[support] Re: honest opinion about ebase?

[Maria Pellerano]

Hi,   I am the person who did not like Paradigm.  I mostly did not like it because it was VERY proprietary.  As Clif noted the costs for proprietary software are high when you want to make changes to suit your organization.  Our organization wanted to track our newsletter with the software.  This was not a donor publication but a newsletter on environmental issues that people purchase from us.  The folks at Paradigm said we could do this with the few customizable fields that come with the program but they were wrong.  They offered to write an add on program but they wanted a lot of money.  I was also going to have to pay for six reports that I need for various functions (renewals, trials, mailing, etc.) that we generate each week for the newsletter.  This almost doubled the price.  The other problem was that $2,900 will buy you a single-user version but not a networked version.  We were quoted $7,000 for a networked version with five users.   There were other problems with the software as well.  The most notable for us was that it did not handle foreign zip codes very well at all.  They said it would be addressed in future releases.    I spent six months trying to make Paradigm work -- fortunately for me I had embedded in our contract that we would not pay for it unless the software could be customized to produce our mailing and other necessary lists for our newsletter.   I love Ebase because it is completely customizable.  With some training people can manage it and make simple changes as well as write reports to their own specifications.    -- Maria       ================================================== Maria Pellerano, Associate Director Environmental Research Foundation Rachel's Environment & Health News P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD  21403-7036 Phone: (410) 263-1584; Fax: (410) 263-8944 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Web site: http://www.rachel.org/ ==================================================         ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: TechRocks Support Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 9:28 AM Subject: [support] Re: honest opinion about ebase? When I'm consulting with clients on developing fundraising programs, I usually advise them to move away from creating their own software and instead consider an off the shelf package. Why - because they were paid to be fundraisers not computer programmers, because within a very few years their custom made system will be completely corrupted, lack any retrievable documentation, and put them right back into the fundraising management hole that they started out in. Now, because I work with a lot of small and medium sized organizations, they can't spring up front for a $3000 package such as Giftmaker Pro or Paradigm (both of which I like a lot - I was wondering why the person who didn't like paradigm didn't like it). So, I've been asking them to consider looking at ebase because based on my very quick review, it seemed that the package was at least useable and would meet basic needs. Now that I'm on the listserve, I'm beginning to question my referrals. If they have to buy Filemaker Pro and spend half their life customizing the package, scrolling through archives from online support, and participating on this listserv to get help because the package just doesn't work, in my opinion, they may be better off with their homegrown customized software and devoting all the time they are spending trying to make ebase work well for them raising money instead so that they can purchase an off the shelf system that works and has 800 telesupport and strong product development. (or spend the $600 for etapestry training). (By the way, I saw a fabulous prototype from Campagne called Alchemy which finally does what computer software is supposed to do - provide people with the tools to be fundraising managers, not database slaves. So ... am I right? Gayle ********************************************** Gayle L. Gifford, CFRE General Partner Cause & Effect, LLC [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------ Reminder to each recipient: To change your list account preferences, go to http://email.sparklist.com/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=support and enter the email address you used to subscribe to the ebase support list:: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ebase - Relationship Management for Nonprofits, http://www.ebase.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------ Reminder to each recipient: To change your list account preferences, go to http://email.sparklist.com/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=support and enter the email address you used to subscribe to the ebase support list:: archive@jab.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ebase - Relationship Management for Nonprofits, http://www.ebase.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------