some of your most common table entries. They show up that way in the profiles. Just think, all ECC contacts can show up in Robin Egg Blue. Number of Employee can show up as Marshmallow Peep Yellow. Easter Egg colors are fabulous!

Happy Easter to everyone!

Nimble

2010-03-31T22:30:00.002-04:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about the top quality that makes a company successful and I firmly believe it is the ability to be agile and nimble. These are qualities you most often associate with small organizations and the trait you will most often hear CEOs of large corporations wish their company could possess.

Yesterday I was in a meeting with one of our member United Ways discussing their new strategy document (which if you read REWORK would know isn't going to be worth the paper it is printed on) and I suggested that one of their organizational characteristics should be nimble - after all, they are a small company (under 100 full-time employees) and should be able to use that to their advantage and to the advantage of the community they serve.

A member of the senior team pointed out that if I wanted to be associated with nimble organizations, United Ways were probably not where I should be. This person reminded me that although there are a relatively small number of employees, the organization had a board of 60 corporate leaders who (for the most part) are the same people you see on CNBC talking about wanting to be more agile but when they get involved with United Way they bring their sluggish ways with them. It isn't their fault because it is practically the only way they know how to work. In their day job they can't make any decisions without getting their lawyer's opinion and 15 people on the management committee to agree. So what may appear to be nimble for those corporate leaders is in fact slow and plodding for a small business.

So strive to be more nimble. Don't be afraid to make a decision. Don't be afraid to change course. Be flexible and change with the situation.

REWORK

2010-03-31T16:26:00.000-04:00

Several weeks ago I posted that we started using some tools from 37 Signals to assist us with project management and CRM. So far I have been very impressed with these powerful and inexpensive tools - which goes to show you, a tool doesn't have to be expensive to be great (although to be totally honest, I've always been skeptical of free tools. If someone doesn't want to make money at all I can't imagine that their service/tool is very good or will stay that way for very long).

When Winston Faircloth (CEO of UPIC Solutions) and I spoke last week he mentioned he had just read and enjoy REWORK, the new book from the founders of 37 Signals, so I decided to order it from Amazon and check it out. After the book was delivered and I read the first chapter I realized that I would be in the car for a few hours the next day so I decided to download the audio book for my iPod from Audible.com and finish it that way.

The book is an incredibly quick and easy read (or listen) and you can get through it in less than three hours. In general, the book is about entrepreneurism (although in a chapter called Enough with "entrepreneurs" we learn the authors would like to retire the phrase because, "It's outdated and loaded with baggage" ) and gives commonsense advice about starting and growing (or not) your startup.

Since I am, in essence, the CEO of a small technology company (although it is housed in a larger organization) I took a keen interest in what they had to say and I am happy to report that the UWITC has much in common with 37 signals.

For instance, one of the questions they ask is why grow? Meaning, "Maybe the right size for your company is five people. Maybe it's forty. Maybe it's two hundred. Or maybe it's just you and a laptop. Don't make assumptions about how big you should be ahead of time. " I must admit, I'm one of those overly ambitious people who normally think bigger is better but when I think about it, the authors are right. Smaller organizations have benefits over their larger counterparts. Smaller organizations can be quick and nimble and larger organizations often envy that. Smaller organizations often have less resistance to change and less bureaucracy (both of which drive me crazy). I've worked for very large organizations and very small organizations and the only thing I really miss about working for a very large global organization is the nice office space. I'm inspired and I enjoy work more when I am in nice surroundings.

Another major theme that I took from the book (and I also believe whole-heartidly) is you should hire the best people you can find no matter where they chose to live or when they want to work. Of course, this can't work for every job function (for instance, if you have customer service people they have to be available when the customer needs them) but for most technology jobs in your organization time and place doesn't matter much. About a year ago we instituted a work from home pilot program where our two programmers have the option to work from their home two days a week. What did we find? When working from home employees save on commuting time and costs and are generally more productive than when they are in the office. I intend to expand our flexible work program to our other employees in the coming year. The biggest challenge with a flexible work program is keeping your team a cohesive unit when they don't see each other every day. To accomplish that I setup several opportunities for team outings (a fun outing is always preferable to a BS all staff meeting). For instance, this summer we will have our 2nd annual summer blockbuster movie program where I take the entire team out to the movies on Friday afternoons throughout the summer to see the latest summer blockbusters. This year we are seeing Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, Karate Kid, The Last Airbender, and The Sorcerers Apprentice and we will end the summer with our yearly end of year BBQ.

Since I can't recap the entire book, I will leave you with a concept that I have always tried to articulate (but never articulated like this book was able to) about what I'm looking for in an employee and that is the concept of MANAGERS OF ONE (page 220). They tell us:

Managers of one re people who come up with their own goals and execute them. They don't need heavy direction. They don't need daily check-ins. They do what a manager would do - set the tone, assign items, determine what needs to get done, etc. - but they do it by themselves and for themselves.

These people free you from oversight. They set their own direction. When you leave them alone, they surprise you with how much they've gotten done. They don't need a lot of hand-holding or supervision.

....

You ant someone who's capable of building something from scratch and seeing it through. Finding these people frees the rest of your team to work more and manage less.

Interpreting reports provided by other processors

2010-03-30T20:47:00.002-04:00

In one of my previous blog posts I talked about questions to ask any time you do processing that involves locations outside of your United Way service area. One of the byproducts of that exercise is to assist you (as the ‘processor’) with determining how and what should be reported to your fellow United Way colleagues at the end of a company campaign. Even thought United Way Worldwide (UWW) devoted a lot of their Standard ‘M’ guideline to this very topic, reporting coming from ‘processors’ continues to be inconsistent and can be confusing to even those of us who think we are knowledgeable.

With that in mind, I decided to share my favorite questions to ask anytime I need to help interpret a campaign results report coming from a ‘processor’. I use the term ‘processor’ in this case to mean anybody providing my United Way with results other that the local company locations themselves.

Some of these questions I ask regardless of whether a company or a ’processor’ is providing the information. I include them here because they keep me honest and I don't like to assume anything because we all know what happens when you ‘assume’ things. The questions that fall into this category include:

- Do we actually need to charge donors credit cards or submit ACH requests to their banks?

- Will we physically be receiving and depositing the donors checks?

- Should we send donor statements if they asked to be billed for their donations?

- Are we responsible for issuing tax receipts to the donors?

While these are definitely good questions to ask, they tend to affect a select set of donors and in most cases the processor is handling these tasks for the company.

There is however two major questions that I always ask whenever I start to interpret a report coming from a ‘processor’.

The first question is “Are the dollars (being reported) raised in my United Way service area?” Given the answer, it will allow me to correctly instruct our team on how to process these pledges. The dollars will either be processed as standard local campaign dollars (if they are raised in our service area) or as pledges ‘Designated In’ to us from outside our United Way service area. Recording them in our system correctly helps with internal and UWW reporting as well as with planning and projecting for the following campaign season.

The other major question I need to find the answer to is “Who is responsible for distributing the donors’ designations?” With most ‘processors’ these days paying designations directly to the recipient organizations, I want to ensure that our United Way is not duplicating their efforts. More important though is to avoid accidentally distributing funds that we may never receive. By getting this question answered, the team knows to either process designations as normal (where our United Way is responsible for their distribution) or as ‘Paid Directs’ (dollars being paid directly by the ‘processor’).

What happens when the report I am interpreting is not clear about these two questions? Now is where the fun begins and I have to roll up my sleeves and do some investigative work. In order to get some additional insights, I try a couple of methods:

- By looking at any accompanying documentation or cover letters, I might find the answer to my questions.

- Reviewing the report itself might indicate that most/all of the donors listed have addresses in my United Way service area.

- Checking our campaign system, might reveal that the company has a location/account within my United Way service area.

- Logging into UW Online, a company profile may exist to gain some clarity.

- Unless the company is using a new ‘processor’, historical reporting and information from previous years can be a good source of antidotal knowledge

- If all else fails, a call or email to a contact at the ‘processor’ could not hurt either.

I have always told people that interpreting reports is more of an art than a science. While I can’t change the way that others provide information, armed with the questions presented here I hope you have enhanced your artist’s palette and feel less intimidated the next time you receive a report form another ‘processor’.

United Way of Central Illinois joins UWITC

2010-03-26T19:12:00.001-04:00

I would like to personally welcome the United Way of Central Illinois to the United Way IT Collaborative (and as a member of NP&AS)!

How to text message a cell phone from email

2010-03-25T23:45:00.000-04:00

Did you know you can send a SMS text message to a cell phone from Outlook or any other email client?

