EchoDitto

My biggest unanswered FAQ here is: Does this mean GetActive's software will now be available to conservatives?

"1. Twenty-five percent of the fully integrated eCRM/CMS market just disappeared, reducing options to three very different providers: Convio, Blue State Digital, and Kintera (not counting open-source solutions and a myriad of other tools of course)"

DemocracyInAction should be added to that list.

They already were. (Progress for America, Chamber of Commerce, etc)

Anon1: while DIA is great on many levels (and desperately needed in the NPO world), i don't personally consider them to them to be the same as a fully integrated off-the-shelf solution like convio/getactive ... DIA still requires tech expertise (outside of DiA) to install, configure, and sometimes manage, much like open source solutions.

Thanks for the plug, Michael.

It is an interesting situation for us. Obviously with 14,000 clients combined, both organizations are

much

Our strategy has always been to grow smart rather than large and it will continue to be that way. We'd rather be the small David that fits the needs of its clients extremely well than the huge Goliath that nobody really likes.

I'm sure you're not looking for a vendor food-fight here, Michael, but let me dissent from that for the record.

In any event, to the extent that meme persists, we'll be offering a good reason to re-examine it shortly.

Clay - I think you meant 1400 clients for the newly merged company, yes? I'd be shocked if they had 14,000 clients between the two of them.

I think Tim had a good point above. How many clients chose Get Active because they weren't Convio. Now, they don't get a choice because they will have to pay to switch platforms, if they decide they need to.

But on the other side, this gives Convio more leverage with suppliers like credit processing companies. Perhaps, Convio will be able to provide better pricing for nonprofits? I'm not sure, even if they could, that they will feel a need to.

It's going to be hard for large nonprofits/foundations to choose Blue State Digital or Kintera over Convio. However, this might open up a position for DIA to merge with a formal content management system and be a more progressive alternative to Convio.

Another questioned unanswered...why did Get Active feel a need to get out? Sales falling? Owners simply wanted out? No more capital to keep up with programming updates? Curious minds want to know....

I'd like to bring up a different point: customer service. As long as the smaller companies like BSD and DiA are able to maintain a good standard of customer service (unlike my previous experience with massive eCRM/CMS companies), nonprofits/foundations might be much more willing to go to them for high-touch, personal service.
At the end of the day, consultants to those nonprofits/foundations might refer recommend the smaller players in the field because they are simply easier to work with.

It's pretty clear to me from their disclaimer statements that Convio intends to go public soon. They have a lot of VC money and I'm sure those investors need/want an exit. This acquisition might put them over the top.

"Wow, this is weird". That was my first reaction when I read about this yesterday.

Don't get me wrong--I've got a lot of respect for both Convio and Getactive and their products (disclosure: EchoDitto has clients on both platforms, and I know and like the CEOs/Founders of each firm), but the business approach and technical strategies from both companies--from what I know, at least--are fairly different. One thing really comes to mind: open APIs and easy technical integration with other web products.

In my experience, I've found that the GetActive folks are usually more open to integration matters, even if they do not have an explicit module or programmatic "hook" to interface with other web-enabled apps. Convio, at last count, has some APIs, but I find them to be not nearly as open a platform as GetActive.

Quite frankly, neither product is really an “open” platform, and I can understand why they might not want to open things up--it certainly makes more difficult to administer, for one. But the world does seem to be headed in the direction of inter-operability. A Convio acquisition of GetActive seems, at first blush, to undo that.

what about blackbaud? aren't they larger than any of these players, with the same software set?

Joshua -- on your question of why get active needed to get out: quite frankly, both firms are VC funded, and VCs look for exit opportunities. This is an exit opportunity, and probably a pretty good one. Also, anonymous commented that "based on the disclosure statements they've been issuing, they're thinking of going public" below; I agree.

On another note, why do you think it's hard for large nonprofits foundation to choose Blue State Digital/Kintera or GetActive or Convio? Financial reasons? customer support? product offerings?

