Q4 2015 New Features and Enhancements

We are pleased to announce the availability of the iMIS 20 Q4 2015 release, the fourth major release of iMIS 20 since its launch in May of 2013. This new release continues to build upon and enhance the iMIS 20 Engagement Management System (EMS), RiSE web development platform, and Continuum business intelligence features to help clients better engage with constituents and realize continuous performance improvement.

With each new iMIS 20 release we continue to extend our vision of the only Engagement Management System (EMS) for the not-for-profit world, replacing obsolete CRM and AMS systems. Significant new features and modules in the iMIS 20 Q4 2015 (20.2.26) release include:

New Features

  • The Staff site has been redesigned using Responsive Web Design (RWD), and is optimized for use on any device. This allows your staff to access iMIS anytime, anywhere, on any device.
  • The navigation is more consistent and easier to access. Staff users will notice that navigation paths have changed and new paths have been created.
  • The updated Community, Membership, Fundraising, Events, and Commerce dashboards offer better usability, and more at-a-glance information.
  • A new drop-down contains:
    • A link to the logged-in user’s account page
    • A link to sign out
    • Navigation to other sites
    • Access to the On Behalf Of feature
  • A PLUS icon was added to the Manage duplicates, Advanced email, and Process automation navigation items. This icon indicates that the feature contains additional functionality. Users will see the icon whether the additional functionality has been purchased or not.

Integrating to external applications has never been easier. The new browser-based API and iPart development environment gives developers access to the iMIS API to extend iMIS to meet the specialized needs of your organization. Applications developed using the SDK use modern technologies and allow your iMIS to be upgraded.

  • Client-side framework for better performance
  • Easy integration with iMIS API through a new RESTful interface
  • Streamline iMIS upgrades

For more information, see help.imis.com/sdk.

Customers can provide post-purchase information and content to their members or visitors for purchase. After purchasing a given product, purchasers will receive further information about how to retrieve their post-purchase content or information.

In order to simplify premium management, donation gift premiums can be configured directly from the Staff site. Staff site donation premiums are assembled through the use of premium sets. By taking advantage of premium sets, fundraisers have complete control over how the premiums are offered, as well as the offering schedule.

Premium set construction involves choosing the premium products to be offered, selecting gift items that will offer the premium products, and indicating the starting and ending dates and times. Once premium sets are established, you can do one of the following:

  • Choose to have gift premium choices displayed after the donor has chosen his gift amount. Only the premiums that are eligible for that donation amount are displayed.
  • Display all premiums along with the required gift amount for each premium, and allow donors to select their donation amount based on the premium.

Offering donation premiums are an excellent way to thank donors, and to demonstrate appreciation for their contribution.

Source codes can be used to track product purchases, event registrations and adjustments, paid invoices, donations, and membership registrations. Once an initial source code is established, the source code will brand all purchases made until the user closes the browser or logs off.

Staff users have the ability to import a list of source codes directly from the Staff site.

The join process has been enhanced to allow companies to join an organization such as a trade association. The Content Collection Organizer provides a stepped join process for an organization to create a contact record, define demographic information, and select a membership fee to add to the cart.

When the Assign selected user as administrator for new organizations configuration is enabled in the Contact Account Creator, Company Administrators have the ability to create new organizations in order to conduct transactions and enter information On Behalf Of the organization.

Donors will be able to choose to make installment payments to fulfill a specific donation amount.

Your donors are still able to select to make a one-time, immediate donation to your organization, but you can now offer your donors the option of spreading their donation out across multiple installment payments, providing flexible donation options for donors who need more payment alternatives.

Donors will also be able to specify that their donations are automatically renewed every year.

The iMIS documentation team has been hard at work creating new responsive Helpsites to assist customers with articles and videos on features within iMIS!

These new Helpsites include useful tools such as a prominent search bar, easy-to-find navigation, and video tutorials.

The following sites are available for current and future releases:

If you would like to propose a topic for articles or videos, please email Documentation@advsol.com.

Additional Enhancements

The iMIS installer has been updated to install, maintain, or upgrade additional instances of iMIS. The installer supports up to 25 instances per server. The number of instances you can run on a server is dependent on the resources you are able to allocate. You can install a newer version of iMIS while retaining an older version on your server.

