It's scorching hot here in the Southwest (training office is in Arizona), and the monsoon rains just haven't been as heavy or as often as we'd like to cool things down or build the water table up. This is the time of the year when many of us become lethargic and just don't want to do much more than sit and think. And I was thinking of the impending deadline most all of our users have in the near future. It's just around the corner: the deadline for getting the best upgrade pricing for Client / Server. And some folks may be wondering how much change this will make in their use of the program. Most of us are used to routines in entering data, creating reports, sending thank you letters, and so on, and ANY change can be a bit intimidating.
How much will you need to re-learn once you've upgraded to the Client / Server version?
NOTHING.
It's that simple. Nothing really changes that we can see in the program, so far as how it's used, or what it does, because the changes are all *internal*. You could think of it as having your car engine replaced with a better, more powerful, more energy-efficient engine, really. The car looks the same, drives using the same controls, parks in the same space, and feels the same, because nothing but the engine has changed. It's faster, stronger, will last longer, and works with less effort, but does exactly the same job it has always done.
That's really the way Client / Server (C/S) affects FundRaiser: it's faster, especially on slow or large networks (you may not notice any appreciable speed increase on a standalone installation); it's stronger, in that the data is more secure when using a network since the data doesn't have to be shuffled back and forth between computers; and since the "server" computer does all the heavy lifting, so to speak, your local computer doesn't have to work so hard.
But to get the best pricing, you have to act before August 31, 2012, and that's coming up quickly. The old style of FundRaiser is being phased out, which means that you'll need to update to C/S sooner or later, so why not sooner and cheaper? You can view pricing here, and view the complete phase-out plan here.