March/April 2004

Ask an Expert: Your Questions Answered

Question:
What do I need to consider when synchronizing my online data (Web and email) with my offline database?

Answer:
by Fred Waugh, Vice President, Marketing and Product Management, Convio

Although there are several technical issues involved, business rules ultimately drive synchronization requirements. They describe what data is available and how it will be used.

To define business rules, nonprofit organizations should consider the following questions:

1. What data needs to be collected online?
   There is almost no limit to how much data an organization can collect. Data can be collected through Web forms or automatically recorded as constituents interact with the Web site. It can include biographical data (such as email address and name), transactional data (donations, ticket purchases), personal preferences (constituents may provide information about their interests) and implicit profiling information (including links clicked on Web pages). Be sure the information collected will be used to further your online initiatives (for email campaigns, personal pages or other uses).
   
   
2. What portion of the data collected online needs to be stored in the offline donor database?
   Key information collected online (such as address and gift information) needs to be recorded in the donor database, which likely serves as the master constituent database. However, other pieces of data such as the links clicked through by constituents while on the Web site may not need to be stored offline. If the data will not be used offline, then it likely does not need to be stored in the donor database.
   
   
3. What information from the donor database needs to be used online?
   The donor database may have valuable information about donors that can be useful for online programs. For instance, many organizations send special emails to major donors, based on offline giving history. That information would need to be stored in the online database to be used for email communications.

By thinking through questions like these, any organization can begin to define the business rules that will drive successful data synchronization between online and offline databases.