Just address the email according to whatever carrier your recipient uses:

T-Mobile: phonenumber@tmomail.net

Virgin Mobile: phonenumber@vmobl.com

Cingular: phonenumber@cingularme.com

Sprint: phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com

Verizon: phonenumber@vtext.com

Nextel: phonenumber@messaging.nextel.com

where phonenumber = your 10 digit phone number

You've Inherited a Database - Now What?

2010-03-25T16:13:00.006-04:00

From SQLServerCentral.com, here is a list of nine things you should do when you inherit a database. Several of the items on this list are applicable to an entire application and not just a database.

1) Verify the backups are occurring regularly.

2) Familiarize yourself with the tables, stored procedures, functions, and scheduled jobs. Create a database diagram and some basic documentation as you research.

3) Set aside some time to speak with the former developers.

4) Determine if bugs and/or enhancements have been documented anywhere. If not, implement a system for tracking this information.

5) Determine if any of the code is in a source code control system and verify everything is up-to-date.

6) Schedule a meeting with the end-users to discuss problems, concerns, enhancements, expectations, etc.

7) Establish credibility with the end-users by fixing bugs or making a few small enhancements.

8) Setup a separate development environment and do not allow any testing in the production environment.

9) Drop database objects that are no longer used.

Click here for the full article. SQLServerCentral.com is a great resource for all things SQL, so I would recommend creating an account (it's free) to access all the articles on their website as well as subscribing to their daily newsletter.

Down For Everyone or Just Me?

2010-03-25T09:58:00.001-04:00

Ever try to bring up a website and couldn’t? Sometimes in these cases the problem is you and sometimes the problem is the website. How do you know if the website is down for everyone or just you? I’ve just come across a very easy to use internet tool to determine that. Just go to downforeveryoneorjustme.com, put in the name of the website, and click on the link. The tool will check to see if the site is up or down and will inform you.

2010 Andar Conference DVDs

2010-03-23T11:42:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately, due to a series of issues, we will not be able to provide DVDs of the 2010 Andar Conference as originally planned. Wayne Meadows will be contacting those that purchased a DVD as part of their registration with more specific information about refunding that fee.

Schedule Your Blog to post in the future

2010-03-22T09:33:00.003-04:00

Two weeks ago I was scheduled to write a blog post. I was also scheduled to get a 5:30am plane to North Carolina (so that I could catch a 9:40am flight to Central America). Well, one of those things happened.

My blog was posted.

Turns out, you can schedule your blog posts to be published whenever you want it to show up to your reading public. As I am writing this blog post now, I see below this text box the words "Post Options". That's where you would go to schedule your blog to appear at a future time. Click on that and you can select the Post date and Post time.

And that's a good way to keep your blog updating and dynamic and not to miss a scheduled day for blogging.

Process Explorer

2010-03-18T16:49:00.001-04:00

We’ve all used Task Manager at some point to shutdown an unresponsive application. Just right click the application name and hit End Task. Or even killed the process under the Processes tab. It’s easy enough to find out what process is running for an application that is listed in Task Manager, but what about all the other processes running? How can you identify them if they need to be shut down? This is especially important if you’re working say with an e-pledge server running multiple e-pledge environments. One is hung up and needs to be restarted, but all you see is 5 processes that are jrun.exe. If you right click the process, it doesn’t give you any useful information. That is where Process Explorer comes in. Process Explorer is Task Manager with all the bells and whistles you need to drill down into each process and identify the source. The interface is in the explorer model with a tree in the left pane and the details in the right. The processes are grouped logically, showing what is running as a service, under System, explorer and even your web browsers. It also displays hidden processes that task manager shows as System Idle Process, such as Hardware Interrupts that could be using up CPU without being displayed in Task Manager. The details pane can display not only the PID and CPU usage, but also valuable information such as source directory and command line text. When you’re trying to identify which environment a jrun process is running, the command line text displays it right there in the interface. You can also right click any process and bring up a properties window. Here you can view performance for the specific process. TCP/IP connections, environment and security settings as well as threads being used. Task Manager just can’t give you the information you need to troubleshoot performance on a higher level. Download Process Explorer and see what’s really going on.

Sumo Paint

2010-03-18T13:52:00.000-04:00

I'm a big Apple Macintosh user and unfortunately Apple didn't include a program to create graphics files as part of their standard OS. So the other day I needed to create a graphic for our website and found Sumo Paint - a full featured photo editing / painting application, which works right in your favorite web browser. The application can be used in Windows, Macintosh or Linux operating systems. The only requirement is the Flash Player (which usually comes preinstalled in any OS). Best of all - it is free!

Are You Wearing Green?

2010-03-17T19:20:00.003-04:00

Despite the fact that I have another full time job (Director of Customer Operations), the Andar database administration job sometimes consumes my entire day. A big part of today was spent fixing a situation where we have the same account number assigned to an agency and a donor. We had 9 instances of this duplication. The corrupt data caused the Ranking Rebuild to fail, of all things! Fixing it was not easy.

So on these days, I'm grateful for something to celebrate - Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!

May the good Lord take a liking to you, but not too soon!

Cybercrooks stalk small businesses that bank online

2010-03-17T12:08:00.000-04:00

Since we deal mostly with small businesses I thought our members would find this article interesting.

Wayne Meadows named to the Citrix Customer Advisory Community

2010-03-11T21:53:00.000-05:00

This week I was named to the Citrix Customer Advisory Community. The Citrix Customer Advisory Community is comprised of about 400 global Citrix customers who have agreed to provide input and guidance to Citrix on a variety of issues such as product development and support.

I'm happy to be involved because it means that the UWITC is being recognized for our innovative business model and our use of Citrix's products to provide access to our secure virtual private cloud.

Marjo Daum - Super Star!

2010-03-11T21:41:00.000-05:00

Since the Andar conference ended I've been giving a lot of thought to why some United Ways (and United Way staff people) seem to 'get it' when it comes to collaboration and why some United Ways just don't.

Marjo Daum, Chief Financial Officer from United Way of Washtenaw County, is one of those people who just 'get it'. UWWC became a collaborative member two years ago and we have been hosting their systems ever since. In addition, Jeff Robleto from the UWITC has been assisting them with the setup and support of ePledge. If you were at the conference you may have heard Marjo talk about how Jeff even went to the University of Michigan on their behalf and sold them on running and an ePledge campaign.

Between sessions at the conference, Marjo, Mike Cabat, and I had a conversation about her United Way's need to get more involved in using the web for donor engagement. She told me that she could hire a person to come in and work on it but she didn't think it was a full-time job so she wondered if we couldn't work out a better arrangement to allow them to get and pay for only what they needed by sharing a resource with others. We were only too happy to help!

Marjo could have just gone out and hired a new employee to work on their web donor engagement strategy. She could have been worried about control. She could have been suspicious of others in the United Way system. A lot of people would have been all of those things but Marjo wasn't! She was only concerned with doing the right thing for her United Way and that happened to be working with other United Ways. She was interested in a win/win while so many others would have tried for a one sided victory where they could benefit more than their fair share by giving their 'partner' the short end of the stick.

Time after time we see large United Ways who want to 'collaborate' with other (most often smaller) United Ways by selling them things. They see collaboration as a way to make money to bolster their own shaky budgets. The UWITC isn't about making money. It is about ensuring that all of our members get the best technology and service available at the least expensive cost possible.

Marjo - if others in the United Way system were more like you I can't imagine what United Way could accomplish. You inspire me!

Welcome United Way of Chittenden County!

2010-03-11T21:13:00.000-05:00

I would like to personally welcome the United Way of Chittenden County to the UWITC. We are happy to have them as our newest member and I'm sure they will be very happy with their decision to join the other 70+ United Ways in the collaborative. Of course, they may be seeing more of me than they bargained for - especially during ski season!

Save Your Batteries

2010-03-11T16:15:00.005-05:00

If you're a frequent cellphone user, I'm sure you've been in a situation where you've wished your battery could have lasted just a little longer. Here are a few tips for conserving your cellphone's battery power:

1) Dim the screen brightness.

2) Turn off the features that search for Bluetooth or Wi-Fi signals.

3) Disable automatic email delivery and check it manually.

4) Put your phone in "airplane mode" if you really don't need to receive calls or check email.

5) Download an app that monitors battery life and performance.

With the new lithium-ion batteries used in all cellphones and laptops, it's safe to charge your battery before it's fully drained or not charge the battery fully before disconnecting the charger or power supply (unlike the older nickel cadmium batteries that needed to be fully charged and discharged). At some point in the life of your cellphone or laptop, you may find that your battery needs to be replaced - if a fully-charged battery only lasts an hour before dying, you know it's time to buy a new battery.

