Congratulations! Go-live is a thing of the past! Your CRM’s “Birth Day” has come and gone, and you now have a live system… so why does it feel like it's not over? Enter: the lists, the tasks, the deferred conversations.

• The backlog of projects and reports looms.

• “Phase two” was promised (and maybe already planned).

• The nightly schedule of jobs and queues still takes the whole night, and some of the day at times...

I like to say that Blackbaud CRM™ is a living, breathing organism. On go-live weekend you give it life and feed it data, yet it continues to evolve and grow as your teams learn it and use it. There is no manual to tell you what to work on next, whether to fix or

enhance, or both. What you need are options.

The following series of 3 blog post will explore different paths forward with your CRM. One or all of these suggestions may fit the bill, and are intended to offer a little clarity when the go-live fog lifts, and as you nurture your CRM for the next bunch of years.

Together, we will explore the following:

• The Roadmap and Executive updates - deciding what gets done first, when to customize and when to configure

• Performance enhancements - keep the nightly schedule from running into your days

• User Support - engaging users and giving them the tools they need for system adoption progress

As much as we want to think it, go-live is not the end of the project. It is a major milestone in a much larger CRM lifecycle. Strategic planning can foster healthy growth for your CRM and organization. It can even anticipate future evolution in fundraising practices!

Please join us for the next three posts, exploring your relationship with the newest addition to your fundraising family. If you would like to discuss the evolution of the CRM species, contact the 'biotechnicians' at BrightVine.