CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Who would be the best person to address the above post to?

Thank you for answering my questions.  I really appreciate it.  I think I didn't word everything as well as I should have.  I am new to CiviCRM and web development so I am still learning.

1.  I think I meant to ask if it logged everything and it appears to do so in the supported components.  I assume that if my (or another org) sponsored support for badge printing and/or CiviFax then the logging would be made an automatic part of that.

2.  I saw it after I posted that.  Sorry for missing something so obvious.

3.  How much do you think it would cost to sponsor and implement a CiviFax component?  Also why don't you guys use a Mass Communications component that contains: E-mail, Fax, Mailers/Labels, SMS, Chat, Blogs, RSS, etc?  It seems like that would be a much more flexible and powerful system that you could then just add new ways to communicate to later.  Most of what you need from such a thing needs the same type of logging and information to be pulled and processed.  The main difference is length and formatting.  This functionality is not that essential for us and we could just continue faxing our current way (which is to send a faxing company an e-mail containing a Word document that is the fax and an excel file containing the Contacts' info).  A built-in module would just be more convenient since it would track logging, merging, etc.  We have not purchased that software (FaxRush) yet and if the cost were similar we may put it toward building the functionality into CiviCRM instead.  (We're going to test run it with events first and then maybe later transition from our current proprietary CRM, if it is a good fit for our org.)

4.  I did word that incorrectly.  I also found it after more reading of the documentation, of which there is a lot.  I think this is one of the best documented pieces of open-source software that I have seen.  I think I meant to ask whether there was an easy way to tie-in such functionality due to the lack of a CiviFax module.

5.  How much would this feature cost to sponsor?  I imagine that many people need this functionality at their events.  I might could get my organization to chip-in for the functionality but due to the economy I'm not sure we could be a full sponsor depending on the cost.  We have figured out a work-around that includes copying and pasting but built-in label printing would be preferred.  Is their anyway to reveal the organization they are a part of when viewing each individual's info on the event pagehttp://drupal.demo.civicrm.org/civicrm/contact/view/participant?reset=1&id=25&cid=95&action=view&context=participant&selectedChild=event?

6.  An early bird pricing feature does sound like what we need.  Do you think v2.2 will arrive in February because our event will be in early June and we are looking to have a new website up for it by around early March?

I'm sorry for not replying sooner.  I got swamped during the Holidays and I'm just trying to catch up on odds and ends today.

1.  The use case for badge printing logging is for record keeping purposes and to see who did and did not actually show up.  Our preferred manner of badge printing is to only print badges at the registration desk as attendees register the day of.  The reason for this is to save on materials cost and to reduce waste.  We are trying to "green" our organization and waste reduction is one of the big areas for that.  The logging feature isn't as important as having the badge printing functionality, with support for various label sizes.  We use standard Avery label and badge sizes.  I just watched the video on how to make mailing labels and that is the exact functionality we need to make badges.  A printed badge is essentially just a larger mailing label.  This seems like an easy problem to fix (or just one I have misunderstood perhaps).  It looks like all that is needed is to expose and customize the mailing label functionality for use in the CiviEvent UI.

3.  I'm not very aware of the technical attributes of each kind of technology, so I guess I mis-thought it.  I do think a central place for sending out communications would be nice though.  I thought RSS acted like a broadcast signal but perhaps not.  Our organization sometimes uses the open-source HylaFax to send out faxes.  I wonder if it would be simple to tie that into CiviCRM? Using the link you gave me, and the figures contained there-in, the cost would be between $10,000 to $30,000.  We couldn't afford that alone but if we could get some partners, who also desired Faxing capabilities, then we probably could.  It seems HylaFax can be integrated into systems such as SAP so it could probably also integrate into CiviFax or even form the basis for it.

5. Like I said in #1.  It looks like CiviCRM already contains the necessary code and functionality; it just needs to be reformatted to work as badge printing with exposure in the CiviEvent UI.

6. Thank you for answering that.  It's hard to believe how much functionality CiviCRM has.  I'm currently working on testing CiviCRM on my home PC and I am simply flattened by just how much functionality there is.  It is slightly overwhelming in fact.  You guys have done a fantastic job.  My organization is going to have to either upgrade to the latest version of our current proprietary CRM or switch to a new CRM sometime in the next two years and I think I'm going to start pushing us to use CiviCRM.

I do have one more question.  Have the CiviCRM programmers considered integrating an e-mail and calendering client into CiviCRM or maybe even some kind of Horde integration option?  Our current CRM has e-mail and calendaring integration and it is very nice when used properly.

Jason

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http://civicrm.org/make-it-happen#Self service view, update and cancel for CiviEvent and better event badges
 
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