Searching More Effectively

2010-03-11T15:01:00.001-05:00

Ever feel like you are spending way too much time trying to find something you need using Google (or any search engine)? You put in your search criteria, comb through the results, don’t find what you are looking for, try new criteria, comb again through the results, etc.? Sometimes I feel that way...particularly if I’m trying to find something that is technical and obscure, but that I know is out there somewhere.

I’ve come across two articles on Techtracer.com that help solve this problem. The articles include tricks and searching methods that help narrow the results to what you are actually looking for. Check them out:

* 10 Most Amazing Google Search Tricks

* 5 Most Exciting Search Tricks with Google Operators

2010 Andar Conference - follow-up information

2010-03-09T12:02:00.000-05:00

We hope you enjoyed the 2010 Andar Conference and we would like to thank those that have provided constructive feedback. There will be a follow-up survey sent in the coming weeks, but in the meantime you can share your thoughts at any time using the suggestion box on the conference web site.

There is also a new page in the "attendees only" section of the site with updated information about flex credits. As you may be aware, United Way Worldwide made a one-time exception this year and agreed to honor flex credits, which is their training reimbursement program, to help cover the cost of up to two people that attended the 2010 Andar Conference. If you are interested in redeeming these credits, please follow the instructions below.

Decide which individuals from your organization will be covered under the flex credits. For those organizations that sent a number of people to the conference, you can choose up to two.
Log in to the conference web site and click on the flex credit link from the menu. You will be presented with a list of everyone from your organization that attended the conference. Place a check in the box next to the person(s) that will redeeming flex credits. Please keep in mind that one person from each organization should be dedicated to submitting this information. If multiple people log in and make slelections, the last submission will overwrite anything before that.
Marcia Struniak from United Way Worldwide will receive the full list of those who wish to use flex credits and will send the necessary redemption form to each individual person listed.

If you have any questions about this process, please let me know. The deadline for logging in and indicating your flex credit preferences is Friday, March 19th. After that time, anyone interested in redeeming flex credits will have to contact Marcia Struniak directly.

Finally, the Wii Olyimpics page has been updated with the results of each contest and a photo of the winners. We would like to add some photos of the Happy Hour and Networking Mixer to those respective pages as well. If you have any pictures from those events that you would like to share, please send them to me.

If you need assistance logging into the conference web site or have any other questions, please let me know. Thanks again for making the 2010 Andar Conference a success!

UWITC to implement 37signals' Basecamp and Highrise

2010-03-08T20:25:00.000-05:00

We are in the process of piloting 37signals' Basecamp and Highrise to assist with the day to day operations of the IT Collaborative. Basecamp will allow us to collaboratively track and manage infrastructure and programming projects while Highrise will give us a common CRM database for our members and prospects. I'll blog more about our pilot once we get farther into it; however, so far I am comfortable saying that these are high quality tools that don't cost a fortune.

You can check them out and get a 30 day free trial for yourself.

Sitemeter

2010-03-08T13:34:00.000-05:00

If you scroll down to the very very bottom of this blog, you should see a new little logo at the bottom for Sitemeter. This is a little something that I found on line to track our traffic to the blog. It has been interesting to view the numbers of readers, the amount of time you spend on the blog, and your general geographical location.

I'm not entirely sure what this information will be good for. Or if, in fact, it will be used in any way. It is free to use though, and it could be a good thing to have on your own website.

Check it out.

An essay by Marc Benioff, the Chairman and CEO of salesforce.com

2010-03-07T20:58:00.000-05:00

SandHill.com debuts a new thought leadership series with Marc Benioff's perspective on what 2020 will bring for the software industry: cloud- and collaboration-driven enterprise agility. This is a good read.

A Successful Andar Conference

2010-03-07T13:09:00.002-05:00

Another Andar Conference has come and gone. As I sat back and assessed whether this conference was a ‘success’, I looked at it from a number of different factors.

As a presenter, I wonder if I presented my material well. While admittedly I am bias on this one, the fact that I was usually able to get through my material, answer a few questions along the way (and that my rooms was actually still pretty full at the end of them) tells me I must have done something right.

As a manager, I looked at the variety of courses and content offered to my co-workers. I saw my staff sitting in classes which showed how Andar could further assist them in their respected job functions. They were also in classes that allowed them to expand their horizons into areas such as ‘Relationship Management’, using the Plans and Tasks feature to promote workflow and using Andar Data Mining Operations to run and email reports automatically. The comments, questions and thoughts generated from attending the conference tells me that invaluable groundwork has been laid within our team; a foundation that can only help to make us more productive in the coming year ahead.

As an attendee of the conference, I always ask myself if I learned something new. For me, I learned how to use SQL in data mining selections and extractions; how PCI compliance has evolved since I worked on the project two years ago; see the details about creating surveys and forms and also simply that I no longer have to use ‘#F#’ at the front of my Andar Connector files.

I think for me all the above contributed to this conference being a ‘success’ however I thought this conference was also a great one. In addition to the above, it gave me a chance to interact with colleagues from across the United Way movement; to share ideas, have a few laughs as well as add to or strengthen my existing relationships. With the system evolving from a ‘transactional’ model to one based on ‘relationship management’, isn’t it great to have seen it flourishing at the 2010 Andar conference here in Philadelphia.

Another Post About the Andar 2010 Conference

2010-03-05T09:09:00.006-05:00

This year was the second time I attended the Andar conference. I went to a fairly equal mix of the Andar and non-Andar classes. The variety of non-Andar classes (VMware, SQL, etc.) available this year were a great asset to the conference and especially informative for the IT people in attendance. This year I was asked to be a presenter - my co-worker and I facilitated the Patriot Act Compliance Tracking best practice session, which generated some good questions and discussions about how United Ways collect and manage this information. Reminder - all conference materials are available on the website. There is a link to follow if you do not remember your username and/or password. Many thanks to Jeff Robleto and the rest of the committee for organizing this conference and a special thank you to all the sponsors for their contributions - Adagio Consulting Group, T-Mobile, CDW, Upic Solutions, NP&AS, Vanguard, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dell, VMware, and NPower. It was nice to finally put some faces to emails and I look forward to seeing everyone again next year in Philadelphia.

Andar Conference 2010

2010-03-04T15:19:00.001-05:00

This was my also my first Andar conference experience. Hate to sound like a broken record, but great job and thank you to Jeff, Wayne, and all of the others on the conference committee. The sessions were great, Dave and Buster’s was a lot of fun, and Wii Olympics was exciting. My only regret was not being able to attend more sessions! Even with three full days, when eight classes are happening at once – you can’t get to everything. Thankfully the presentations and study materials are still on the website and I have a few things bookmarked for next year.

Andar Conference 2010

2010-03-04T13:51:00.003-05:00

This was my first Andar conference and I'm glad that I was able to attend. First let me agree with Jim and Susan, great job to Jeff and all who were involved in organizing the conference. For me it was nice to be able to spend some time with the Collaborative members who I normally just communicate with through e-mail. I attended the non-Andar sessions, and thought they were all very good. Excellent presentations from Adagio, NPower, VMWare, Vanguard and Dell. I was pleased with both the presentations and the attendee participation. It's always good to be in a group willing to ask questions and offer up their experiences for every one's benefit. Congratulations to everyone who won a prize. Not too shabby either with the iPods, HD cameras and the Wii systems. I hope everyone enjoyed their stay in Philadelphia and I look forward to seeing you all again next year.

Andar Conference 2010

2010-03-04T09:54:00.008-05:00

I agree with Jim... GREAT JOB Jeff Robleto and all the others on the conference committee.

I enjoyed all the sessions I attended, even those I mistakenly thought would not have new information I would take away.

I spent a fair amount of time at the conference in the Content Management sessions and will be working on testing the "look and feel" and other components discussed in these sessions. It's great to be able to brand everything in a similar way (newsletters, email, e-Pledge, Agency portal etc). Interesting too is how we can rank the interests using the content management and do targeted marketing with any of the e-Community elements. Also, the Update Subscription feature is going be very helpful when sending newletters.

The e-Pledge/e-Community related sessions had some good take aways as well, such as; additional blank web pages, registration page option using email address verification, auto deduping, new OnlineAccounts warehouse, new language and option on the mass assign web user ids, Loyal Contributor flag, Add Documents via e-Pledge pages, PURLs.

Love that the we no longer need to prefix the first column in the upload files in the connector with #F#. (if on the latest service pack) Also, the RD team having the ability to upload goals and projections will be a great time saver for them.

I also attended the PCI DSS & Red Flag Compliance sessions which I found very informative.

As you can see I attended a diverse group of sessions and enjoyed every one of them. I have only included some key "take aways" that come to mind at this. There was much more I've not even mentioned.

It was great to see some of the attendees from last year, catch up and meet new folks.

Looking forward to seeing you again next year.

