Donor Centric
ANDAR is Donor Centric. All donors (corporate and individual) are at the center
of the database design. Each individual or corporation has one and only one
account number. This means that an individual who is a volunteer, who is a
contact at
a company, who donates from home and through work, has a single account from which
all information is viewable and editable.
Relational Databases
ANDAR utilizes Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 or 2000 as a database engine. Many
software products that claim to be database vendor independent typically suffer
serious performance problems. This is because "Stored Procedures" are database
specific. Stored procedures are database programming languages that allow high
performance, complex and massive data manipulation. Without stored procedures,
applications must perform all data manipulations within the application at a
greatly reduced speed. Stored procedures are used throughout ANDAR.
Reports
Report requests do not "tie up" the user's workstation; they are executed on the
server and the resulting output is saved into the database. This allows the user
to reprint reports without having to re-request the report run. All reports in
ANDAR produce output in Adobe Acrobat format, spreadsheet
format, or both.
The Adobe Acrobat format (PDF) enables reports to be printed on any printer or e-mailed across the Internet. Acrobat also allows the
reports to be viewed on screen, searched, annotated, and zoomed as well as optionally,
partially or fully printed.
The spreadsheet report format gives the user the raw data appearing on the
Acrobat paper report as well as additional columns of data. The spreadsheet data can
be sorted, selected, totaled, and otherwise manipulated with MS Excel, MS
Access, or other
spreadsheet programs.
ANDAR comes with a large set of standard reports that users can request
with a
click of the mouse. These reports can be requested in numerous sorting orders,
or by selecting numerous sets of data. Users also select different types of report
layouts. Many reports use accounts selected using ANDAR's powerful
Data Mining tool as described below. In essence, each report is actually many
reports in one.
Data Mining
ANDAR includes a powerful Data Mining tool that gives users access to
data in the ANDAR database using plain, simple point-and-click
windows. Users don't have to learn complex query languages!
First, accounts can be selected based on gift amounts/types/campaigns/etc., based
on leadership levels, giving patterns, addresses, demographics, numbers,
relationships, campaign structures, and many more.
The second step, extraction, allows users to extract data from the selected
accounts, including numerous addresses, names, contacts, gifts,
demographics, and many other items.
This information can be saved into spreadsheets which can be analyzed with
Microsoft Excel, Access, etc.
The selected accounts can also be grouped in an
account warehouse, transferred to a mailing list, used as input for standard
reports. Users are also free to use Crystal
Report, MS Access, MS Excel, MS Word, or any other tools to directly access data
in the ANDAR database or account warehouses. However, Helix
does not recommend or approve of any product used to modify the data in the
ANDAR database.
Each Data Mining Operation can be saved and reused time and time again.
Year 2000
ANDAR is fully Year 2000 compliant. All database tables and date calculations use
4 digit years. Unlike many older applications, ANDAR was not retro-fitted for
year 2000, it was designed from the start to handle any year from 1000 through
to 9999.
Data Conversions
Helix offers a full range of conversion options. Our experienced staff have
worked on numerous conversions from a multitude of other products. Helix already
has conversion programs implemented and tested to convert for our customers from
some of the more well known products such as TopGiver, IMS, SCMS, Enterprise/CS,
and others. Typically, a conversion can be completed in 1 to 4 months depending on the
type of data to be converted. Helix can convert not only individual and
corporate accounts with names, addresses and telephone numbers but also
unlimited historical pledges, payments, designations, demographics, contacts,
etc.
Lockboxes
ANDAR contains a powerful lockbox module that can be used to mass import data
into ANDAR. The lockbox is a holding area within ANDAR where the data is
“scrubbed” before it is processed. Comma separated value (.csv) files containing
corporate and individual account information as well as pledges and
designations are read into a lockbox, scrubbed, and finally processed.
Processing includes matching existing accounts and updating them, creating new
accounts, and creating new pledges and designations.
Lockboxes are used to import employee information from corporations, and most
importantly detail pledge, payment, and designation data.
Pledge Card
Scanning
Helix has built an interface between the ANDAR and Teleform of Cardiff
Inc., San Diego, California, to provide a turnkey solution for pledge card
scanning. Teleform offers superior ORC and scanning technology that prepares a
data file for importation directly into ANDAR. ANDAR can
import the name, address, pledge amounts, etc., as well as the scanned
picture of the pledge card, storing it in its database with the donor's pledge
transaction.
Other scanning products can also be used to scan pledge cards and import data
into ANDAR.
Security
ANDAR supports security at two levels. First, the SQL Server database can be
secured using standard SQL Server tools. Second, ANDAR itself has a
security module that allows each user or group of users to be given access to specific
accounts or groups of accounts as well as specific rights to each item of data
for each account. For example, a group of users can be given authority to a
group of accounts to view addresses only, without the ability to change or
delete etc.
Friday Morning