Previously, additional instances of iMIS were installed using the iMIS Multi-Instance Utility. However, this utility has been modified and renamed as the iMIS Reconfigure Tool. This tool allows reconfiguration of an existing iMIS install only and is limited to changing the database with which an iMIS install is associated. The iMIS Reconfigure Tool is not part of an iMIS delivery. Customers can request the iMIS Reconfigure Tool from ASI Technical Support.

The new iMIS installer also allows for multiple application pools. This allows older versions using a 32-bit application pool to run concurrently on systems where newer versions require 64-bit application pools (new application pools are set to 64-bit mode by default. Users must set application pools to 32-bit if they want to run 32-bit operations).

During an initial install, the iMIS installer accepts up to 50 characters for the SQL sa password. In addition, the External Domain Name creates a new website in IIS that maps website URL requests from this value over to the Default Web Site/<Virtual Root> created from the Appserver Virtual Root.

Warning!  

The iMIS installer only supports upgrades from any version of iMIS starting with 15.2.1. Due to this version change, the iMIS Web View and Public View sites will be deleted during upgrade. Please review the Upgrading the iMIS Web View site for more information.

For more information, see Install and Upgrade Changes.

  • The Staff user can edit the Enrollment date, Expiration date, and the date on which the Grace period begins for a Certification program enrollee.
  • Enrollees can cancel their own Certification program enrollments and have the option to re-enroll after cancellation.
  • Staff users can define the default order type for orders placed over the web. The order processing has been configured for non-inventory items to automatically go to the invoice stage. Once configured, the option to split an order with both inventory and non-inventory items over the web is available.
  • Website users can pay outstanding accrual renewal invoices from their account page. In addition, when members renew using the Renew Now button, all of their outstanding accrual renewal invoices are added to the cart. The member can remove any invoice from the cart that they do not want to pay at that time.
  • Organizations can choose to restrict the invoices that display by a specific financial entity. Once selected, only the open invoices for that financial entity will display.
  • Customers can now use payment gateways that are not natively supported by iMIS to make single or recurring payments, for example, SecurePay or iATS. Payment details are sent directly to the ASI-hosted tokenization engine, allowing customers to use a single gateway to make payments.
  • After optional payment gateways are added in iMIS, the Staff site allows users to synchronize the gateways to the ASI-hosted tokenization server.
  • The ability to make recurring payments with bank drafts in the US through Payflow Pro has been added.
  • Users can specify cash accounts for a new direct debit payment type, allowing the use of a two-character prefix to identify the country for which the direct debit applies.
  • Staff users can review the AutoPay status navigation item that displays a set of dialog messages, indicating where problems might be present during the AutoPay setup process.
  • iMIS now allows organizations to charge VAT taxation based upon customer location. These changes will affect businesses in the services of telecommunication, television, radio, and any business involved with other electronically supplied services where the customer is a private individual.
  • iMIS supports the ability for event registrants to register for taxable event functions. Staff and registrants can now make changes to their itineraries after checkout, if necessary.
  • With Contact Merge - Plus, system administrators can find duplicate contacts, by scheduling an automated task, or by manually finding potential duplicates immediately. Once the potential duplicates have been found, system administrators can view and resolve all duplicate contacts in the system, or mark the contacts as Not Duplicates. An alert is displayed on the account page if the contact is a potential duplicate. Any Staff member can resolve the alert by marking the contact as Not Duplicate, or merging with a contact from the drop-down.
  • Configure events to display separate showcase views for public and Staff users.
  • While creating or editing an event, Staff users can add an event address and define a primary event contact directly from the Staff site. When creating a new event, select the Info tab to see the new fields.
  • Guest-specific pricing can be assigned to either the registration option and/or program item by Staff users. When an event registrant is registering a guest, only the guest registration options are displayed.
  • Staff users can create an IQA report based on responses to event questions by using the business objects FormDefinitionData and FormResponseData.

Cause2Give donations can easily be imported into iMIS by using the donation importer.

  • Staff users can view Advanced email correspondences from the Staff site. The details of every correspondence sent in the past year are displayed in a dashboard. To view individual correspondence, the By communication subjects listed will link to and display specific statistics on a separate dashboard.
  • The iMIS Interaction Log allows Staff users to view a log of communication jobs that includes information on how many communications were sent successfully or sent through automated tasks. Advanced Email correspondences are also recorded by reporting which communications were queued, delivered, dropped, opened, clicked, bounced, or reported as spam.