ANDAR Conference 2010

2010-03-04T09:06:00.006-05:00

A great job to the planning committee and all the presenters and everyone involved with the successful Conference these past few days.

I'd like to offer some special kudos to Jeff Robleto. As a first hand witness to many of his behind the scenes activity, I can assert that he worked long and hard for a successful conference to happen, and I think he did a great job! Gold Star, Jeff Robleto!

Congrats to the winners of the CDW Sponsored Wii Olympics!

2010-03-04T00:21:00.002-05:00

If you aren't scared you aren't paying attention

2010-03-01T22:58:00.000-05:00

I have blogged in the past about PCI DSS compliance and the complexities surounding it. Today at the 2010 Andar Conference in Philadelphia we were lucky enough to have two top experts from PriceWaterhouseCoopers moderate a session on PCI DSS.   After attending the session all I could think was, "If there are people at the conference who aren't scared about PCI DSS compliance they must not be paying attention!"

The big takeaway for me today was not only do I need to worry about PCI compliance for United Way of Delaware and United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania where I server as CIO but there are also compliance requirements for the IT Collaborative which hosts over 70 other United Way's data.   The biggest requirement we face is as soon as our members cross the 300,000 transaction mark we will be required to hire a 3rd party auditor to come audit our adhearance to PCI DSS. Not only is that going to take a lot of time but a lot of money as well.

The second thing that I have been wrestling for for a long time is the requirement for two factor authentication for remote access. The PWC rep gave a great explaination of what two factor authintication is - something you have and something you know. So for instance, your Active Directory username and password (something you know) and a RSA key fob (something you have). In looking at RSA's website they define two factor authentication as two out of the following three proofs:

• Something known, like a password,
• Something possessed, like your ATM card, or
• Something unique about your appearance or person, like a fingerprint.

What isn't clear to me, and we will have to followup with PWC, is if the requirement specify that anyone who has remote access to our payment system require two factor authentication or only those users who have access to the payment system and also access to the credit card information in the system.

Last, but certainly weighing heavily on my mind, is the question of Andar's compliance. According to PWC since Helix does not have a certificate of a 3rd party review, each United Way must treat Andar as homegrown system and do the audit for themselves. So that begs the question, can the 300 UWs work together in conjunction with Helix to get a 3rd party certification for Andar so we all don't have to do it individually?

Over the next several months as we dig deaper into PCI DSS I will be posting a lot of information on this blog surounding our journy.   Feel free to comment and give your suggestions or ask questions you are dealing with around PCI DSS compliance.

More Very Important Andar Conference Information

2010-02-25T15:29:00.006-05:00

Since Jim blogged about cheesesteaks on Monday, I decided I would deviate from the technology theme as well and provide some information to conference attendees about my favorite eateries in Philly in case anyone decides to venture out for dinner, drinks, or dessert.

1) Tria - salads, sandwiches, wines, beers, and cheeses; 1-1/2 blocks from hotel

2) Devil's Alley - salads, sandwiches, and local beers (PA, NJ, DE); 2 blocks from hotel

3) Square on Square - Chinese restaurant offering dine-in or take-out; 2 blocks from hotel

4) Capogiro - gelato and sorbet; 3-1/2 blocks from hotel

5) Pietro's - Italian food and coal oven pizza; 2 blocks from hotel

6) Naked Chocolate Cafe - chocolate, chocolate, chocolate; across the street from the hotel

7) Continental Midtown - American/Asian fusion cuisine; 1 block from hotel

8) Thai Chef and Noodle Fusion - Thai restaurant; 3 blocks from hotel

9) Alma de Cuba - modern Latin cuisine; 3 blocks from hotel

10) Brown Betty Petite - cupcakes to-go; 4 blocks from hotel

11) Minar Palace - Indian restaurant offering dine-in or take-out; 7 blocks from hotel

12) La Colombe - locally roasted coffee; 3 blocks from hotel

13) Sabrina's Cafe - breakfast all day; 5 blocks from hotel

14) Nodding Head - micro-brewery and restaurant; 4-1/2 blocks from hotel

15) Monk's Cafe - Belgian beer emporium and restaurant; 6 blocks from hotel

16) Tequila's - Mexican cuisine; 5 blocks from hotel

17) Scoop DeVille - ice cream with endless mixings and toppings; 1 block from hotel

Safe travels to Philadelphia! See you at the conference next week!

Does Social Networking Make Us More Productive?

2010-02-24T11:22:00.003-05:00

I’ve come across two online articles that suggest that social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook can actually make us more productive at work:

This article in Wired.com argues that social networking sites can help us to be more creative and find new solutions to problems.

This article in ReadWriteWeb.com points to a study performed by researchers at the University of Melbourne that concludes that people who spend a limited amount of time surfing the Internet at work (less than 20%) are 9% more productive than people that don’t.

I can’t say that I am completely convinced that social networking sites make us more productive at work, but it has made me question some of the assumptions that I’ve had. I’m now curious about how creativity, problem-solving, and productivity really work.

What do you think?

2010 Andar Conference Goes Green!

2010-02-23T23:59:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder that materials for the 2010 Andar Conference are available on the conference web site. Please visit the site to review and, if necessary, print out whatever you might need for the sessions you plan to attend. If you do not see materials for particular session, it is because the trainer or moderator of that session has not yet provided any. But keep checking back as the site is routinely updated. There will also be a printer available on site at the hotel for any last-minute materials that you might need.

Also, please don't forget to visit our own homemade version of Twitter on the conference web site and share your thoughts throughout the conference. Just log in to the conference web site and choose Stream of Consciousness from the main menu.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in less than a week!

UWITC staff totally converted to Google Apps

2010-02-23T23:27:00.001-05:00

On January 19th I wrote that the United Way IT Collaborative (UWITC) was going to be offering Google Apps to our members as an alternative to Microsoft Exchange. From our standpoint, end users don't care what backend server they are using as long as their interface is still Microsoft Outlook.

As of three weeks ago, UWITC staff members completed our migration to Google Apps. Now we each have 7GB mailboxs that are managed by Google, accessed by Outlook, and have superior spam and virus filtering provided by Google. The best part is it is totally free if you are a not for profit.

The total time to setup Google Apps for a new organization (not including transfering legacy email) was less than an hour.

In the next few weeks we will be transfering another 500 users to the new system.

If you would like to learn more about utilizing this system, there will be a class moderated by NPOWER at the Andar Conference next week.

Very Important Andar Conference Information

2010-02-22T09:50:00.002-05:00

To mix things up, I thought I'd use my blog post to talk about cheesesteaks. If you're attending the conference, you are coming to Philadelphia - and you really should know about this stuff.

First of all, I think the best Cheesesteak in Philadelphia comes from Tony Luke's (39 E. Oregon Ave.). This is perhaps a premature assessment. I have not eaten Cheesesteaks everywhere in Philadelphia, but I am not alone in ranking it first. Check out this Zagat guide to the best cheesesteaks here. The roast pork and broccoli rabe are quite delicious too. Come to Philly during baseball season, and you can just get your Tony Luke's right at the stadium!

If you want a fancier sandwich full of deliciousness, I have to recommend Paesanos. Anything here is top notch.

Also, in my humble opinion, "whiz" is not cheese. Opt for some Sharp Provolone if given the opportunity. It'll make all the difference.

What's the "Diff"

2010-02-19T11:00:00.002-05:00

Do you ever have to compare two like excel files for differences? Many times we do this the cheap way and color code one file then merge them together then sort the spreadsheet, then finally view the file for the difference, which is all manual.

I found a really cool tool online called Excel Compare (how original!) it's created by http://www.formulasoft.com/xlsc.html. This application will give you a file of the differences, which is really great and quick. You can demo the application before you purchase it to see if it will meet your business needs.

The cost is between $30-40 depending on what you need. They also have a few other compare tools that may be helpful for application developers.

Hope to see you at the Andar Conference. I'll be facilitating the e-Pledge Best Practice session, so stop by.

Google to Translate with Goggles

2010-02-18T16:46:00.003-05:00

It never fails to amaze me what you can do with a cell phone. Google has an app, Goggles, for Android phones that allows you to search the Internet using photos taken with your phone. At the Mobile World Congress, Google demonstrated the latest prototype of Goggles that will use Google Translate to translate the text in the photos to any of the 52 languages supported by Translate. Amazing that you will be able to let your cell phone be your interpreter while traveling. The only thing I need now is an Android phone...and a European vacation.

It's New Release Time!

2010-02-17T23:34:00.003-05:00

Helix has released Andar 2010.01 so it's that time to take a look at some new functionality and test the features you rely on. A few projects worth noting in this Service Pack...

48427 - New option to download Thank You Letters as PDF files.

50381 - New web pages that require no e-Community License.

