Workflows Used
By automating the tedious aspects of data management, Omatic has allowed our team to work on the things that excite them about data—and it’s not data entry.
Betsy Mylius
Associate Director of Data and Analytics, University of Portland
Organization Background
University of Portland is a private Catholic liberal arts university located in Portland, Oregon. Fundraising is central to sustaining its mission of education and service. Annual giving campaigns, major gifts, and fundraising events like the #PilotsGive giving day support scholarships, faculty research, and campus life. We spoke with Betsy Mylius, Schneeb Covington, and Nathan Corbett of the University Relations Data Team about their use of Omatic Cloud.
Challenges
Before adopting Omatic Cloud, University of Portland’s University Relations Data and Analytics team was stretched thin by time-consuming, manual processes that limited their capacity and put data quality at risk.
Manual, Multi-Step Data Processes Consumed an Entire Work Week
Syncing data between external platforms including Banner (the university’s student information system) and Raiser’s Edge NXT required the team to manually import file after file. Routine additions could take up to a full week of staff time, time the team could not spend on strategic projects or data quality initiatives. Gift processing required the additional step of custom R scripting just to format files correctly before importing, adding more complexity and creating a higher risk for errors.
Locked Database During Imports and Consistent Data Errors
Because Raiser’s Edge database view locks all other activity during an import, the team could lose an hour or more of productivity every time a data job ran. Other limitations introduced persistent inaccuracies, especially in the form of address inconsistency, which eroded trust in the database over time.
Reliance on Temporary Staff and Significant Lag Time for Data Updates
The volume and complexity of gift processing required the team to hire temporary staff just to keep up with data entry. And still, data updates weren’t always timely. For example, email opt-outs from their donor engagement platform (Encompass) were only processed every two weeks, meaning constituents who had unsubscribed could still receive communications for up to 14 days. The team was at capacity, with little bandwidth to take on other projects.
Being able to have consistent data coming in a consistent way, that can be hard to do when everything is done manually.
Schneeb Covington Database Administrator
Solution
Omatic Cloud gave the University Relations data team a centralized, flexible platform to automate data workflows that had previously required intensive manual work.
Hands-On Implementation and Responsive Customer Support
From the beginning, working with Omatic felt less like mere software implementation and more like a true partnership. Rather than simply flipping a switch and leaving the team at University of Portland to figure things out alone, Omatic consultants worked alongside University of Portland to build out their first complex formulas together, providing the hands-on guidance on how to use Omatic Cloud with confidence. Even after implementation, Omatic’s ongoing support remained consistently responsive; tickets are typically answered within a business day, faster than most vendors the team works with.
Automated Data Transfers Between Encompass and Raiser’s Edge NXT
With Omatic Cloud’s Encompass connector, the team eliminated the need for custom R scripting and manual file manipulation. Gift batches now flow automatically between Encompass and Raiser’s Edge NXT through Omatic Cloud, where staff review and approve batches. Data updates now take a fraction of the time. Instead of processing email opt-outs every 2 weeks, the team can process those daily—a major improvement to the supporter experience.
Scheduled Integrations That Free the Team to Work in Parallel
Omatic Cloud’s scheduling capability allows the team to set integrations to run automatically without locking the database. Before onboarding Omatic Cloud, the team was considering purchasing an additional computer for imports. Today, staff can continue working in Raiser’s Edge NXT while data updates run in the background.
Advanced Transformations for Consistent, Trustworthy Data
Omatic Cloud’s standard transformations and the new JavaScript custom code transformation feature, enable the team to enforce consistent formatting rules across all data. The team is currently using these features to standardize all U.S. addresses to USPS postal codes, a project they couldn’t have tackled manually at scale without record-by-record editing.
It really felt like a partnership working with Omatic to get up and running.
Betsy Mylius Associate Director of Data and Analytics
Results
Since moving to Omatic Cloud, University of Portland’s University Relations data team has seen measurable improvements in efficiency, data quality, and strategic capacity.
Faster Campaign Reporting That Impresses Stakeholders
One of the most visible results is that gift processing after major giving campaigns now takes days instead of well over a week. When the university’s #PilotsGive giving day concluded in April, the data team delivered complete, validated reporting to the board within a week. Campus Leadership could share real results with campus partners and board members while the excitement was still high.
A 40%+ Increase in Team Capacity for Data Maintenance
With routine data updates automated, the team has taken on a volume of work that would have been unfeasible before. In the past year alone, they completed a mass constituent deceasing project, imported large volumes of club affiliation data, and onboarded multiple new platforms including Givzey for virtual engagement, VanillaSoft for text engagement, along with CampusESP for parent communication. That’s a 40%+ increase in workload for data maintenance and cleanup, which would not have been tenable without Omatic Cloud.
Capacity to Think Creatively and Deliver More
The team now has more bandwidth to pursue creative, high-impact projects. In the past year, they have had the time to create a custom website for #PilotsGive, created custom scorecards across all advancement departments to set and track annual goals, and revamped the scholarship thank-you process. When the team isn’t buried in data entry, projects like these can get done.
The time savings has so many knock-on effects. Reporting is better, donor engagement, everything else. We’re able to support so much more because have the time.
Nathan Corbett Database Administrator
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