When selecting a theme in Manage websites on the Look and feel tab, users see a thumbnail preview of all available themes. Another addition to this tab is the Advanced section which contains all of the drop-downs that were previously on this tab, and all custom website themes.

Users with permissions to create content and navigation can create a navigation item when publishing a new content record. The new Create navigation on publish option allows you to name the new navigation item and select the sitemap location.

  • The Content Block and Content Tagged List content items are able to share content through social media websites when Include social sharing icons is enabled.
  • The Contact Mini Profile, Contact Name, and Contact Account Creator content items provide users the option to Display mobile phone. If users would like to modify the mobile phone label, this option is provided in the content item configuration. The Workbook Converter can import mobile phone numbers into your database which can then be merged when using iMIS Contact Merge.
  • Easily upload a downloadable file using Panel Editor. The panel property, File upload, allows contacts to associate a file with their record. Once a file is uploaded, it can be downloaded by anyone who can view the panel.
  • The Content Collection Organizer content item allows content designers to select a content folder and use the content records as individual tabs. Users accessing a content record with the Content Collection Organizer will only see the tabs that they are permitted to view.
  • Custom links can be defined in the Content Html content item. Source codes can be added during link definition, allowing the link to be associated with a marketing campaign.
  • The Slideshow content item enables you to place images on any content record in a visually appealing slideshow format. During Slideshow creation, images are defined on individual tabs. Each tab provides the ability to select an image, customize text, insert custom CSS, and add hyperlinks. Once created, you can rearrange or remove a tab at any time. You can choose to have the images advance automatically, or when clicked.

IQA can be used to define the members of groups from the Group tab when editing or creating a new query. These groups can also be used to control access settings.

  • If you create data sources through the Alert, Actions, or Conditions tabs, the new Data Sources tab provides the ability to manage those data sources.
  • Alert links can be associated with a source code, allowing the link to be tracked with a marketing campaign.
  • When creating or editing an Action, the Type to Run a stored procedure can now pass Trigger IDs as parameters to the stored procedure execution. The parameter must be equal to @triggerid datatype for a single property or @triggerid# dataype for multiple properties.
  • After a scheduled task has been created, Staff users can immediately run the task by clicking the Run task now button.
  • System administrators can define a trigger to run based on specific changes to database tables in the iMIS system, such as when a row has been inserted, deleted, or updated. Row updates for database changes will run a task when any column in a row is changed or when a selected column has value changes.
  • Staff users can add a new action type to a scheduled task to run either an SSRS report or a stored procedure. The report can be emailed to existing contacts, or the Staff user can enter individual email addresses. The Staff user can also specify the stored procedure to be run.
  • To help maintain your database size, there are three new options to manage task status logs in the Staff site.
  • There are also additional alerts and tasks available out-of-the-box:
    • Staff new contacts alert (Not included in alert set out-of-the-box)
    • Staff lapsing members summary alert
    • Staff lapsing members list alert (Not included in alert set out-of-the-box)
    • Staff recent large gifts alert
    • Staff recent gifts alert
    • Staff online registration opens soon alert
    • Staff online registration closes soon alert
    • Staff early pricing cutoff alert
    • Staff regular pricing cutoff alert
    • Staff low event registration alert
    • Staff upcoming event alert
    • Staff recent event registrations alert
    • Staff popular products this month alert
    • Staff recent orders alert
    • Staff recent renewals summary alert
    • Staff recent renewals list alert (Not included in alert set out-of-the-box)
    • Staff dropped or reinstated members alert
    • Staff major donor gifts alert
    • Staff low inventory alert
  • The following out-of-the-box system alert sets have been added:
    • Community Dashboard
    • Commerce Dashboard
    • Events Dashboard
    • Fundraising Dashboard
    • Membership Dashboard
  • The following out-of-the-box scheduled task has been added:
    • Event confirmation email

After a Staff user completes a simple setup procedure on the Staff site, visitors can sign in to your website using their LinkedIn credentials. Existing iMIS accounts are linked to the LinkedIn accounts; new users automatically create iMIS accounts. A user can even choose to use their LinkedIn profile picture as their profile picture on your website. Users have the option to disconnect their iMIS account from their LinkedIn account at any time.