49173 - Allocable Designation Report now includes non-workplace donors.

46410 - e-Community pages can now capture Loyal Contributor information.

49471 - Andar now runs as a Service - a session does not actually need to be open on your server.

50449 - Quick Open for envelope from Envelope Maintenance - key envelope number and the envelope opens.

But all of these pale in comparison to the following project, which was funded by the 2009 and 2010 User Group "free hours".

46728 - Donor Choice Payout reports now output a report for each payee. These are saved in a site defined network file path. Also, each report can be emailed to the payee right from Andar. The implications are huge. Not only can we be proactive about getting rep0rts to the payees, we can now DELETE THE PAYOUT because it doesn't have to be sitting in a Completed status in order for agencies to run their reports from the e-Community agency portal. If the payout can be deleted, account merges can take place without delay. And reports can be resent easily if a payee misplaces their data.

Can I get a collective "YES!" ?

Sally Hickland
Director of Customer Operations

Andar Database Tables

2010-02-11T16:47:00.007-05:00

Recently I stumbled onto something (thanks to Andar's Friday Morning Coffee Break newsletter) that I wish I had known about awhile ago. As an application developer, I have periodically needed to access data in Andar's SQL database tables for custom applications or reports. There have been several occasions when I was not sure where the data was stored, but I was able to locate it by looking through a few tables until I found the fields I needed. Unfortunately, I was not aware that Andar had a help feature that would have made my job a lot easier and saved me some time.

As an example, let's pretend you are working on a custom application and need to find the table with donor account numbers. All you need to do to locate this information is follow a few simple steps:

1) Open Andar and pull up the profile for any donor.

2) Go to the Help menu and select the What is this? option.

3) When your cursor changes to an arrow with a question mark, click in the Account Number field.

4) In the window that opens, choose either the About "Account Number" database field or About "Individuals" database file option.

5) The next window that opens will give you table and field information for the data you need.

On an important side note, Andar refers to database tables as database files - so the Individuals database file is actually the Individuals table.

From now on, I will definitely be following the above steps the next time I am searching for fields or tables in the Andar SQL database. I hope someone else can benefit from this information.

P.S. If you haven't yet done so, register for the Andar conference!

IM Speak

2010-02-10T15:47:00.002-05:00

I recently received an email that only had “PCM” in the body of the message. Would you have any idea what that meant? I didn’t. After another email exchange, I learned that PCM was an abbreviation for “Please Call Me”. This was another example of an instant message or Twitter abbreviation used in email correspondence.

I’ve noticed that I increasingly receive abbreviations in short emails instead of words. I’m no stranger to instant messaging or to Twitter and I usually know what the abbreviations mean: FYI (For Your Information), BRB (Be Right Back), IDK (I don’t know), TBA (To be Announced), LOL (Laugh Out Loud), etc. When you have a limited amount of space, abbreviations help you communicate. Even though email isn’t like that (no 140 character limit on this form of electronic communication), people accustomed to communicating through instant messaging or Twitter seem to get in the habit of using these abbreviations in short messages.

The only problem is that I don’t know as many of the commonly used abbreviations as I thought that I did. Internet to the rescue. There are many instant messaging/Twitter dictionaries online. A good source to start with is the AIM Acronym Dictionary. It doesn’t have as many acronyms as many of the other online dictionaries, but it has many of the most common.

G2G. THX.

Andar Conference Update

2010-02-09T14:04:00.002-05:00

The 2010 Andar Conference is less than a month away. In an effort to help you finalize your planning, I wanted to make you aware of some information that is available through the conference web site.

The official agenda has been posted. There are a few changes from the original draft that was published in Real’s Friday morning Coffee Break, so please review it carefully. If you or anyone at your organization that is attending the conference would be interested in running one of the open sessions, please let us know. As an added incentive, anyone chosen will receive a $25 gift card for each session you lead.

As you may have seen on the agenda, there is a question-and-answer session with Helix on Tuesday morning. If you would like to submit a question, use the “Ask Helix” link from the main menu. Please keep in mind that we are accepting questions for this session until Monday March 1st at 4:00. Although not every question will be covered during this session, we will address as many as we can and will also ask Real to post the answers to the questions online.

If you are looking for specific details about the Happy Hour sponsored by UPIC and the Networking Mixer, you can find that information on the site as well. If you are interested in one of these activities and did not indicate it on your original registration form, please let us know.

We are proud to announce that our newest conference sponsor is CDW. CDW will be sponsoring the first annual Andar Wii Olympics at the conference. The winner of the Wii Olympics will receive a new Nintindo Wii. More information about this will be posted in the coming weeks.

Please make sure you are checking in with the web site periodically as we are constantly adding new information as it becomes available. We look forward to seeing you in March!

Comment on a blog post today!

2010-02-08T08:55:00.005-05:00

I would like to encourage our blog readers to comment on our posts. Commenting on the United Way IT Collaborative blog posts is easy to do, and gives you an opportunity to share your wealth of knowledge regarding the subjects about which we write. Below each Blog post you'll see in a different color the word "comments". This will be preceded by a number depending on the number of comments provided already. Here is an example for a blog post about the Andar Conference posted by Jeff:

You'll see here, "0 comments". To leave a comment, simply scroll your cursor over this and click on it. It will then give you an opportunity to share information, provide feedback, or simply to say hello.

Practice commenting on this blog post now!

New Volunteer Site to Rule Them All

2010-02-07T22:58:00.000-05:00

When existing non-profits can not get their act together, smart people come in and use technology to accomplish what all of the 'social service' type people aren't able or willing to get done.

All For Good (www.allforgood.org) was built by a team of individuals from companies (like Google, Facebook, YouTube, etc) and organizations (UCLA, Craigslist Foundation, etc) across the U.S. who volunteered their time and resources. Google is providing the lead engineers, hosting the site, and contributing to the open source project.

All for Good allows an individual to search for volunteer opportunities - not only from allforgood.org but also from many other popular volunteer sites on the internet. Much like the Google search engine itself, this is one stop shopping for what you want to find if you are looking for a place to volunteer.

This is good for individuals looking to volunteer and agencies looking for volunteers; however, for those non-profits (like United Way) who are trying to build an integrated database that allows them to build an all encompassing profile of their constituents around what and where they donate, where they volunteer, etc. it is a problem because this takes one major slice of the pie off their plate. United Ways (which is what we are primarily concerned with) will be unable to build a complete profile without this information. Without a complete profile United Ways will not be able to serve their constituents as effectively as they would otherwise been able to do.

Chrome 4.0

2010-02-04T12:14:00.003-05:00

I started using Google's Chrome web browser right after it was released in beta. The upsides for me include being faster then IE and Firefox, having the Google search engine right in the address bar and tabbed browsing. Sure, IE and Firefox offer tabbed browsing, but the tabs are below the address bar, making the actual browsing screen smaller. Chrome's tabs are above the address bar, where they belong, giving you a full browser screen. The biggest complaint I've read about, is users not being able to use extensions in Chrome. For me it has been Chrome not being supported by sites I need to log into, so I have to open an IE session. Now in version 4, those issue are resolved. Chrome 4.0 now has extensions that translate web pages to another language, display mini Google maps, block ads, take screenshots, set reminders and connect to Facebook or Google Apps. The list goes on and on. My favorite is the IE extension. Now when I get to a site that doesn't support Chrome, I simply click the IE extension and Chrome opens the current page in a new tab using the IE extension. The IE tab has all the functionality of IE right inside the Chrome browser. Now there is no reason for me to use anything but Chrome. Try it out for yourself. You may be the next to leave IE behind.

Are You Investing?

2010-02-03T18:24:00.005-05:00

Happy February!

It's almost time for the Andar Users conference so my thoughts turn to enhancing our software and training employees. These investments should be a priority for every organization, but it's value is often overlooked when it comes time to budget.

Consider this: you expect your CFO or Finance executive to stay abreast of Tax and Accounting Law or you lose your non-profit privilege. Someone has to know how to run the payroll software or no one gets paid. When you hire ten new staff, you purchase ten new PCs. When your directors want new paint and furniture, you jump right on it. OK, three out of four? My point is that some things you'd never dream of neglecting. Your enterprise software solution and investment in staff training should not be considered a luxury.

Time is money. If your staff is spending large blocks of time producing that dreaded Weekly Report, or you are getting complaints about how bad that Standard M Report is, an enhancement might be your best investment. If no one can figure out why the receipt file is multiple records per person; if it takes two weeks to get the newsletter mailing right; if fundraisers and checkoffs and allocable dollars are making you dizzy - you might be ripe for some training!

