Migration from OPEN ALMS
Announcement on the future of OPEN ALMS
Letter from Paul Ramsbottom, ASI Managing Director, to OPEN ALMS
customers
September 14, 2007
Dear Open
Alms Customer
I am writing to explain a major decision: Advanced
Solutions International (ASI) will be discontinuing support of
Open Alms from
January 1, 2009. We realise that this decision is likely to create
uncertainty for you. This letter is to explain why we made the decision
and more importantly the options that are available to you.
Why?
Open Alms was
originally based on Access 95 technology which is no longer supported by
Microsoft. This directly impacts on our ability to support you, your
organisation and your donors. It also limits our ability to expand
the functionality of Open
Alms. As a company committed to constantly
improving what we offer this is not a sustainable
situation.
Support between now and January 1,
2009
ASI is committed to two more upgrades to
Open Alms. The
first of these (version 2.85) will be at the end of this
year. The second (version 2.88) will be in the third quarter
of 2008. This will be the last version of Open Alms released and
supported by ASI. Both releases will be bug fix releases only with
no new functionality added.
ASI will continue to support Open Alms until January 1,
2009 at the same level as we always have. There will be no changes to
the way you get technical support or obtain consulting
assistance.
After January 1, 2009
You are able to continue to use Open Alms beyond this date
but there will be no technical support.
Alternatively we have put two migration options in
place both of which avoid the need to purchase a completely new
system.
Migration Options
We are offering two migration options - to
iMIS or
Donor Management (DonMan). In both cases, ASI is offering
special migration pricing and services packages to make the migration
from Open Alms to either iMIS or DonMan easy and
affordable.
- iMIS is
ASI’s flagship product, used by over 2,500 non-profit
organisations around the world. iMIS is designed for
medium to large sized organisations offering strong real-time web
functionality, Microsoft SQL and .NET standards and an API (including
web services) for expanding functionality. iMIS has been used by
non-profit organisations for over 15 years including: Cerebral Palsy
League of Queensland, Caritas Australia, The Royal Children's Hospital
Foundation, and Worldwide Church of God – Australia.
- DonMan from Donor Management is an easy to use,
flexible fund raising management system designed for small to medium
sized organisations. DonMan has been used by fund raisers around
Australia and NZ for over 15 years – in fact, over 400 non-profit
organisations currently use DonMan.
Brochures for both iMIS and DonMan are
available by contacting us.
Indicative Pricing to Migrate to
iMIS
iMIS is a
modular system in which you only pay for the modules you need.
Therefore we would need to discuss the requirements of your
organisation. It does present you with the opportunity to add
website functions including online donations, online events, online
membership, online shops, online communities, peer-to-peer online
fundraising and content management. iMIS also offers
sophisticated marketing campaign management, acquisition management,
“moves” management, RFM, segmentation and data
warehousing.
At a minimum, the price to migrate to a
basic iMIS system will be $25,000. This is a discount of approximately
50% off the standard price of purchasing iMIS. The result for you
would be a significantly more powerful product at a reduced
fee.
SUP current: If you do choose this option any
remaining months on your existing Open
Alms Software Update Plan annual
maintenance will automatically roll into an iMIS Software Update
Plan. The Plan will also be extended by a further year at no additional
charge.
SUP expired: To take advantage of these discounts, you will need
to bring your Open Alms Software Update
Plan up to date.
Indicative Pricing to Migrate to
DonMan
ASI has partnered with Donor Management to provide you a quick and
simple way to migrate from Open Alms to DonMan. DonMan is
functionally very similar to Open
Alms and Donor Management believes the conversion from
Open Alms to DonMan can
be completed with no downtime to you or your organisation.
The price to migrate to DonMan is also fixed, so
there is no risk to your time or to your budget.
The indicative price for your organisation to
migrate to DonMan can be providing by contacting
us.
If you are current on your Open
Alms Software Update Plan annual
maintenance, Donor Management will convert your data from
Open Alms to DonMan
at no charge and will roll the remaining months on your existing
Open Alms maintenance automatically into a DonMan maintenance and
support contract.
If you are not currently up to date with your Open Alms Software Update Plan annual
maintenance there will be additional charges for data conversion and
DonMan annual maintenance. We will contact you to clarify those
amounts.
Next Steps
We will be calling you in the next week to confirm
you received this letter and answer any initial questions you may have.
You will also be separately contacted by Andrew Stein from Donor
Management so that he may introduce his team to you and answer any
questions you may have about migrating to DonMan.
We understand you may want to discuss these
changes immediately in which case contact Andrew Wilton at ASI on +61 3
9869 7521 or email awilton@advsol.com.
Further information is also available in the
document - Frequently Asked Questions - scroll to 'related filed' at the
bottom of this page to view.
We will be arranging a series of free webcasts to
explain your migration options and provide you with introductory
demonstrations of both iMIS and DonMan.
Details of these will be communicated to you shortly.
We thank you for your continued support of
Open Alms. We
understand our decision creates a degree of uncertainty for you and
options to explore but we are determined to minimise any disruption and
leave you in a stronger position than ever for 2009.
Paul Ramsbottom
Managing Director
FAQS
For more information on the announcement on the future of Open Alms, click on the link
below (related files) to view our Frequently Asked Questions
(pdf).
Further Information
Andrew Wilton
ASI Customer Care Executive
Phone: +61 3 9869 7521
Email: awilton@advsol.com
Andrew is the primary contact for your initial questions. You
can also ask your assigned Customer Care Executive – if not
Andrew, then either Lindsay Atwell or Shearne Ramage. ASI Customer
Care can be contacted on +61 3 9869 7500 and choose option #5.
Webcasts
ASI will be arranging a specific series of free
webcasts to explain your migration options and provide you with
introductory demonstrations of both iMIS and DonMan.
Details of dates and times will be announced soon.
In the interim, you are welcome to join our
general Introduction to iMIS webcast. It is
held every Tuesday at 1.30 pm AEST/AEDT. Go here for further
details. The Intro to iMIS Webcast is free
to attend and is one hour long.
Related Files
Frequently Asked Questions (Adobe PDF File)
