Convio Charter Program Ushers In New Era of Constituent Relationship Management Solutions.Convio, Partners and Clients Leverage Industry leading Force.com Platform from Salesforce.com to End the "Take it or Leave it" Era of Legacy Donor Database Vendors AUSTIN, Texas -- Convio, Inc. today announced the Aikido aikido: see martial arts. aikido Japanese art of self-defense. It employs locks and holds and utilizes the principle of nonresistance to cause an opponent's own momentum to work against him or her. Charter Program for the company's new, open, Web-based constituent relationship management (CRM (Customer Relationship Management) An integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule and control the presales and postsales activities in an organization. ) system for tracking all constituent interactions across all channels, online and offline. Built on salesforce.com's Force.com Platform, the product offers an on-demand solution that easily integrates with other open systems to provide powerful tools that help nonprofits focus on their mission, fundraising, advocacy and communications results instead of managing and maintaining software and technology. Currently deployed by selected nonprofit organizations Nonprofit Organization An association that is given tax-free status. Donations to a non-profit organization are often tax deductible as well. Notes: Examples of non-profit organizations are charities, hospitals and schools. , the product, code-named Aikido, is expected to be generally available in the second half of 2008. "Nine years ago, we pioneered the use of Software as a Service (SaaS) to help nonprofits build relationships and drive results using the Internet," said Gene Austin, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Convio. "Our clients have asked us to bring our experience and expertise to tackle the limitations, hassles and headaches of their legacy donor database systems. It became clear that the lack of innovation from vendors meant that organizations were simply paying to store and maintain information. Aikido will help them use data to raise money more effectively and advance their missions." The new offering provides nonprofits: * Feature rich donor management and gift tracking capabilities, as well as advocacy and volunteer management features, * A single view of constituents and better management of all interactions be they online or offline, * A system built on an open technology platform, Force.com, for greater flexibility and more highly customizable features, * An affordable, full featured solution with a pricing structure that matches the operational needs of nonprofits, * The ability to reduce IT costs and burdens by eliminating the need to invest in and maintain computer and network systems as with traditional providers, * Access to numerous third-party applications available from the salesforce.com AppExchange marketplace, * Access to a large, diverse set of salesforce.com partners and Convio Fusion partners who provide a wide range of consulting, implementation and other services, and * Simplified application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow data to be shared real-time with other systems, including Convio's suite of online fundraising Online fundraising is the use of Internet-based technology, marketing and communication techniques by non-profit organizations to bring in revenue, frequently as donations. , advocacy and marketing applications. ABOUT THE AIKIDO CHARTER PROGRAM Clients and partners are participating in the Charter program to provide feedback on the product's functionality and usability. Charter program members have already been involved in the testing and creation of the Aikido and have begun to make the software available to their entire organizations after migrating data from legacy systems. Charter Program insight and feedback has been critical to driving the products initial success. * "Aikido is an affordable way for me to manage constituent relationships compared to my previous system," said Alan Graham Alan Graham is a retired politician in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. He was served the longest consecutive term of anyone in the history of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, having first been elected in the 1967 general election and re-elected in 1970, , President and Founder, Mobile Loaves and Fishes loaves and fishes Jesus multiplies fare for his following. [N.T.: Matthew 14:15–21; John 6:5–14] See : Miracle . "Being built on open technology also gives me the freedom to choose the appropriate software applications, without worrying about integration headaches." * "The flexibility of the system and the ability to customize virtually every aspect of the product is very impressive," said Rem Hoffmann, President, Exponent exponent, in mathematics, a number, letter, or algebraic expression written above and to the right of another number, letter, or expression called the base. In the expressions x2 and xn, the number 2 and the letter n Partners. Exponent Partners helps nonprofits use information technology to carry out their missions more efficiently and effectively. "When clients need or want changes, the combination of Convio's expertise, experience and the flexibility of the Force.com platform make implementing changes easy. Things that could take months with legacy donor database systems will happen when needed with this product." * Jessica Curtis, Program Manager with Science and Management of Addictions (SAMA sama In Sufism, the practice of listening to music, chanting, and dancing as a means of producing a state of religious ecstasy and mystical