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Anthology Encompass vs. Blackbaud NetCommunity (discontinued)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Anthology Encompass

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AAnthology Encompass, formerly from iModules which is now part of Anthology (the company formed from iModules 2020 merger with Student Labs and Campus Management) is an integrated online communication and engagement solution built to help institutions strengthen relationships, increase engagement, and drive donations. It comprises modules for CMS, email marketing, event management, online donations, and social networking. Core market is educational institutions.N/A

    Blackbaud NetCommunity (discontinued)

    Score3.8 out of 10
    N/AThe Blackbaud NetCommunity online alumni management system helped users to gain a deeper understanding of alumni relationships. The product is being phased out, and is no longer offered to new customers.N/A
    Pricing
    Anthology EncompassBlackbaud NetCommunity (discontinued)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Anthology EncompassBlackbaud NetCommunity (discontinued)
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
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    Anthology EncompassBlackbaud NetCommunity (discontinued)
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    User Ratings
    Anthology EncompassBlackbaud NetCommunity (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    2.0
    (23 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    3.0
    (1 ratings)
    5.6
    (5 ratings)
    Usability
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    Availability
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    4.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    1.9
    (3 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Anthology EncompassBlackbaud NetCommunity (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Anthology, Inc
    Great for the simpler side of online transactions and not-so-complicated events. Is not as robust as other programs when trying to accomplish complex events (like a Homecoming weekend) that span multiple days and venues. It does require some level of expertise with the system to get the most out of it. It's less WYSIWYG and more coding/customization.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    For those using the events module, NetCommunity is great, though if you do a lot of walk/run type of events where individuals sponsor other individuals, something like TeamRaiser might make more sense. If you don't have the staff resources for web developers dedicated to fundraising tasks, then NetCommunity is a great tool. It's not as customisable as an experienced programmer/developer might want, but it still has a lot of options. It also has a lot of nuance, and if you cannot make an investment of time or money into getting staff trained, it's not going to work out well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Anthology, Inc
    • It allows us to create fields as needed.
    • Creating an export of data is really easy.
    • Merging of records is fairly simple.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Data integration with The Raiser's Edge - data which is collected in Blackbaud NetCommunity directly integrates with The Raiser's Edge interface and can be seamlessly downloaded into the CRM.
    • Donation/Event/Membership registration - the product comes with out-of-the-box forms that can be used for these basic functions. They are flexible, but structured enough to integrate the data back to the CRM.
    • Email marketing - constituents can be emailed directly from the Blackbaud NetCommunity platform by querying the data available in the CRM. Targeted email communications can be setup as well as ongoing subscriptions/newsetters.
    • Content management - general tools to manage content are available. Business users can add/modify/delete this content without tremendous technical expertise. The content can also be shared across multiple websites - or A/B split tested to determine preference.
    • Friendly URLs - the product allows for friendly URLs that are also more searchable on the major search engines (i.e. Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.).
    Read full review
    Cons
    Anthology, Inc
    • User Interface, Clunky appearance.
    • Can require deep customization.
    • API can be fragile.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • When we have carding attacks on our payment gateway it is always a struggle to get all the players to work together and determine how to get us back up and running. ReCAPTCHA at the highest level is not supported, for example.
    • From experience, the product has not been stable in the last couple years and all signs have been pointing towards a sunsetting of this product for years.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Anthology, Inc
    It does not have the automation or event tools that we are desperately needing at this time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    The only reason for this is due to the fact that we are only using the product for a specific purpose that is not directly tied to the newsletters. There are better products out there for what we are doing with grant processing. We will most likely move to a new software instead of renewing for our purposes
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Anthology, Inc
    Includes nice features like click-through tracking, where an email recipient can click a link and land on a gift or RSVP page with their information pre-filled. Though it requires some back-end customization to really make it hum, in areas like user fields, taking the time to do the work allows for some really neat role-based experiences where certain criteria deliver a different experience to different individuals. However, those fields and roles require manual manipulation instead of automatic attribution.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    The interface with Raiser's Edge and the many different ways our users can interact with the website are a big plus for us. Event registrations are our most popular transaction type and having this on line makes our lives much easier.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Anthology, Inc
    It is usually up and running.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Product is stable is up 99.99% of the time. As a hosted customer, we do experience some minor downtime when routers or switches malfunction. We feel the downtime has been minimal and the communications around these outages has been good.
    Read full review
    Performance
    Anthology, Inc
    No integration.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Blackbaud NetCommunity uses .NET technology. It can be sluggish at times if not optimized, but overall we have been pleased with the performance when handling large volumes of traffic.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Anthology, Inc
    I usually get an accurate response to issues. Your service techs are knowledgeable in how the software works and is set up.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Blackbaud NetCommunity and all of the Blackbaud products have a great support system. Blackbaud NetCommunity offers support through phone calls, chats, online, and email. Their response time is very quick and the support analysts work with you to resolve issues in a very timely matter. If they do not personally know the answer they will direct you to another support analyst that will be able to assist in a resolution.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Anthology, Inc
    N/A I've only attended webinar training, which is great when you are on live, not so much when watching a recording.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    As expected. Courseware was a nice reference guide.
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Anthology, Inc
    Most are recorded, so questions that arise are not easy to get answered.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Anthology, Inc
    Unknown. I wasn't here.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    I truly wish that "0" was an option. I never really pin-pointed whether the implementation issues that we had were caused by Blackbaud, or if it was part of a larger issue that began in-house.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Anthology, Inc
    Encompass provides the closest thing to a single-vendor service for many engagement activities. An entity like GiveCampus, while it excels at microcampaigns, is also highly limited to that functionality. Encompass offers Advancement offices the opportunity to manage one API, define a superuser, and extend features on an as-needed basis, customizing them to the user experience.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    We tried to use this for a while and actually had different groups set up to begin implementing the interface into our computer but for some reason, we could not get a handle on it. iMIS ended up winning out in the long run because it was easier for people of all generations to use and understand. People just preferred the layout and the usability so ultimately it was kept as our main system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Anthology, Inc
    • Single solution for multiple options is a positive ROI. Only one vendor needed.
    • Other vendors may excel in one area (like events), creating a trade-off between a single user experience and the use of multiple vendors.
    • It can easily take in 10X the dollars vs. the annual cost.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • We were able to purchase a package integrating all types of Blackbaud products which integrate.
    • We are able to update our desktop, mobile donation pages which allow us to take donations while having great support available at all times.
    • The donation forms and email tools are not very visually appealing and user-friendly so this makes it difficult to implement and in return donors don't have a user-friendly experience.
    Read full review
    ScreenShots