By Michael Packard, Jessica Osaki, and Chris Sanders

1. Linking Up: How to Integrate Your
School’s Blackbaud Software
PRESENTED BY JESSICA OSAKI, MICHAEL
PACKARD, AND CHRIS SANDERS

2. Linking Up with Chris, Jessica, and
Mike
#bbcon
2 #bbcon
Tweet this now

3. Agenda
• What is Integration?
• Preparations
• Critical Components
• Best Practices
• Questions?
3 #bbcon

4. What is Integration?
• Two Types of Integration
• The Raiser’s Edge and The Financial Edge
• The Raiser’s Edge and The Education Edge
• A Blackbaud utility that enables the linking of records in the Education Edge
and Raiser’s Edge databases.
• Record and address updates are entered once and the changes are reflected
in both The Education Edge and The Raiser’s Edge
• Advantages of Integration
• Integration improves data entry consistency across school offices.
• The integration can be run automatically.
• Integration setup decisions will impact The Education Edge, The Financial
Edge and The Raiser’s Edge.
4 #bbcon

5. Integration Planning Committee
• Do you have the right people at the table?
• Who is the project leader?
• How often will you meet?
• What cleanup needs to be done?
• Who is going to do it?
• What is the timeframe for the cleanup?
5 #bbcon

6. Key Preparation Decisions
• What records are you going to link?
• When will you link them?
• Who is going to link records?
• Who is the backup?
• What fields will you integrate?
• Consider the Process for New Records, Addresses,
and Address Updates
• Do you have a policies and procedures guide?
• Table Cleanup and Standardization
• Merging Records
• What communication takes place between the offices?
6 #bbcon

7. MAPPED FIELDS OF INTEGRATION: PEOPLE
• The tables below list the fields that can be linked between The Education
Field Name Table
Middle Name N
Nickname N
Phone Numbers* N
Phone Types Y
Relationship notepad type Y
Relationship notes N
Religion Y
SSN N
Suffix 1 Y
Suffix 2 Y
Title 1 Y
Title 2 Y
Field Name Table
Address Lines N
City N
Region Y
Country N
Birth date N
Deceased? N
Ethnicity Y
First Name N
Gender Y
Last Name N
Maiden Name N
Marital Status Y
*Available only if Address is selected
Edge and The Raiser’s Edge.

8. MAPPED FIELDS OF INTEGRATION:
APPLICATIONS & ENROLLMENTS
• Applications/Enrollment information
includes a selected list of education
information fields.
• The fields listed to the right are
available for mapping applications/
enrollments in The Education
Edge to primary education in The
Raiser’s Edge.
Field Name Table
Class of N
Date entered N
Date graduated N
Date left N
Current Status Y

9. MAPPED FIELDS OF INTEGRATION: PRIMARY
BUSINESS
• The fields listed are available for
mapping primary business in The
Education Edge to primary business in
The Raiser’s Edge.
• The primary business button/checkbox
must be selected in The Education
Edge record to synchronize this
information with The Raiser’s Edge.
Field Name Table
Address Lines N
Contact type Y
Contact? N
Organization name N
Phone Numbers (available only
N
if Address is selected)
Phone Types Y
Position N
Print position? N
Relationship notepad type Y
Relationship notes N

10. Best Practices
• Consistency and Communication!
• Consider the Phone Types
• Align Country Codes and Descriptions
• Align Relationship Types
• Multiple Record Types Process
• Alumni becomes a Faculty
• Alumni becomes a Parent
• First Name vs. Nickname
• Constituent vs. Non-Constituent

11. Critical Considerations
• Set up Synchronization
• Run the Integration Activity Report on a Weekly Basis
• Consider who should have access to add and modify
tables
• Clearly define the biographic, demographic, and
address update process
• View the address tab in the linking process for any
old/existing records
• When linking, ALWAYS view the Address tab to link
• Define your table values
• Verify your linking the correct person
• Carefully consider the use of ALL buttons

12. Are you pumped up and ready to go?
Don’t forget to complete
a session survey!
Each completed survey enters you into a drawing to win a
complimentary registration to bbcon 2015 in Austin, Texas*.
*Blackbaud reserves the right to change or withdraw this promotion at any time, without advance notice. Promotion has no cash value and may not be
exchanged, applied to, or combined with any other offer.
12 #bbcon