Inside ASI-AP

2 weeks ago I announced the cessation of support for Open Alms effective from 1 January 2009. All existing customers were sent letters, and these last few days Peter has been calling into all customers to confirm they have received the letter packs.

There is more information for customers on our public web site www.openalms.com.

And for staff additional information including staff FAQs is on the staff site www.advsol.com/staff - under Departments then Asia-Pacific.

A copy of the letter text sent to customers is below.

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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 attached document Frequently Asked Questions.

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