Looking for information from users who have been involved in the beta testing of the intigration of WealthEngine into Tessitura. With the intigration, we want to begin utilizing WealthEngine in the upcoming year, but before signing on, I just want to hear overall impressions for the beta testers. Some of the things I'm wondering about are how the export/batch processing/upload process works, Tessitura reporting abilities...any information testers can offer would be appreciated - thanks!
Hi Aaron,
The PSO is currently Beta Testing the integration. Currently, Wealth Engine does not have an export file built for a user to export information out for Tessitura import. After a number of attempts of trying to create one, they ended up exporting our data for us and giving it to us. Now I am in the process of checking records as it appears data that exists on the website is missing from the import file they created. There are things that need to be worked out and once they are, I can only hope it will be a useful tool. Perhaps others have had a more positive experience, but I have been dealing with Wealth Engine since last summer and it’s been a long and frustrating process. There have been a number of issues and I must say I am highly disappointed with Wealth Engine’s very poor customer service, their lack of understanding the issues and their slow response in resolving them.
T.C. Brown
Database Administrator
412.392.4834
From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Aaron Rouse Sent: Friday, March 22, 2013 11:36 AM To: TC Brown Subject: [Tessitura Development Forum] Tessitura and WealthEngine
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I would also like to hear from others regarding the integration of WealthEngine data into Tessitura. We have just begun to research this. Thank you.
Kira Florita, Sr. Director of Development & Advancement
NASHVILLE OPERA
Noah Liff Opera Center, 3622 Redmon Street
Nashville, TN 37209
615.986.3560 nashvilleopera.org
PNB is new to WealthEngine in 12/13. We did our first large batch screening last fall. Knowing that WealthEngine is rolling out a Tessitura integration product, we've held off on doing a lot of custom integration with Tessitura for the time being. I pulled out the essential metrics we're interested in (P2G score, estimated capacity, and a couple of others,) and had our DBA set up a custom table for me so that I could create some list criteria and output set elements. I'm definitely using WealthEngine info for building lists and reporting, but that's about it at the moment as far as Tessitura goes.
We anticipate adding WE's custom integration product in 13/14, after we've completed our v11 upgrade process. My initial conversations with their sales staff about it weren't hugely informative, but I was hoping that was just because it was brand new to them at the time. We will reassess at the end of the season. T.C.'s comments are definitely not encouraging.
That said, overall I think we're pretty satisfied with the service. It's been immensely valuable for individual research.
Has anyone begun using Wealth Engine's W8 and its custom Tessi integration? My understanding from conversations with Wealth Engine is that there are only a few who are in beta testing at the moment. I'd love to hear from you. And if you have recently done a batch screening with Wealth Engine where you've had anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 records screened, please send me a note to let me know. jsundberg@5thavenue.org
We are now in the process of installing the integration product, but I haven't seen it yet, so stay tuned on that one. We screened just over 16K records about a year ago and I've definitely been using FW8 since release.
We set up the Tessitura Wealth Engine integration a couple of months ago. It took a few tries before the file they sent us was able to be read by Tessitura and successfully placed, but it does work—keeping in mind that the data in Tessitura are not complete or updatable, as they are in the Access file. What I use a lot are attributes we set up for P2G and capacity, as well as the integrated web connect custom screen, which I use all the time.
Lucie
______________________________Lucie SpielerIT Development and Training ManagerFLORIDA GRAND opera
Lucie, just curious--do your development staff use the Access file itself much on a day to day basis? We managed to extract P2G and capacity from Access into a local table, but I haven't otherwise put it to very much use. Generally I've relied on the website when I want more detail than those two numbers.
We purchased the WE integration about 2 months ago and the import process was a little bit confusing in terms of how to use our most recent screening data when it was already converted into an access file.
After a few weeks of wanting to pull my hair out, I finally wrote an email to wealth engine telling them of my troubles with the file and they were nice enough to format the file for me to then import into Tessitura. They were great and I wish I had asked them for help sooner.
As of now, we are just beginning to use it as a way to pull lists with P2G scores and compare those scores with other patron ranking data. I think we have yet to really tap into the potential of this tool and I'm looking forward to seeing how it helps us identify potential donors.
Let me know if anyone has any other questions about our experience with this tool... I'm happy to help and share.
tevans@huntingtontheatre.bu.edu
Tiffany Evans
Database Coordinator
Tiffany's experience jibes with ours, i.e. it seems that by default WE returns their data as an Access db, and the integration of that with Tessitura or anything else is not something at the front of their minds.
The integration doc mentions "The file received from WealthEngine will be in the ProspectLink 3.0 file format", which is basically TDV. In my experience they only send it in that format if you ask, so anyone not excited about working with WE data in Access might as well ask for the TDV file early in the process.
I don’t think we use the Access file that much. We are short-staffed and don’t have the time to do too much data validation.
Thanks for sharing, Lucie. Our major gifts team went through several hours of training last year on how to use the Access database and sometimes I feel a little bad that none of us do. :)