Tag Archives: PICnet

Report from NYC Joomla Day

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Sat, Oct. 13 I attended the NYC Joomla Day run by PICnet and sponsored by Google.  Joomla is currently the most popular open source CMS (Drupal and Plone are also widely used).

As a relatively new Joomla user, I found the ‘Joomla 101′ session helpful.  Louis Landry, a core Joomla developer, also reviewed the history of the development of upcoming 1.5 version and why it has taken a while to be released (it will be fully internationalized).

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I am a big believer in data integration, and that applications should be able to share data with each other.  (I’m not alone in this effort – see the Integration Proclamation.)  Ryan Cozimek of PICnet led an afternoon session to explain why integration of CMS & CRM products is important.   Some benefits include allowing constituents to manage their profile on the web, providing a way to search data in inventory systems, making available help tickets to users and allowing for ACLs – access control lists, as a way to customize web site content.  PICnet is currently developing tools to integrate Joomla with SalesForce and Democracy in Action.  Recently announced integration initiatives by the big nonprofit vendors are Kintera Connect and Convio Open.

If your organization doesn’t have an current web site because it takes too much time to update content, using a content management system will help. With an active community and developer base, Joomla looks like the strongest option in the open source CMS market.

Report from Boston Technology Conference

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On June 5, 2007, I participated in a panel at the Boston Technology Conference which discussed how CRM and CMS tools can be effectively used by nonprofit organizations.  Below are some major points:

CRM: A set of processes and supporting technologies used to acquire, retain, and enhance the relationships with all different constituent groups who interact with an organization.

CMS: Software tools that allow non-technical users to update a website without having to be a website designer.

Chris Atwood of SalesForce discussed how a CRM is used for marketing, sales and customer service.  He also mentioned the importance of identifying constituent groups (e.g. donors, volunteers etc.), outlining processes and workflow and the role of nonprofit staff in managing, analyzing and reporting donor data.  While Chris’ presentation was clearly not product specific, he pointed out that all nonprofits may receive 10 donated licenses to use SalesForce through Sales Force Foundation.

I then presented on how content management tools can be used to quickly add / edit / remove web content, and described types of CMS products (e.g. locally installed, hosted, open source vs. proprietary) available.  I also outlined several variables to consider when selecting a CMS:

  • Staff expertise
  • Frequency of site update
  • Approval levels needed
  • Type of site content
  • Budget
  • Stability of vendor
  • Integration with other systems
  • Availability of support

I also discussed the issue of whether to integrate CMS and CRM tools.  Integration provides the advantage of being able to easily send out segmented emails and web site content oriented towards specific groups of constituents.  Joomla, an open source CMS products which was presented briefly by Pradeep Suthram of PicNet, is especially strong in this area,   PicNet’s Nonprofit Soapbox, a hosted CMS tool based on Joomla, was also mentioned.

We ended our presentation with a recommendation of various resources:

Thanks to Tech Foundation for sponsoring this conference and to Chris & Pradeep for sharing their expertise.