De Goede Woning is the first Dutch housing corporation to start using CiviCRM, and they are in the middle of their implementation process, expecting to go live in March 2011. One of their main loves in CiviCRM is the functionality of CiviCase, which they will use quite extensively for the following processes:
A large organization using CiviCRM is planning to switch to using CiviMail for their broadcast email needs. This is great news for CiviMail and will take it to the next level in terms of feature set and functionality. As part of their migration, we are integrating a workflow engine into CiviMail. For this version, we will be using Drupal's rules module, thus making it Drupal specific. (if you are a joomla user and interested in sponsoring this for CiviCRM on Joomla, please contact us via email / IRC). For this project, we'll be focussed on extending the CiviMail schema to facilitate workflow. Sending a broadcast email will be split into three steps:
A user creates the email content. On creating / uploading the content, an event is triggered which informs the QA group of a new mailing The QA group verifies the mailing and works with the user to improve the mailing. Once this is done, the mailing is scheduled. This triggers another event which informs the production group that a mailing is in the queue The Production group validates the mailing and then either approves or rejects the mailing. If rejected, the mailing goes back to Step 1. If approved, the mailing enters the civimail job system where it is picked up and delivered.As hinted previously, CiviCRM 3.3 introduces a new feature, a low-level tracking of everything that happens with a given installation’s data: who does what exact change (and when).
The team is excited to announce the first stable for CiviCRM 3.3.0 – it is now available for download. You can also try it out on the public Drupal demo or Joomla demo sites.
We strongly recommend going through 3.3 highlights post, where you will find out what’s new and hot in this release.
What's new?
Quick list of most prominent new features and improvements in this realease:
First version of new CiviCampaign component, it includes initial support for Canvassing, Surveys and Petitions. Advanced search extended to show objects other than contacts (and object related actions) - including activities, contributions, etc. Serious dedupe performance improvements. First take on extension mechanism for CiviCRM, allowing creation and distribution of plugins (payment processors, custom search, custom report templates for now). New case and grant reports. Better "session" management support for CiviEvent. First version of database logging, so you will be able to see who changed what and when. Address sharing between any two contacts....and plenty more. Make sure you go through 3.3 highlights post to find out more about what's coming.
The PES -who sponsored the development of the badge feature- used civievent for the first time at a big scale: their council in warsow. You might see some bits of it in the news, like the greek prime minister that just finished his speech, but only on this blog will you know more about part of the logistic of such a big event, and how civicrm helped it. We put in place 3 different registrations, one for the journalist, one for the representatives and guests of the national parties and the last one for the activists.
As 3.3. goes live it’s great to see a couple of Make-it-Happen initiatives included in it. The Make-it-Happen initiative was born out of my frustration at the difficulties of getting things into CiviCRM that were useful for everyone but not funded by any ONE organisation.