To Anonymous 6 (question about Blackbaud):

Blackbaud is sort of, kind of, in this market space with their Netcommunities product. It's fine--and this is based on experience--but doesn't have nearly the same, rich eCRM features as the Convio/GetActive.

That said, they're a big ($1B+) publicly traded company, and their yearly profit (I think it's like $40M) it probably more than the gross yearly revenues of either Convio or GetActive (I'm really guessing on this, I have no real idea what either of their financial statements look like). If Blackbaud decided to fund a better competitive product to GetActive/Convio, they could be a serious player very quickly.

Disclosure: EchoDitto has a client or two using Blackbaud products, but I don't know their CEO/founders.

interesting, Kintera is offering a "Comprehensive Replacement Program for Convio and GetActive Clients." They sent out an email to their subscriber base detailing this program:

"Kintera is excited to offer a migration, implementation and software replacement program specifically for existing Convio and GetActive clients. Kintera’s replacement program provides your organization with one comprehensive, integrated technology provider, instead of two niche product providers of nonprofit software."

Blackbaud does have plans to eventually get into Convio's space especially with their Blackbaud Infinity product. salesforce.com is the uberCRM that you should also discuss in the same breath as Kintera or Convio.

For all the nonprofits that haven't got on board the CRM bandwagon, I believe that a RE to NetCommunity conversion is not impossible if only because an RE to [choose your CRM] integration is usually the first question us IT directors ask. Yes, it's not exactly the open API we all want but in-brand integration has a kind of marketing common sense to it.

Great questions, everyone. I used to work for one of those organizations that used GetActive "because they weren't Convio." As mentioned above. They've certainly got the Web 1.0 market cornered now.

I just can't see way that this is good for the sector. Less choices, less interoperability, etc. Maybe it will push some large organizations out to scrappier competitors like DiA or BlueState. I guess that would be good.

Abenamer: I think your comments are spot on. What's really surprising to me, though, is that a really good, inexpensive competitor to Kintera, GetActive, Convio hasn't emerged quite yet. I think Salesforce is a definite possibility from an eCRM point of view, but it doesn't do CMS, so integration costs between eCRM and CMS start appearing.

This question is especially relevant given that most of these platforms (Convio, Kintera) were built in the late 90s and early 00s, which to me implies that there's quite a bit of sunk development cost in super expensive things like Oracle DB licenses. It's surprising that a more nimble but really solid, professional ASP based competitor with open APIs and built on fairly robust open source platforms--like mySQL--has not emerged.

Is it because of need for more solid customer support, or lack of marketing, or what?

There are options, but I'm hard pressed to recommend them today.

Excerpted from an email update from the CEO of Getactive:

"It is our explicit goal that clients will not pay fees for their migration to the Convio eCRM platform and that disruptions to their important work will be minimized. However, given the potential for unknown variables and the likelihood that clients may want to take this opportunity to implement Convio features previously unavailable from GetActive, there are some atypical scenarios that may require fees. For example, the decision to add integrated peer events or e-commerce functionality not currently offered by GetActive. An initial migration plan will be reviewed with clients by March 30, 2007."

Tim, you said: "It's going to be hard for large nonprofits/foundations to choose Blue State Digital or Kintera over Convio".

Why is that? What makes Convio so hard not to choose, with or without Get Active?

Eric

Harish: Great comment on lack of a "good, inexpensive competitor". I've recently come across an organization that seems to be coming out of stealth-mode (no plug intended, just information for readers' digestion). If you haven't seen Papilia (www.papilia.com) in action, you should check it out. They also are partnered with SalesForce (I initially noticed them in SalesForce's AppExchange), so I would assume integration is relatively straight-forward.

And, yes, they are hosted and subscription-based. Nice list of customers, too. And their advisory board has some of the influential players in the NPO space.

Just food for thought.

CJ

CJ: checking out papilia.com, seems interesting. Thanks for the recommendation!