If desired, you can configure iMIS to prompt users to link their iMIS and LinkedIn accounts and to prompt users who create a new account during the linking process to enter additional information in a Contact Account Creator content item. Eliminating the need for users to keep track of multiple user names and passwords will result in more visits to the essential content on your website.

Install and Upgrade Changes

This iMIS release delivers many changes to existing features, the database schema, and infrastructure that could impact an upgrade or install. Be sure to review this information for each release since your last upgrade before upgrading or installing iMIS.

Hosting can be expensive, especially if you are hosting multiple customer websites or maintaining a test system. You can now host up to 25 instances of iMIS, including multiple versions on a single server to cut down on the cost and effort of administering multiple iMIS installations. The installer provides the ability to host any combination of iMIS versions from 15.2.1 and greater and allows you to upgrade hosted iMIS installations independent of the other instances on a server.

The new iMIS installer also allows for multiple application pools. This allows older versions using a 32-bit application pool to run concurrently on systems where newer versions require 64-bit application pools (new application pools are set to 64-bit mode by default. Users must set application pools to 32-bit if they want to run 32-bit operations).

Previously, additional instances of iMIS were installed using the iMIS Multi-Instance Utility. However, this utility has been modified and renamed as the iMIS Reconfigure Tool. This tool allows reconfiguration of an existing iMIS install only and is limited to changing the database with which an iMIS install is associated. The iMIS Reconfigure Tool is not part of an iMIS delivery. Customers can request the iMIS Reconfigure Tool from ASI Technical Support.

During an initial install, the iMIS installer accepts up to 50 characters for the SQL sa password. In addition, the External Domain Name creates a new website in IIS that maps website URL requests from this value over to the Default Web Site/<Virtual Root> created from the Appserver Virtual Root.

Warning!  

The iMIS installer only supports upgrades from any version of iMIS starting with 15.2.1. Due to this version change, the iMIS Web View and Public View sites will be deleted during upgrade. Please review the Upgrading the iMIS Web View site for more information.

The security query $/Common/Queries/SecurityAdministration/GroupAdministration (used to assign access settings to documents including navigation, content, and so forth) has been modified. Previously, the query was used to determine group Types for which access could be assigned. Now, a new filter is added to the query that enables Staff users to determine groups by Name to which they can assign document access.

The quantities for the business objects CsOrders, CsOrderLines, CsRegistrations, CsRegFunctions, and CsInventory have been modified to only display whole numbers. If your organization is using partial quantities with these business objects in IQA queries or reports, the quantities will now be displayed as rounded numbers. Partial quantities are still supported in Desktop and Advanced Accounting Console orders.

To display partial quantities with decimals, create a new business object based on the object that was changed. For each quantity property, change the Data Type to Decimal.

In order to better protect cardholder data with PCI requirements, users will be unable to print a full batch of credit card reports.

The iMIS Web View and Public View has been removed:

  • Public View installs are removed.
  • Navigation for customer RiSE websites that point to Web View content pages are marked as Inactive.
  • The BlueWave theme is upgraded to the Everest theme.
  • Several navigation items in the iMIS Desktop that are directed to Public View are deleted.
  • Impersonation is no longer supported.

Please review the Upgrading the iMIS Web View site for more information.

Products can be defined as gift premiums directly from the Staff site. If you already have premiums configured in the Advanced Accounting Console or Desktop, you can continue to define your premiums there, or you can establish premiums using the Staff site.

Note that the setup process for premiums that are to be displayed on RiSE-based sites are different from the setup process that has been used in the past. The key difference is where and how you define products to be used as premiums. RiSE-based sites do not recognize premiums associated with Appeals in the Advanced Accounting Console or Desktop, and premium configuration done in the Staff site is not recognized in the Advanced Accounting Console or Desktop.

The Advanced email feature will automatically be disabled after upgrading and must be reactivated. After the upgrade is complete, navigate in the Staff site to Settings > Advanced email and select the Reactivate button for live databases only.

Staff users must also enable Email Notifications because it is disabled by default. Do the following to enable Email Notifications:

  1. In the Staff site, go to Settings > Advanced email.
  2. At the bottom of this page, deselect the Disable notifications option.
  3. Click Save.

