FundRaiser Blog
Phase-Out Plan for Single and Multi-User
Phase 1:
Announcement of the phase-out. This occurred in August 2012. We announced that we will be phasing-out our single and multi user licenses in favor of either the Client/Server license or FundRaiser Hosted. This was due to increasing limitations of the antiquated licenses; customers were reporting very slow speeds when accessing FundRaiser on their network, and our development team was reporting that these licenses were not functioning properly in certain networking environments or on new Operating Systems. This lead us to shift our customers to the Client/Server license or the Hosted platform, both of which are built on cutting-edge technology allowing for optimal performance.
Phase 2:
In this phase, we will discontinue program updates for single and multi user licenses. Beginning in September 2015 (three full years after we announced the mandatory upgrade), all FundRaiser updates and new features will require the Client/Server license or the Hosted platform. We will also phase-out the sale price of the Client/Server license on October 31st - our vendor has mandated this.
Phase 3 (current phase):
Finally, we will discontinue Support for single and multi user licenses. This phase will begin on August 1st, 2016. After August 2016, we will no longer support the single or multi user licenses for FundRaiser. All customers who wish to retain our Support services must upgrade by then.
How will upgrading to Client/Server benefit you?
FundRaiser will be FASTER.
In the Client/Server version, FundRaiser will still be installed locally, on your machine. What's different is the way you see and access your data from your workstations.
When a user runs the program, it does not open the files directly, as it does in the Multi-User platform. Instead, the server opens the files on behalf of the client (the user at the workstation) and provides whatever data from the files that they need. When the user makes changes, their program sends those changes back to the server, which inserts it into the data files for them. This results in significantly less network traffic, and substantial speed differences.
FundRaiser will be MORE SECURE.
Because the workstation is not actually running the entire program over your network, as it does with Multi-User, the Client/Server version results in significant risk reduction in terms of data corruption. Should you experience a server crash or power failure, for example, it has built-in failsafes that will automatically restore the data back to the last complete transaction. This is not true of the Multi-User version.
Additionally, added security measures can be taken on the server to protect the data against intrusion or theft.
FundRaiser can have automatic ONLINE DONATIONS
With the Client/Server license, you can use our Donor Portal for Online Donations to receive and record online donations automatically! The Donor Portal also gives your donors the option of creating an account so they can log-in in the future and donate again, see past giving history, print receipts, reports, etc. And, coming soon, they will also be able to set up and manage recurring donations!
FundRaiser can be accessed REMOTELY.
If you would like to be able to log-in to FundRaiser from home or while you're traveling, you'll need the Client/Server license. With Client/Server, you will be able to use a remote desktop service and a Virtual Private Network to access FundRaiser from anywhere.