trance. Practitioners hold that music prepares the soul for a deeper comprehension of divine realities and a better appreciation of ) added, "Hosting our own database was never a viable option since our staff needs secure remote access and we simply don't have the resources to maintain it. With Aikido we don't have to worry about backups, maintenance, upgrades or IT related management, and it is availability anytime, anyplace an·y·place adv. To, in, or at any place; anywhere. See Usage Note at everyplace. Adv. 1. anyplace - at or in or to any place; "you can find this food anywhere"; (`anyplace' is used informally for `anywhere') anywhere via the Internet makes our team more productive." * "Nonprofits like the freedom to access their data through the internet, which the legacy systems were not designed to do," said Jim Gifford, CEO of NFP NFP Not for Profit NFP Natural Family Planning (contraception) NFP National Focal Point NFP National Financial Partners Corp. NFP Nurse Family Partnership (Denver, CO) Technologies. "Aikido is a new, affordable option that provides the functionality of legacy products, but also integrates well with other systems. Nonprofits want to use tools from multiple vendors, without having to pay extra fees for access to programming interfaces." THE FUTURE OF NONPROFIT CONSTITUENT RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT Aikido is the latest generation of products and applications from Convio built using the SaaS model. "From our past experience we know that Convio is passionate about our online success, customer service and supporting the nonprofit market," added Curtis. "With Aikido we benefit from Convio's enthusiasm and expertise, as well as the unrivaled success of salesforce.com. For us it is a winning combination." Aikido is built on salesforce.com's Force.com Platform. Salesforce.com is the market and technology leader in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) with more than 43,600 customers. Aikido capitalizes on the enthusiastic reception to the Salesforce.com Foundation's version of the Salesforce CRM application for nonprofits, which has been deployed by more than 3,500 organizations. "Using the Force.com Platform, Convio has developed a cost-effective and full-featured solution tailored to the specific needs of nonprofits," said Clarence So, chief marketing officer at salesforce.com. "Convio's Aikido Charter Program is testament to the power of the Force.com Platform in enabling Software-as-a-Service pioneers to quickly build and deploy next-generation solutions to their customers." The Force.com Platform-as-a-Service gives ISVs and corporate IT departments a comprehensive set of tools and application services See ASP and Web services. to build any business application and run it in the cloud Refers to the operation taking place within a network. See cloud. on the salesforce.com infrastructure. Force.com is being used to build everything from departmental applications - like project management and approval tracking - to large scale, business critical applications processing thousands of transactions per second In a very generic sense, the term Transactions Per Second refers to the number of atomic actions performed by certain entity per second. In a more restrictied view, the term is usually used by DBMS vendor and user community to refer to the number of database transactions performed - like financials and contract management. Added Austin, "In working with our charter clients, we are seeing that the "take it of leave it" era of the legacy donor database vendors is over." For more information visit: www.convio.com/crm. About Convio Convio is a leading provider of on-demand constituent relationship management software and services to nonprofit organizations to enable nonprofit organizations to more effectively raise funds, influence public policy and support their missions by leveraging the Internet to build strong relationships with constituents. The Company's online constituent relationship management, or eCRM, solution includes a suite of on demand software modules for fundraising, advocacy, email marketing and Web content management complemented by a portfolio of best-in-class consulting services. Convio's clients include American Red Cross American Red Cross: see Red Cross. , American Diabetes Association The American Diabetes Association, or the ADA, is an American health organization providing diabetes research, information and advocacy. Founded in 1940, the American Diabetes Association conducts programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, reaching hundreds of , American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (A.S.P.C.A.), chartered in 1866 in New York by Henry Bergh to shelter homeless animals, to assist farmers in caring for their livestock, and to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in the prosecution of , National Multiple Sclerosis Society The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, a United States-based non-profit organization, and its network of chapters nationwide promote research, educate, advocate on issues relating to multiple sclerosis, and organize a wide range of programs, including support for the newly , Sierra Club Sierra Club, national organization in the United States dedicated to the preservation and expansion of the world's parks, wildlife, and wilderness areas. Founded (1892) in California by a group led by the Scottish-American conservationist John Muir, the Sierra Club , Susan G. Komen Foundation, and National Public Radio. For more information, please visit www.convio.com. |
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