Happy New Year to you all!
We hope you enjoyed the celebrations and are looking forward to the exciting new challenges 2022 promises to bring. As we mentioned in our post at the end of last year, we’re expecting a big year, some of the reasons for which you’ll find in the below post and some of which we’re keeping a surprise for now!
So what exactly should you be anticipating? We’ll be giving a quick run down below of some of the biggest trends we expect to see affecting our team and the technologies we work with over the course of the year
2021 was an amazing year for CiviCRM. We won’t have time to cover all the amazing developments of the system from the past 12 months, but it’s worth taking a look at a few of the headlines below.
First up, and following on from the success of the Contact Summary Layout Editor Extension, have been the huge improvements to the core of the system. These included the reporting tool Search Kit and interface builder Form Builder, These flexible tools allow administrators to completely build CiviCRM interfaces from the ground upwards. Now you have complete control over the layout of screens within CiviCRM, and the ability to create new ones to fit any workflow. Hats off to the core team for this one!
There’s been some exciting developments from Compuco towers too. From a membership management perspective Membership Extras v5.0.0 was released. With a huge leap forward both in terms of the user experience (“UX”) but also lots of additional features, with Membership Extra’s installed, CiviCRM’s membership management is now some of the most flexible and comprehensive on the market today.
One of the other areas we’ve been working hard on is CiviCRM’s case management functionality. Compuco has developed a suite of extensions to turn CiviCase into a real workflow powerhouse. You can now also use CiviCase for Prospecting or Opportunity tracking, or for managing grants or awards end to end. To get a better idea of what you can achieve with CiviCase see our webinar here.
One of our favourite extensions here at Compuco, CiviRules, which allows administrators to automate actions such as sending emails, messages and updating your data, received over 10 additional releases, each with new features making CiviCRM even more powerful.
The drag and drop email builder Mosaico received a few new features too, with better control over image sizes and styles, it’s never been easier to contact your supporters!
We also have one particularly exciting announcement coming very soon however that addresses some of the technical hurdles we've noticed many smaller organisations face when first getting started with open source systems like CiviCRM. Mainly, how to make the wide breadth of possible features accessible to users in an affordable package that doesn’t require constant maintenance. Keep your eyes on our social media for more information in the very near future!
Recent research shows that community platforms are becoming an ever bigger part of organisations’ digital mix. Especially due to the in-person limitations imposed by Covid, many organisations have found digital engagement with their supporters has been vital to their success. Building a successful community platform has innumerable benefits to organisations, with all sorts of interesting metrics becoming trackable once you set one up.
Compuco is proud to partner with Open Social as its primary community platform provider and spent much of last year building integrations for various CRMs. We fully intend to continue building community platforms for clients both new and old this year as well as offering an increased range of additional features. To check out more of our work on community platforms, take a look at our work with PRI.
If you’re starting off with digital tooling, then we’d always recommend a CRM as a great starting place. CiviCRM, for instance, has great bulk mailing functionality which serves most initial needs.
Something we’ve been seeing more of recently, however, is clients coming to us with more sophisticated marketing needs. Building strong and integrated campaigns is much easier from a platform such as Mautic. Integrated with your CRM, website and social channels, you can easily see a holistic picture of how leads interact with your organisation and automate actions.
Expect to see more from us later on in the year on how these platforms can support advanced processes capable of delivering significant results!
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It’s not just the technologies we work with that will be changing in 2022. Building upon our rebrand from Compucorp to Compuco in 2021, we’ll be sharing more content with you, keeping regular blog posts alongside other exciting activities.
We’ll also be sharing more about what it’s like to work at Compuco. Alongside how our colleagues have taken advantage of volunteering leave, we’ll be sharing knowledge and tips from our team. With contributions planned from our product, design, project management, and technical support specialists we’ll be sharing some secrets for success.
That’s only a brief taste of what we’re expecting in 2022. We’re looking forward to sharing more news with you throughout the year. If there’s anything you’re interested in finding out more about or any topics you’d like us to discuss, make sure to get in touch!
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If you have a project you’d like to share with us, or even just a quick question, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch below!
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