Of nearly 300 United Ways that use Andar, only 12 funded enhancements via the User Group in 2009. Only 9 United Ways funded enhancements outside the User Group in 2009. I don't have statistics on how many existing United Way Andar sites invested in Andar training. This is a wasted opportunity for many of us. I think it's astonishing how little we take advantage of a very cooperative and open forum provided by Helix. We're so lucky that we have this kind of relationship with Helix. I can't call Bill Gates and tell him to add a new "Working Remotely" status to Outlook's Calendar. He wouldn't listen to me even if I wanted to pay for the enhancement! And I haven't been to a Microsoft conference in... forever!

So keep in mind that the Conference is a unique and convenient opportunity to make both training and enhancement investments in the future health of your United Way. And if you're sick of the Standard M Report, come see me at the conference. And bring your wallet. It's an investment!

Sally Hickland
Director of Customer Operations

A follow up on Remote Deposit Capture

2010-02-02T13:31:00.001-05:00

About two months ago (wow has it been that long already – time flies when you have holidays and are buried in the middle or processing season:)), I did a blog on the benefits of Remote Deposit Capture (RDC). Since that time I have come up with some additional thoughts and insights to share on our experience with Remote Deposit Capture.

The first thing I will share is this – Don’t take ordering the scanner lightly. The bank you are working with will probably offer you a selection of approved scanners to choose from. Not all scanners are equal or cost the same and it definitely is worth a few extra dollars to get the scanner you want. Features like auto endorsers or large image per minute rates may be nice to have’s, but an auto-feeder and a hopper to hold the scanned checks are not. Trust me when I say, without these last two features, you will regret your scanner decision every time you make a deposit.

Another insight is – Make sure you receive the scanner you thought you ordered. When the scanner does arrive, avoid acting like the kid on their birthday that must play with the new toy immediately. Instead, look at the box, packing label and manuals carefully to ensure that the scanner you ordered is the one that actually arrived and is what you expected. If you haven’t installed the ink cartridge or used the equipment yet, you usually have some options if you received the wrong one or you don’t like what you bought. Remember this rule - once you use your scanner, it is yours to keep.

A final note in this area is – Setting up the scanner is a straightforward process, if you follow the instructions carefully. This may sound like a no-brainer, but if you want to save yourself an hour or two with tech support you will heed this advice wisely. Most, remote depots capture installations are expected to be done by the customer themselves and therefore the instructions are laid out with that in mind. In our installation, I found setting up the scanner to be quite easy. Granted with 20+ years of working in IT behind me, I would hope this would be the case; however this experience almost cost me dearly. I had to restrain myself from merely attaching the USB cord and turning the scanner on. When it says ‘Install the software driver before attaching the scanner to your computer’, they really mean it. If your remote data capture system is web based like ours, you will also have to confirm some advanced security settings on your browser (or the scanned check images won’t transfer correctly), and yes the browser typically matters – sorry Safari and Firefox, Internet Explorer appears to be the browser of choice for RDC developers.

My other words of wisdom have to do with the operational and procedural aspects of RDC. These include:

• If possible, Sort your checks by physical size. Doing this seems to help the auto-feeder respond correctly and reduces check miss-feeds as you run your deposits through the scanner.

• Develop a system for storing the physical checks. RDC adds an additional layer of responsibility to users of the system because they are now responsible for the storage and safekeeping of the remotely deposited checks. You need to retain the physical checks for a certain period of time; however the pile of remotely deposited items will only get bigger as the campaign season progresses. Having a system, such as keeping deposits in folders or envelopes by date, will help when it comes time to retrieve and destroy the checks at the end of the your identified retention period.

• Invest in a good shredder. Even though a check is scanned and deposited using RDC, it is still considered a ‘live’ financial instrument that can be re-scanned or re-deposited if brought to a bank. Once you are assured that the deposited funds are in the bank and your identified retention period is over, you need to destroy the physical checks. Running them through a confetti-cut shredder should do the trick!

Remote Deposit Capture has saved us time and has been convenient to use, but putting the system in place does require a little upfront panning to make it a success. I hope these thoughts and insights help you with your planning process as you are considering the possibility of implementing it within your organization

Website Security

2010-01-28T16:39:00.003-05:00

One relatively simple way to protect your website and its visitors is by purchasing and installing an SSL certificate on your web server. An SSL certificate is special code that provides website identification information and security for online communications on your website. The SSL certificate verifies the identity of your website and provides an encrypted connection for each visitor.

When you visit a website with an SSL certificate, you should see a padlock and https in the address bar. Any website that collects someone’s personal information – such as name, address, phone, email – should have an SSL certificate. Websites that collect confidential or sensitive information – such as credit card numbers and social security numbers – should definitely have an SSL certificate (and this data should be encrypted in the database to provide additional security).

For example, when you registered for the Andar conference (there's still time!), you may have noticed that a padlock appeared and http changed to https, which verifies that the website is registered to the United Way IT Collaborative and that all information you enter will be encrypted as it is transferred through cyberspace.

If you would like information about purchasing an SSL certificate for your website, visit GoDaddy.com or Register.com (UWITC does not recommend or endorse either vendor).

Let down by the iPad

2010-01-28T10:52:00.001-05:00

I have been waiting for months with great anticipation for the revealing of Apple's new iPad as rumors flew around the internet that it would be launched any day.

Yesterday, it finally happened and you can watch Steve Job's unveil the new device here.

I must say, I was disappointed by the device. It looks cool - mostly like a giant iPod touch - but I was hoping that it would contain the full Mac OS and give you all the functionality that you can have on your desktop computer.

As far as I can tell, the iPad only has the iPod touch functionality with the addition of eBooks. And of course, the device uses AT&T's crappy network for wireless internet which is a huge blow.

With all that being said, I will of course be one of the first people to buy one.

Don't Fall for Phishing Scams

2010-01-27T11:30:00.004-05:00

I’ve seen a number of news articles predicting that phishing scams will be on the rise this year. What is phishing? Phishing is a scam designed to steal personal information such as username, password, credit card, or bank information by tricking the victim into thinking that they are giving this information electronically to a source that they trust (their local bank, their favorite auction site, their favorite social website, etc.) A popular method of phishing is to send the victim an email or text message with a link to a fake website that looks like the real site. When the user goes to the fake site and enters their username and password, the scammer now has that login and password information to the legitimate site.

Check out this article from Wired.com for more information on how to identify a phishing scam and how to protect yourself from it.

2010 Andar Conference Agenda

2010-01-26T15:38:00.010-05:00

There have been a lot of inquiries lately about the agenda for the 2010 Andar Conference. Some of you may have seen the first draft that Helix shared last week. Please be aware that while that may serve as a good guideline for general planning, the final schedule is not yet official and all sessions are subject to change. As we try to add some advanced sessions as well as other topics specifically requested in the conference surveys, we might need to move some of the existing classes to alternate days or timeslots. This may also include Wednesday afternoon, which is traditionally lighter because many of the attendees have already left to catch their flights home. We realize some people don't have a choice and we will do everything we can to accomodate. But the only way to make sure you don't miss anything is to be there for the entire conference. Please consider that when making your travel arrangements. A final agenda will be published soon.

Mail Merge Toolkit

2010-01-25T09:48:00.003-05:00

Need to e-mail a number of Agencies to let them know a payout has just been made? Do you have a list of donors you need to notify regarding an ineligible Agency designation? Do you want to get the word out to recently added Agencies that they have been added to your database and they now have access to on-line reporting? Consider using a mail-merge toolkit that I've been using for just such a purpose for a couple of years now. MAPILab - Mail Merge Toolkit has been an invaluable resource for this task. You can even download a 30-day trial version to see if it fits into your work-lifestyle.

forfiles....For Files

2010-01-21T16:21:00.004-05:00

We use Red Gate for our SQL backups and I configure the jobs to delete older backups. I also have some jobs copying the backup files to another location on the network for replication. Once these files are copied, they can no longer be managed by Red Gate. So I needed and automated way to manage these files to keep the disk space usage at a minimum. I found forfiles.exe, which is part of the Server 2003 Resource Kit tools. Forfiles commands, found here, can be put into a batch file which Scheduled Tasks can run on your set schedule. Files can be managed by type, size, date or location. One scheduled batch files now keeps my replicated directory at the same stage as my Red Gate managed directory.

Andar Enhancements

2010-01-21T10:17:00.003-05:00

I wanted to share a few of my favorite enhancements from the latest round of Service Packs. (We just installed 2009.03. The Service Pack for 2010.01 is due any day so those are not included here.)

1. 48859 - Ability to Select and Extract User IDs and Passwords. This means we'll be able to assign them to residential donors and then merge them into a paper letter. By encouraging them to pledge online, we reduce paperwork and since we'll have their email address, next year we can send email instead of paper. This might also reduce our duplication with accounts being created online each year - they'll use the same account.

