Wow! Blackbaud really likes to pile it on when it comes to releases. Check out the following:
Blackbaud, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: BLKB) Chief Executive Officer Marc Chardon announced today that the company has released its eagerly awaited technology platform, code-named Infinity, along with two new solutions that will enable the world’s largest nonprofits to optimize their information management. Released to selected customers in March, Blackbaud Direct Marketing (formerly code-named ‘Bullseye’) and Blackbaud Enterprise CRM (formerly code-named ‘Galileo’) combine the strength of the company’s extensive knowledge of the nonprofit sector with its new next-generation technology platform.
‘For more than a quarter century, Blackbaud’s sole focus has been on developing the best in nonprofit IT solutions– enabling organizations to improve their efficiency, their relationships with their constituents, and their ability to raise mission-critical funds,’ said Chardon. ‘For the past two years, Blackbaud’s development team has been designing and building a technology platform that will not only support this new breed of enterprise-level solutions but that will also enhance the performance of existing products. Hallmarks of the new platform include scalability, standards-based technology and new levels in IT security.
‘The unveiling of Blackbaud Enterprise CRM and Blackbaud Direct Marketing marks a milestone in our ability to provide flexible, extensible solutions that bring large-scale and distributed nonprofit organizations closer to their constituents, enabling them to better fulfill their missions. Moreover, it extends our capability to support the current needs and future growth of the largest nonprofit organizations throughout the world.’
Strange though — I’ve just visited the blackbaud.com and nary a word about the releases… except for a lone press release. Talk about burying a launch. Looks like Blackbaud’s site needs Joomla! You see, all you have to do is just make a news article and hit the publish to front page button, oh never mind.
Um… Blackbaud? Before you release something like this, why not tell people using a corporate blog? Or maybe telling a few bloggers about it beforehand? And if you are going to release a CRM to the world, that you kind of have to eat your own dogfood and try to maximize the distribution of your press release by including landing pages for people for metrics? How do you guys expect people to trust you in CRM land if you don’t seem to know even the basics of a proper launch? And uh, if your technology “platform” is so great, why not launch with API docs and some sample code and maybe even a demo?
I’m not a marketer but even I’m shaking my head…
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Weird… I’ve been doing usability testing for Galileo up until a couple of weeks ago. I don’t see how they could be launching it to anyone other than select beta sites.
I thought Raiser’s Edge was CRM. What does Galileo do that RE doesn’t?
Well may this is Blackbaud’s marketing strategy. Put out a press release and then let all the bloggers and other interested parties wonder what the hell is going on!
David
Zeidman Development
http://www.zeidman.info
I’m still pretty confused as to the strategy behind this release. Is this a soft launch? If so, it’s one of the softest launches I’ve ever seen. So far, Blackbaud is not being savvy about this. Maybe this is the new eCRM strategy for all nonprofits? It’s the new purple cow.
There are pages for both Blackbaud Enterprise CRM and Blackbaud Direct Marketing on the site. The nav couldn’t be turned on until the news hit the wire yesterday, but the pages themselves have been up for about a week.
I’m sorry Chad, but those pages don’t have any real information to sink my teeth into. I know this is most probably not of your design but it seems to me these press releases were timed to maximize the news about the possible upward (or lack of a downward) tick in Blackbaud’s revenues this year. OK OK, the Target acquisition won’t cause Blackbaud a drop in revenues but it really hurts adoption rates for the Infinity platform if there’s basically a vaporware announcement for it. I was not contacted by my Blackbaud rep about it either.
Right now, my estimation of value for these new products is at a low point due to the lack of information and unsynchronized marketing push. Infinity seems to stand less for a technology platform and more for the amount of patience Blackbaud thinks we have.
Agreed. What about this is supposed to pique my interest in starting to look at the product for my org?