Every time I call I get great customer service. Love the new update! The ease of use is very easy. Customer rep is always so nice and willing to help me in any way.

The ease of use. The new update is easier to add attributes in and user to see what they donated without clicking a lot. i also like in the reports you do not have to get out of them and reenter to pull another report.

I would like to learn more about cleaning up the software. The previous Development Director entered several of the same address in different ways which makes a lot of extra addresses and sends several copies of things to the same address. I have ran reports and cleaned up a lot of the database but it still needs cleaning.

In terms of Alumni Relations the software is geared more toward fundrasing, but with the great level of customer support I have received, it does the job.

Ease of use

Very geared to fundrasing and less geared toward Alumni Relations. Fundrasing is possible because of Alunmni so the software should be more robust for keeping track of alumni.

Again the software itself wasn't that bad, it was the implementation/migration from our previous system that was terrible and the reason we were not successful with Sustain. They set an expectation that we could just send them the SQL database from our previous system and they were experienced enough with that system to take it from there, that they had done this before. That's not at all what happened, the data got only half migrated and it was on me the customer to fill in the holes (though we paid them for implementation services). They had very little in terms of documentation, they had a migration template but didn't give it to me, I had to find it. Very disorganized and immature company, very little documentation, cannot be trusted to move all the data over you need to be successful. Also we had to ask for a new trainer, the first one we got was extremely defensive and gruff, can't believe he's in a customer-facing role, simply does not have the temperament for it.

The software itself isn't that bad. Since Sustain is a very small company with only a handful of employees, it was sort of nice to be able to talk to the guy who developed the software, you get to hear why they made the choices they made directly from the horse's mouth.

#1 it's not truly web-based, you remote into a Windows server to run essentially a customized Access database. The software was a bit rigid, particularly in reporting. You can't just create your own reports, you only get what Sustain has decided to put in there. None of the canned reports really fit what our team needed and we had to pull the plug on Sustain before they could customize what we needed.

Overall the software provides me with the information I need. Because it is so multi-faceted, attending training is mandatory. Even after my initial training I find myself clicking around to intuitively get, for instance, the report I need. It would behoove new users to make a list of all the ways you plan or foresee using the product and choose the level of training necessary. And take copious notes because you'll need them for tasks that you do only periodically. I'm certain I'm not using it to its fullest capabilities.

It's relational. Can record a number of characteristics about each record.

Unable to generate letters with exactly the write salutation and return address name.

The best thing about the Sustain database system is that it works with the Rediker products so that I can bring the information into my advancement office with little effort. The training is important to learn so you can take advantage of all the options. I find the support is excellent and always get a quick answer and willingness to work with me to find the answer.