MicroEdge Ushers In New Era Of Personalized Grantmaking With Release Of Blueprint

New York, NY, March 15, 2013 /3BL Media/ - MicroEdge, LLC, the leading provider of solutions to the giving community worldwide, today announced the general availability of Blueprint. This groundbreaking new solution will revolutionize the way philanthropic organizations manage their giving by allowing them to personalize nearly every aspect of their grantmaking system, including the user interface and workflow.

GIFTS Online already features the most robust and powerful reporting and search capabilities available in a hosted grantmaking solution. However, this latest release takes it to a new level by delivering enhancements that make it easier for everyone within a giving organization to minimize the time spent on routine grants administration. Previous versions of GIFTS Online allowed each user to have their own custom dashboard—a visual summary page filled with charts, graphs and reports that provide the information a user needs at a glance. With this release, GIFTS Online supports the ability to have multiple personalized dashboards and access them in more versatile and flexible ways, making it even easier to organize and view information. This is particularly helpful because executive directors, grants managers, program officers and other users all need to view different information on a daily basis; now each user can more dynamically utilize a variety of different personalized dashboards in order to quickly give them the information that is most relevant, organized the way they need to see it.

Blueprint, available now for GIFTS Alta and currently in development for GIFTS Online, was developed in response to a growing demand for a more personalized grantmaking experience. For many giving organizations, grant processes don’t always precisely align with their grantmaking system. This can lead to pockets of inefficiency or drive individuals to complete some tasks outside the system. In other instances, organizations may rely on the generic terminology that is used within their system, but which doesn’t exactly correspond to the organization’s grantmaking language. Blueprint addresses these challenges and more by enabling organizations to achieve a high level of personalization and flexibility through a user-friendly, drag and drop interface for making system and workflow changes.

Blueprint allows giving organizations to make their grants management system work the way they want it to. Organizations can easily modify the user interface, applying their preferred terminology and placement of fields within the system – for example, by renaming, hiding, moving and/or grouping fields in the way that makes the most sense for them. This enables organizations to better support how they work, which shortens the learning curve and makes it more intuitive for all users to work in the system.

Personalized workflows enable data to flow through the system according to the same exact steps that define the organization’s unique grant process. Those workflows also connect each user to their specific role within the organization by providing personalized views containing only the information that is relevant to them, making it easier for occasional users to work effectively in the system. Plus, each user has a personal task board that lets them see open tasks that have been assigned to them—the system then guides them step by step through each task and automatically routes them to the next once the previous one is complete. This creates immense efficiency gains and also allows for easier tracking of open and completed tasks across the organization.

MicroEdge recently completed a Blueprint beta test program and participants provided positive feedback about its power and flexibility. “We couldn’t be more excited for Blueprint,” said beta program participant Cheryl Dabat, Operations and Systems Manager for The Heinz Endowments. “It’s going to let us customize our data fields to represent the language we use during our grants process, and this is something that will prove invaluable for our organization.”

Coinciding with Blueprint, MicroEdge has also released GIFTS Alta 1.5. This key update proactively responds to a number of feature requests made by current GIFTS Alta clients. It also delivers complete compatibility certification with Windows 8, as well as improvements that will ensure a seamless transition for organizations that wish to enhance their GIFTS Alta system with Blueprint.

“Blueprint is the result of countless conversations we’ve had with our clients, as well as significant research we’ve done into the needs of the philanthropic community in general,” said MicroEdge CEO, Preston McKenzie. “The degree of personalization provided in Blueprint was previously only available through high-cost, resource-intensive customization, but now we’re empowering organizations to attain that same level of personalization with an out-of-the-box solution. This is a game-changing release for MicroEdge and we are very excited to bring this capability to our GIFTS clients.

Availability and Information
Blueprint is available now for GIFTS Alta and is currently in development for GIFTS Online. To learn more about Blueprint complete this short form and a MicroEdge representative will contact you to provide you with all the information you require. Alternatively, visitwww.microedge.com/uniquebydesign to register for a free informative webinar to see GIFTS Alta Blueprint in action.

About MicroEdge

Established in 1985, MicroEdge, LLC is the leading provider of software and services to the giving community worldwide. MicroEdge solutions deliver a powerful, integrated, and open framework for efficient and effective charitable giving. The company is committed to providing the best technology toolset for foundations, corporations, government agencies, donors, advisors and financial institutions. Together, these tools help organizations to work with one another to raise, invest, manage and award charitable currency. MicroEdge is headquartered in New York City with regional offices throughout the U.S. and supports thousands of clients worldwide. MicroEdge is part of the Vista Equity Partners portfolio of software and technology-enabled companies. To learn more about Vista Equity Partners, visitwww.vistaequitypartners.com. To learn more about MicroEdge, visit www.microedge.com.

Media Contact: 
Kathy Krais 
800.899.0890 ext. 3966 
kkrais@microedge.com

MicroEdge is a trademark and/or service mark of MicroEdge, LLC. All other company names or marks mentioned herein are those of their respective owners.