Andar Friday Morning Coffee Break

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Conference Registration

User Group Conference:
Now Accepting Registrations!

Click here to read more

February 22, 2012 - February 24, 2012 Great Rivers Conference

February 27, 2012 - March 02, 2012 United Way Andar Users Group

May 02, 2012 - May 04, 2012 Community Leaders Conference

January 16, 2009

United Way Users Group Conference

Bad economic times demands focusing on what's important. It means doing more with less. Knowing how to use your enterprise business tools is critical to working more efficiently and getting the job done right. Training can deliver a fast return on your investment.

This year's United Way Users Group Conference offers 91 information-packed sessions. Choose from basic, intermediate, or advanced level training sessions. Participate in best practice discussions, explore new features and new modules, and try one of the hands-on training labs. Meet other experienced Andar users and share your knowledge.

Click to register.

Service Pack 2009.01

The Helix development team has been very busy this fall working on one of the most significant and comprehensive set of enhancements to Andar in recent times. On January 28th, 2009, release 2009.01 will be available for download.

Included in the January release is a new Content Management System (CMS) that allows our customers to build their entire web site directly in Andar. Tracking of constituent's web pages viewed and interests is automatic and updated live on their Andar account. Sharing of content through popular social networks such as Facebook is also tracked within Andar. The easy-to-use interface can also be used to build e-newsletter articles, and enhancements to the newsletter subscription module make e-mail blasting an easy one-click function. The new United Way of America "Live United" branding has been included in Andar as an easy look-and-feel web-option.

The campaign monitoring report has been revamped to use the customizable column feature currently used in the transaction register report. This will allow our customers to pick and choose which columns will appear in the report.

The Andar Community Building module has been enhanced to include year-over-year community indicator tracking and reporting. Also, the program allocation information can now be rolled-up to the agency level for a quick-summary view. Forms and surveys have also been enhanced to allow customization of font sizes and other viewing attributes.

Perhaps the most extensive list of enhancements are those pertaining to the Major Individual Gift (MIG) module. These include the import of analytics data from QBase Inc., into a new sub-tab of account attributes. This data can be displayed on the account dashboard and can be data mined. Helix is also releasing the ability to define Step-Up programs within Andar. These programs will automate the tracking of donors from year to year as they progress towards a leadership giving level.

The MIG enhancements also include the tracking of expectancy gifts (delayed until February/2009). These, often called "fuzzy" gifts, are entered by resource development staff without the strict requirements of the finance department. Both the expectancy gifts and the regular financial transaction will support multiple gift relationships. These relationships are intended to provide additional thank you letters, foundation gift tracking, solicitor recognition, improved memorial gift tracking, etc. Giving totals will appear on all accounts related to these gifts. The thank you letter process has also been enhanced so users can predefine their thank you letter codes and build fast and easy selection lists for heads-down transaction entry staff. Additionally, billing schedules have been enhanced so that donors can specify not only the date of future billings but also the specific payment amounts for each billing date.

A key factor in the successful implementation of a CRM strategy involves the definition and execution of workflows throughout the organization. To support this endeavor, Helix is releasing, as part of MIG, workflow definition enhancements to the Plans feature of Andar/360. These enhancements include the ability to define dependencies and actions between tasks so that, for example, a task can only begin either once all tasks in a group are completed, or after any one task in a group completes. Custom decision points can also be defined to direct the workflow towards specific tasks. Other related enhancements include the ability to automatically link tasks, surveys, communications, and prospect touch points. This linking eliminates the need for users to navigate from one area of the software to another. Instead, upon completing a task of a plan, the user can automatically be taken to the appropriate window to complete a survey, a communication entry and/or enter touch points for an account. This sets the stage for additional workflow enhancements to further automate common business processes.

Helix continues to incorporate web technologies into Andar/360. As such, we have included in MIG the ability to display live RSS news feeds on constituent account dashboards. This means that upon viewing an account in Andar/360, users can be presented with a list of news articles live from Google or Yahoo that pertain specifically to the account. This will play an important role in the implementation of CRM.

Helix has also started the implementation of a new, more powerful, filtering feature that can be applied to lists (spreadsheet screens) within Andar. Filtering and sorting preferences will be automatically saved for each list and each user of Andar.

This press release highlights only the most significant of enhancements, the detailed notes accompanying the release offers the complete list. For additional information, please contact Helix at 1-877-479-3780 x303.

Windows/NT Support Dropped

Release 2009.01 and all future releases of Andar will NOT run on Windows/NT. Please upgrade to Windows/2000 or above.

Midwinter Institute

Helix will be at the 2009 United Way Midwinter Institute in Madison, WI. Please visit us at our booth.

Community Building Enhancements

Coming in the January release... Many Community Building enhancements are being delivered. This includes the full agency and program names in the budget and demographic reports. A new allocation sub-tab has been added to the agency account for tracking information and an additional allocation "Roll Up" sub-tab has been added to summarize all program information. Font size, bolding, underlining, italicizing, and stylesheets have been added to the form definition to facilitate the customization of the look for your forms and surveys. Indicator measurements have been enhanced to allow agencies to enter projected percentages without a projected base number of clients.

Read Project 43091...

Thank You Letters

(MIG) Coming in the January release... With MIG, you will be able to define your different thank you letters into Andar and then tell Andar which letter to send for each gift.

Read Project 43799...

e-Community Customizations

Coming in the January release... You will be able to create your own stylesheet customizations in your own directory on your web server and assign it to specific accounts using the standard look-n-feel web options. This will follow standard pecking orders and therefore can be assigned at a headquarter account and will be used by all location accounts.

Read Project 43221...

Live United

Coming in the January release... You will be able to customize your e-Community web sites to the Live United brand. The Look & Feel web options can be used to turn-on this new feature. A new name-type called "Two Part Web Name" will be used to display your United Way name on the web site. New user defined attributes will specify the URL for the Give, Advocate, Volunteer buttons as well at the web page to link to when your United Way name is clicked.

Read Project 44236...

CRM Consulting Services

CRM depends on good quality data and the right procedures to ensure that it stays that way. Helix is offering a two-day onsite CRM Consulting Service where our consultant will review your data policies, procedures and issues. This is a hands-on process consisting of interviews with staff from all departments and an Andar system review. The result is a full report with recommendations on how to streamline your procedures and build better relationships with your constituents.

For additional information, please contact Ed May, toll free, at 1-877-479-3780 x222.

Quote of the Week

We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.

Diogenes

About Helix

Helix is a leading provider of cost-effective, enterprise-wide fundraising and community support software to nonprofit organizations and corporate foundations. Drawing on its 15-plus years of service and experience with the nonprofit sector, Helix offers within its Andar/360 product, an integrated suite of functions that addresses various missions of not-for-profit organizations, such as fundraising campaign management, online giving, allocation of funds, outcome measurements, volunteer management, and community services such as Information & Referral (211).

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Friday Morning Coffee Break - Archive

Our customers say...

"The United Way of Central Ohio switched to ANDAR in May of 2001 after approximately 8 years with FMS. This application was selected through an extensive review process that compared three major applications. Our decision was based on a number of factors, some of the most critical being the user-friendly design, integration of a web-based pledging component into the system, and very importantly, our previous experience and relationship with the vendor Helix and their key staff."

"...The entire Helix team is professional, reliable and very customer focused."

Edward C. Sabatino, Jr.
Chief Operating Officer
United Way of Central Ohio
Columbus, OH