2. 47957 - Added Campaign Account and Name to the Envelope Maintenance window. So simple, so helpful!

3. 43248 - New System Preferences mean you can import an AR Payment envelope and not end up with a hundred envelopes - one for each company.

4. 49498 - A single program account can now be associated with more than one agency in the Donor Choice structure. For example, before you had to create lots of "Meals on Wheels" accounts - one for each Jewish Community Center location. Now you can merge them all together. (Don't take this example literally!)

5. 48528 - In Connector, the Possible Matches list will now display the Employer. Can I get an "Amen!"

These are some of my favorites... please comment on yours!

Sally Hickland
Director of Customer Operations
United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania

Google Apps coming to the United Way IT Collaborative

2010-01-19T13:47:00.001-05:00

Today I inked a deal with Sheep Dog to assist the United Way IT Collaborative with moving to Google Apps - specifically for messaging services.

Recent improvements in Google's service - including AD integration, mobile device support, single sign-on, Outlook integration, and Exchange Migration support - now make it feasible (and at FREE for non-profits under 3000 users very cost effective) to move to the Google platform for messaging. Gone will be our headaches about backup / restore, spam and virus filtering, and disaster recovery because Gmail for business offers 25 GB of storage per user, powerful spam filtering, BlackBerry and Outlook interoperability, and a 99.9% uptime!

e-Mail

2010-01-19T10:01:00.003-05:00

Heads up!

There was a change to one of the system preferences under the e-Business tab in version 2009.03.04.

The "delay between email batches" was changed from milliseconds to SECONDS. If not changed this could effect how long it will take for your email messages to complete.

Here are the system preferences to review:

Google Code University

2010-01-15T21:00:00.000-05:00

Google - which offers so many useful tools - has a great site that provides tutorials and sample course content so you can learn more about current computing technologies and paradigms. The site is called Google Code University and you should check it out.

Google Analytics

2010-01-14T16:18:00.006-05:00

Google Analytics is a free, easy-to-use program that you can set-up to track traffic on your website. This tool tracks site visits, page views, number of pages viewed per visit, average time on site, and percentage of visits that are new. This data is then broken down to show the number of visits per day, visits by country, number of visits per page, traffic sources, browser type, and connection speed. You can view this data by accessing your Google Analytics profile online or by signing up for automated emails that will send you this information on a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis in PDF or CSV format.

Below is a sample dashboard that shows basic visitor information for a website.

If you are a United Way IT Collaborative member who is using the website template, please contact Bill Bradshaw or Sabra Williams if you would like Google Analytics for your website.

Backing up Andar (or any SQL database) and shrinking it at the same time.

2010-01-13T15:44:00.002-05:00

Redgate software's slogan - 'Ingeniously Simple Tools' - is right on the money. We own and use many of their SQL tools but we couldn't live without the SQL Backup tool.

This tool has many handy features for Andar users - especially those United Ways with very large databases. It not only allows you to backup your databases on whatever schedule you would like, encrypt your backups, transfer the backup file to your network, compare your backup files and delete old backup files (among many other features) but it will also allow you to shrink the backup file to a fraction of the original. For instance, Philadelphia's database is approaching 200GBs; however, can fully backup the database into a 20GB file.

You can download any of the tools from Redgate and try it out at no charge for a month.

Finding Needles in a Haystack

2010-01-13T12:36:00.002-05:00

Have you ever needed to compare data in two different tables (whether in the same database or in different databases)? Maybe you tried to write complicated queries to perform the comparison or maybe, if the record counts were small enough, you exported the data into Excel or some other spreadsheet application to help with the comparison?

I was in a similar situation recently. I needed to compare data in two very large tables on two different servers. I was prepared to perform the comparison myself when I did a little hunting on Google and found a better way. SQL Server (versions 2005 and higher) provides a command prompt utility called Tablediff to perform a compare data comparison. The data can be in different database or even on different servers. Tablediff will not only tell you exactly what is different between the tables, but also will provide a SQL script for you to run to fix the discrepancies.

Check out this article on MSDN for more information.

2010 Andar Conference Survey

2010-01-12T08:04:00.002-05:00

If you have registered to attend the 2010 Andar Users Conference, you should have received an E-mail yesterday with your User ID and Password for the United Way IT Collaborative website. Once you have logged in, you will be able to access a variety of information about the conference. You can verify your personal registration options or review a list of all the 2010 attendees. The website will be available and continually updated throughout the months leading up to the conference, but there is one feature that I would encourage you to look at right away.

We have created a survey that includes a list of sessions from previous conferences with the intended audience and a brief description of the content. We are giving registered attendees the option to indicate which sessions they would be interested in attending in 2010. There are also additional fields at the end of the survey to request any other topics which may not be listed. This information will be used to create the final agenda and maximize the conference experience for everyone. But the survey is only available for a very short time, so please complete it today!

Attendee Only section of the 2010 Andar Conference is now open!

2010-01-11T15:37:00.001-05:00

If you have not received your login information for the conference website, please contact Jeff Robleto.

Whale Done

2010-01-11T08:09:00.004-05:00

A good book on management is Whale Done! Here is a brief video review. This is a short inspirational book akin to Who Moved My Cheese. I enjoyed it and appreciated the ideas behind it. Perhaps you will too.

Easy FTP

2010-01-08T09:19:00.008-05:00

WinSCP is a simple FTP utility that allows you to transfer files easily to your servers, all you need is port 21 to be open. There is no need to set up an FTP server on the destination server, so getting all your Andar fix files to your e-pledge servers is nice and easy. Plus, it works on Linux based servers as well, so it's perfect for moving files to an ESX server for VMware. You can download the client here, http://winscp.net/eng/index.php. Create profiles for each server you need access to, enter and save your credentials. Then you can just double click the profile you need and you get a simple explorer window where you can drag and drop from your local PC to the destination server. It doesn't get any easier than that.

Tax Receipting Time is Here!

2010-01-05T17:37:00.011-05:00

The first part of a new year is tricky for Processing. Because IRS Tax Receipts must be sent by the end of January, there is a big push to get anything resembling a payment posted in Andar. Everyone is on alert to get these envelopes closed:

Workplace Envelopes in Audit
Workplace Envelopes still sitting on ECCs' Desks
e-Pledge Envelopes, including the Miscellaneous Envelope
Payment Envelopes/Daily Mail

Many of these envelopes contain payments for donors that should be receipted in 2009, and the donors cannot be receipted if the envelopes aren't closed. And don't forget, we're concerned about TAX YEAR 2009, not Campaign Year 2009, so even payments for prior years have priority.
In January, envelopes containing payments that are deposited prior to January 1 can be "backdated" to the deposit date (December 28, for instance) with the Accounting Date. There are two immediate benefits: reconciliation to the bank statement is easier if the transactions hit the GL the same day the payments hit the bank, and donors can be receipted for the 2009 tax year. This should be standard practice in any Andar shop. In fact, you should backdate ANY envelope to the deposit date, even when it doesn't cross years.

But what about payments that you deposit in January but the checks were written days - or months - before? If you backdate to the deposit date (January 4, for instance), the donor will be receipted in the 2010 tax year. If you backdate to December 31, you'll have issues with reconciliation.

You don't have to use an accounting date that is not the deposit date! Just date your envelope as you normally would. And for specific transactions, if it's your intent to credit the donor for tax year 2009 (regardless of when you actually deposited the check), use the RECEIPT SELECTION DATE on the transaction.

You can enter the date of the check or just enter 12/31/2009. Since this is entered at the transaction level, transactions can have different dates within an envelope. You can leave the date blank on payments that really were made out in January, and enter a December date for payments that the donor wrote out in September.
What makes this possible is the ability to select receipts based on Receipt Selection Date. In Finance > Receipts/IRS Tax Letters > Generate Receipts > Create Receipts, simply select Receipt Selection Date as the Date Type:

If there is a Receipt Selection Date on the transaction, Andar will use that; otherwise, the Accounting Date is used to determine if the transaction is receiptable in the selected year.
Happy Receipting!
Sally Hickland/Director of Customer Operations

Questions to think about when you are asked to handle Out of Area processing

2010-01-05T16:54:00.002-05:00

A few months ago I was emailed the following question.

‘Can you let me know if we will accept scanned pledge forms from Company X? This is the company’s first time running a national United Way Campaign (40 locations) using paper pledge forms. Will it be ok for us to accept pledge forms by site in this format or do we still need to request the original paper forms’

From the account manager’s perspective I am sure it was a straightforward request, namely ‘Do we accept scanned pledge forms’. My brain on the other hand immediately jumped back to the days of taking tests in college; you know, where you have to re-read the question 15 times to get at what is actually being implied in order to respond to the question correctly.