As of April 6, 2015, HMRC now requires either a valid UK postcode or a record must be marked as a non-UK address. To support this new regulation, a new query is available in iMIS at $/Fundraising/DefaultSystem/Queries/GiftAid.

iMIS now has a total of five system users: GUEST, MANAGER, ADMINISTRATOR, SYSTEM and IMISLOG. The additional system user named IMISLOG is used to process any Advanced email interactions, but could be used in the future for any other logging activities.

The maximum character limit for single and multi-line text fields depends on when the original panel table was created. Older tables will have a limit of 400 characters, while any newly created tables will have a limit of 4,000 characters.

The following operations in the MembershipWebService API are locked so that they can only be called by a logged-in user with a SysAdmin role:

  • GetUser
  • RequestPasswordReset
  • ResetPassword
  • UnlockUser

Any user calling the MembershipWebService through a third-party tool should be logged in first, and the logged-in user must have a SysAdmin role.

iMIS Process Automation has been updated to use the SQL server time when processing scheduled tasks so that everything is based on SQL server time.

Previously, scheduled tasks were run based on the iMIS application server time as opposed to the SQL server time. If your SQL time is different than your application server time, then the scheduled times must be adjusted to compensate for the differences. Time zone information is provided when scheduling a time for your tasks.

On upgrade, C# script blocks will be removed from out-of-the-box Content HTML content items. Any copied Content HTML content items will no longer support C# script blocks, including any custom code that was added to any content. Once these content items are saved and published the C# script block will be removed.

JavaScript script blocks will continue to be supported. If JavaScript cannot be used instead of C#, the C# code needs to be ported to a first class content type and a new content item needs to be created.

You must resynchronize your payment gateways with your tokenization engine when you upgrade from release 20.2.1.235 to the current release of iMIS. During the upgrade process, a new table is created (GatewayAccountLink). This table stores the payment gateway information used by both iMIS and the tokenization engine. If you do not resynchronize your payment gateways after upgrade, the payment gateways information will not be synchronized between iMIS and the tokenization engine, resulting in inaccurate payment options being displayed, that is, all AutoPay payment methods are disabled. Also, users can experience scrolling issues in the UI when making recurring donations. For more information, see Recurring donations and Automatic membership renewals.

The Staff site has been redesigned to have a modern look and feel. The primary navigation has moved to the left, and paths have changed or been renamed. The new Orion theme and master page is responsive and mobile friendly.

All custom website themes have been moved to the Advanced section of the Look and feel tab.

iMIS Analytics has been modified to run as a separate installer instead of with the iMIS installation. To install iMIS Analytics, run the new setupAnalytics.exe located on your application server host.

  • Instead of modifying the sitemap to have access to the Advanced Accounting Console from the web, users can simply modify the new shortcut, AdvancedAccountingConsole, to point to the content record containing the Advanced Accounting Console content item.

    • If you previously modified the sitemap, you will need to modify the new shortcut to point to your desired content record.

  • Previously, the only account page for organizations was accessed through the shortcut OrganizationAccount. System Administrators, Staff users, and Company Administrators all had editing access to the same information on this content record.

    • The new OrganizationFullAccount shortcut is used to display a separate view of an organization's account page for Staff users and System Administrators. The shortcut for Company Administrators remains OrganizationAccount, and is used for displaying the account page of an organization which the user can edit.

The following Tagged list format templates supplied by ASI have been modified to include a placeholder for the Social Share icons:

  • BlockTaggedList
  • Mobile
  • Short
  • Simple
  • SimpleWithHtml

These templates will be replaced during the upgrade process. Any customizations you have made to these standard templates will be overwritten. You should consider backing up these templates if you have customizations you wish to reinstate after the upgrade completes.

Staff users can tailor the email that is sent when an online order or donation is submitted. A sample communication template for Order Confirmation is provided in this release. To take advantage of this feature, set the system setting to use the file path to the sample template or to your edited Order Confirmation template.

iMIS users have the ability to add variables to the message that is displayed in the Invoice Payment Link content item when an AutoPay payment instruction exists. However, to use a variable in this message, the variable must be enclosed within square brackets. For example, if you enter the following text:

Your membership is due for renewal and will be automatically paid using [0].

the following message will be displayed:

Your membership is due for renewal and will be automatically paid using [Payment Method Description].

