Wow! I was just sent an Acrobat file about Blackbaud’s new Infinity platform for Raiser’s Edge. It further deepens my impression that Blackbaud IS listening to the growing swell of support for open APIs. Blackbaud is fully supporting a SOAP Web Service API in its next release complete with XML interchange and some sort of RSS notification. I guess the RSS functionality was necessary in order to re-create the dashboard functionality in Raiser’s Edge 7.x. More after the jump…
Access to the API is FREE and current subscribers to Raiser’s Edge will receive the Infinity platform in the mail. Now I’m getting most of my information via the presentation and via my Blackbaud sales rep so pardon me if I get the fine points wrong, but Blackbaud’s new platform is built on:
- SQL Server 2005
- SQL Server Report Services 2005
- .NET Framework 2.0
- ASP.NET 2.0
- SOAP Web Services
- Visual Studio 2005
- Windows Server 2003
- ClickOnce SmartClient
Apparently, the ClickOnce SmartClient is Blackbaud’s term for delivering their interface over a Web browser, either IE or Firefox (yes!). This complete turnaround by Blackbaud is due to the ascendance of their new CEO, Marc Chardon. The buzz about him is that he GETS IT. IT being the notion that Blackbaud must respond in a direct yet agile fashion to the salesforce.com, Convios and GetActives of the world and to the growing restlessness among Raiser’s Edge users due to the lack of programmable data interchange in RE itself. But wait! There’s even more.
Blackbaud is releasing a new product still unnamed that will encompass much of the functionality of a Convio or Kintera. This product willl wrap up constituent management, volunteer, events, fundraising, prospect research, major giving and direct mail marketing functions all into one. And then ANOTHER new product will also deal with more advanced direct mail marketing functionality. It’s called Bullseye.
The new SOAP API on the Infinity platform will allow for direct read/write access to the database as well. Of course, this leads to the notion that Infinity will allow for not only the extensibility of its current feature set, but the creation of entirely new functionality. There’s this wonderful slide that lists possible new uses of the Infinity platform:
- Constituent management
- Volunteer
- Events
- Fundraising
- Prospect Research
- Major Giving
- Legacy Integration
- Case Management
- Program Management
- Fulfillment
Frankly, I’m very excited over the idea of Blackbaud putting it all together in this way. I can imagine the kind of pressure they’re going to be putting on a lot of people with this new platform especially if they do the following:
- Learn to nurture their small development community. HINT: Give out free developer editions of the Infinity platform, make some great code samples, document that API well and start setting up partner relationships with the small development shops out there. I’d love to see a Blackbaud Development Network (BBDN) patterned on MSDN.
- Create a hosted ASP version of the platform similar to salesforce.com.
- Give away seats of the hosted version to small nonprofits. It’s a me-too approach but it will certainly cut off any inroads salesforce.com, Kintera and Convio are making into Blackbaud’s market share.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to this Infinity platform… Will keep you all posted on any further developments…
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Yes, it all sounds wonderful and I am sorry if I sound cynical but I only believe what Blackbaud writes after I have seen the applications in practise.
I just listened to the NTen podcast of the Open API debate and Blackbaud’s CTO Shaun Sullivan sounded less than convincing that there platform would be as open as you describe it to be. I certainly hope it will be.
One giveaway was his comment that Blackbaud was not so concerned about competition from third party developers but rather they have a duty to their clients to ensure that their product is secure and reliable with those third party products using their API. This reinforces my impression of their current API that while it is very powerful - you can do almost everything in it that you can do in the shell - it is very easy to write code that crashes and brings Raiser’s Edge down with it. That, I fear, is the main reason they didn’t opt for a truly open API. (Well that and they make a lot of money from selling those services).
Let us hope that in opening up the Infinity platform they ensure, in advance, that it is sufficiently robust to withstand customization.
As an aside I was told that Bullseye is merely the follow up to The Information Edge.
David
David Zeidman
Zeidman Development
http://www.zeidman.info