While my answer could have easily been ‘Sure, as long as the scanned pledge card images display the donors’ signatures on them’ and went back to the other pile of projects needing my attention, I quickly realized that I would be spending a lot more of my life on this account once the images actually arrived.

As Director of Processing Operations, I get these types of questions a lot. Any time words like ‘national campaign’ or ‘x number of locations’ are mentioned, I know I have to (as on the college test) put on my thinking cap and understand what is being implied.

In order to get my arms around the problem, I came up with the following questions:

1. Are we the headquarters location for the company?
2. Are we doing the company’s national processing?
3. Do we have a list of the locations participating in the campaign?
4. How many employees work at these locations?
5. How many pledge forms are we expecting?
6. Is the company identifying which location is providing the pledge forms?
7. Does the card have a zip code on it to help us identify which United Way service area is associated with the donor?
8. Is the company using our pledge forms?
9. What giving options were allowed in the campaign (Check, Credit Card, ACH, Bill Me, Payroll, etc.)?
10. If credit card, debit card or ACH options are presented, should we process the actual charge?
11. Are there designations on the pledge cards – If so, is the company using our agency code numbers?
12. Is the company expecting us to pay the designations?
13. If so, are we also responsible for paying the donors’ designations from all locations?
14. Is the company expecting us to provide a payroll file back to them?
15. Are there any special instructions or arrangements that we need to know about?

These questions assist our United Way and provide our processing team with the information needed to handle the account correctly the first time around.

Hopefully this list gives you the cheat sheet needed the next time you are posed ‘a simple question’ by an account manager or you have to take the college err…. United Way test known as Out of Area processing :)

Clean it up!

2010-01-04T12:20:00.004-05:00

The New Year for me is clean up time...

I'll review the email templates, Web Notes, Web Options and Web User accounts. Most of the time I'll keep the current version of most notes and email templates along with last campaign year's and delete anything older. We'll also review the web notes and web options for obsolete items at this time as well. As far as Web User accounts I'll delete all donor accounts created from the last campaign in one fells swoop. To do so, select Web User Maintenance from the ecommunity->administration menu and then select "All Web Permissions" and then "Mass Delete" (below is the sample copy of the screen.)

Happy New Year !!

2010 Andar Conference Registration

2009-12-29T11:14:00.003-05:00

Happy Holidays!!!

We are just over two months from the start of the 2010 Andar Users Conference, which is March 1-3 in Philadelphia. For those that have already registered, we look forward to seeing you there! If you have not signed up, you can click on the link below to access the registration form:

https://www.unitedwayitcollaborative.org/andarconference/registration.asp

The "About Me" section of the form is simply your name and other general contact information. The "Payment Info" section should be self-explanatory. The "Andar Use" section deals with your personal experience using Andar. The reason we need this information is so that we can customize the conference based on the background of those that will be attending. For those who may not be aware, the official agenda has not yet been set. Anyone who registers early will have a voice in deciding what topics are covered at the conference.

Some questions have been asked about the various registration options. In order to make the conference more accesible to everyone, certain elements have been broken out into separate items which allow you to choose your level of participation. For example, the traditional host city event is now optional. It is listed on the form as a networking mixer. It is sure to be a great evening and I encourage everyone to attend, but we also want to be flexibile and allow those with budgetary concerns to keep things affordable. There is another networking opportunity at the hotel on the first night of the conference and, as in past years, it costs nothing extra to attend. However, you are requested to register in order to obtain an accurate headcount. And lastly, if you usually find the information provided at these conferences to be helpful and wish you could share it with the rest of your staff, you now have the option to purchase a DVD of all the sessions. It will be compiled shortly after the conference is over and mailed to your United Way location.

If you have any questions about any of this, please don't hesitiate to contact me. Thanks and I hope to see you in March!

Easy Button

2009-12-28T07:59:00.005-05:00

Are you familiar with the Pledge Replication page? It's a new web option introduced May of this year. If you've not seen it - check this. The web option is called "Enable Pledge Replication from Prior Year". This option allows donors to pledge and designate same as last year, but will also allow them to increase their pledge amount by a percentage or change the pledge completely. Or the donor can choose to keep the pledge amount the same, but leave their pledge undesignated. If the donor uses the pledge replication they are taken directly to the preferences page which is why some of our companies have called this the pledge easy button. (three steps and pledging is done!) We've renamed the Title page "Rapid Pledge". This option has been very successful with 25% of donors using this feature this campaign season. We had several companies who have been asking for this option for the last few years and they are very thrilled to finally see it available. The pledge replication page is only presented to those donors who had pledged Cash, BILL ME, Payroll or Securities and do not have any adjustments to their transaction from the prior year. (credit card pledge may also appear if their card card numbers are not being purged from the database).

By default the following web notes are available to be used for Web Pledge Replication:

Web Pledge Replication - Change Pledge Option
Web Pledge Replication - Extra (should be Exact) Replicate Option
Web Pledge Replication - Increase Amount Option
Web Pledge Replication - Pledge Options Heading
Web Pledge Replication - Undesignation Option
Web Pledge Replication - Designation Option Heading
Web Pledge Replication - Message on Force
Web Pledge Replication - Prior Year Pledge Undesignate Info Message
Web Pledge Replication - Replicate Designation Option
Web Pledge Replication Bottom Note
Web Pledge Replication - Title
Web Pledge Replication - Top Note

FYI - To analyze the percentage of donors using this option the word "Replicated" can be found in the comments on the donor transaction records and can be data mined.

ePledge kickoff options

2009-12-28T07:48:00.004-05:00

I have found that companies will initiate their ePledge campaigns in one of two ways. The standard way is to have the United Way send out individualized links via e-mail to all of the participating associates. This is easy enough. The company merely needs to send us a data file with properly functioning e-mail addresses for each individual.

The alternative method to initiating an ePledge campaign is when a company decides to handle all communications internally. In those cases, the data file sent over to the United Way typically has two columns of data included for each employee: User ID and Password. These User ID and Password criteria are either easily identifiable pieces of information known to each associate, or they are created based on some formula thought up by the company. For example, Company ABC might create a formula for their User ID such that donor John Smith's User ID would be [Name of the Company] + [Donor Last Name] + [Donor Birth Year]. As John Smith was born in 1963, his User ID would be ABCSMITH1963.

In the case of the alternative method to initiating an ePledge campaign, it is usually more than helpful to include on the login screen a Web Login Note. There are two available to the eCommunity Manager. Web Login Note 1 appears above the login boxes. Web Login Note 2 appears below. Decide which one looks best and include the company's log-in criteria guidelines to assist donors in logging in.
Here's an example:

Running a campaign like this gives the company a lot of freedom to choose the frequency of their staff reminders.

Disk space analyzer

2009-12-24T15:26:00.003-05:00

Getting alerts for low disk space on a server can be stressful at times. Not enough disk space can cause many different types of problems. Users may be unable to save data to a share or Andar may stop working as log files cannot be written to. Sometimes you know where the disk space went, and sometimes it's a mystery. I've found another free utility that takes the guess work out of disk space usage. WinDirStat, http://download.cnet.com/windows/3055-2248_4-10614593.html?tag=pdl-redir, takes seconds to download and install, and saves countless hours of troubleshooting. Select the disk to analyze and WinDirStat breaks down the usage by folder and file types, including hidden files and protected operating system directories. Don't wonder where the space has gone, know for sure.

Keeping House with Andar Rebuilds

2009-12-23T00:17:00.004-05:00

All the experts say you should change your furnace filter, sweep your chimney, and replace the filter in your heating unit - on a regular basis. By the same token, Andar requires some regular upkeep. Some rebuilds are to keep corrupt data in check, others - such as the Ranking rebuilds - are necessary to get updated information because the data isn't updated interactively. I recommend you schedule the following rebuilds:

Monthly
Rebuild Ranking Summary (Prior Year)
Rebuild Ranking Rollup Summary (Prior Year)
Synchronize Designations (each active payout year)
Cleanup DataMining Workfiles

BiWeekly
Rebuild Has Data
Create Missing Undesignated

Weekly
Rebuild Ranking Summary (Current Year)
Rebuild Ranking Rollup Summary (Current Year)
Rebuild Management Summary (Prior Year)
Rebuild Indexes

Daily
Rebuild Management Summary (Current Year)
Cleanup Job Logs and Output

It's a good rule of thumb to submit rebuilds as the user "Andar" and to monitor them regularly. Also, revisit them as part of your rollover checklist. At that time, you will want to end some, submit new jobs for the new year. It's easy to keep tabs on your scheduled rebuilds if document them in a spreadsheet.

I'm much better about my scheduled Andar jobs than my home maintenance! Now where did I put that chimney sweep?