Highlights from previous iMIS 20 versions

The iMIS 20.2 release included new functionality, as well as improved and enhanced features. The following features were included in the 20.2 release:

Note: Additional licensing might be required for the following new and enhanced features. Contact your AiSP or ASI for more information.

  • New iMIS Certification — Track a constituent's certification progress (license required).
  • New iMIS Translation — Reach your members and donors globally with a translated website (license required).
  • New Process Automation — Display automated alerts and send scheduled emails and reports (license required for customization).
  • New Responsive web design — Display your website on any device. A new Responsive Design theme and three new responsive Quick Start Sites are included in this release.
  • New Engagement metrics — Measure your constituents' engagement with your organization.
  • New Contact merge — Merge duplicate records.
  • New Performance and stability improvements for a better user experience.
  • iMIS Communication: Template management, deliverability, opt-in/opt-out functionality (license required for selected features).
  • Social engagement: Sign in using Facebook, contact social media links.
  • Relationship management: New Committee Administrator and Chapter Administrator roles (license required for selected features).
  • Continuum: Dashboard chart enhancements, new reports.
  • Website design and management: Manage links and data panels, grid system for layouts.
  • Events: Specify date range for online registrations and search results, add previously registered guests.
  • Fundraising: Adjust recurring payments, import donation data.
  • Commerce: Adjust transaction date, define Fair Market Value, TNSPay gateway.
  • Staff productivity and security: Edit and save changes to Staff site navigation, new security settings.

For details, please review the 20.2 New Features.

The iMIS 20.1 release included new functionality, as well as improved and enhanced features. The following features were included in the 20.1 release:

Note: Additional licensing might be required for the following new and enhanced features. Contact your AiSP or ASI for more information.

  • New iMIS Communication Suite — Design and send email communications to designated contacts. You can create and reuse message templates and customize the recipients using an IQA query.
  • New AutoPay — Automatic renewal of membership fees and recurring donations from the Join Now and Give Now pages (license required).
  • New Event console — Provides detailed information about an event, including a quick-view dashboard of the event and registrants.
  • New Style Guide available for web developers to reference when designing or editing an iMIS theme.
  • Staff overrides of simple item pricing.
  • Support for Moneris payment gateway.
  • Improved website performance and accessibility.
  • Advanced Administrative Console improvements.
  • Customizable Staff Account pages.

For details, please review the 20.1 New Features.

In iMIS 20, we introduced the new Engagement Management System for organizations to engage members, donors, and other constituents - as well as staff - anytime, anywhere, and from any device. The following features were included in the 20.0 release:

Note: Additional licensing might be required for the following new and enhanced features. Contact your AiSP or ASI for more information.

  • New RiSE Platform — Powerful tools that allow you to manage your website's appearance, navigation structure, and content.
  • New Content Gallery — A gallery of sophisticated, easy-to-use tools to customize existing iMIS self-service pages and to create entirely new personalized web pages that meet the ever-changing demands of your constituents — with no programming necessary.
  • New Quick Start Sites — Sample sites that can be easily copied to create customized sites for your organization:
    • Member site offers a rich experience for self-service by your organization's members and prospects.
    • Member Mobile site renders the Member site in format and behavior that is optimized for use on smart phones and tablets.
    • Donor site offers a rich and changeable experience for fundraisers conducting charitable campaigns and product sales.
    • Annual Conference site offers a "microsite" experience to support your critical projects, such as an organization’s annual conference.
    • Annual Conference Mobile site renders the Annual Conference site in format and behavior optimized for use on smart phones and tablets.
  • New Staff site — A convenient site designed for staff members to manage your organization's business directly from a browser. You can also define and edit events and program items directly from the Staff site.
  • New Guided Performance Scorecard (GPS) — Lets your organization track its performance by measuring progress in Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and other important indexes. GPS is a powerful tool to show an organization’s progress in reaching internal goals, and to measure performance against other industry-leading organizations.
  • New Advanced Administrative Console — A streamlined, easy-to-use interface for most iMIS setup and management functions
  • New mobile-compatible theme: Austin_Mobile.
  • Improved Communities Dashboard.
  • Address Mapper content item "show map" link enhancement.

For details, please review the 20.0 New Features.