Event management coming soon…hopefully within the next few months. Meanwhile, we’re definitely looking to be able to work with other CRMs and databases that organizations are using. Our goal is always to move towards the market’s demand, and right now it’s in the open source world with DIA and CiviCRM. There is an open API debate happening on Oct 20, and I’d highly recommend people submitting their comments about Joomla and how it can integrate with the participating firms. More details regarding the debate:

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Live Debate: Friday, October 20, 10:00 am Pacific. Check our blog later this week for details on how to call and listen in. http://www.nten.typepad.com/newsletter/

Written Rants: Send us your take on the debate in 150 words or less by Tuesday, October 24, to make it into the newsletter. Don’t forget to send in a photo of yourself! Send them to bonnie@nten.org.

Briefly write up your opinion and send it to us at bonnie@nten.org. We’ll select rants to post on our blog and feature in our next newsletter.

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Let them them know you want more accessibility to your data!

I’m sure the DIA system is less than perfect - but it seems to have the robustness and stableness that has been supporting our organisation for it’s needs…

Next on our list is eTapestry… Any chance of seeing Picnet in the list here(http://www.etapestry.com/partners/prodpartners_fs.html) anytime soon?

Thanks for all your important work! How soon do we get to manage our events in DIA, through Joomla? Once that functionality’s in there - our entire organisation will be able to start working much more organically - internationally… And I’m sure that might helps others to run events, in a more localised way!

We agree with you that the more options small to mid-sized non-profits had, the better for the entire market. It would apply an upward effect on competition, which should drive down prices and increase the usability of all the tools. I know that DIA will be releasing an update to their system, which might include new UI, in the next few months. We’ll be keeping our eyes open for this.

In the meantime, thanks for the kudos on the blog. It’s not directly connected to the main PICnet web site because we’re in a massive overhaul process of the main site, so that we have press releases posted that are more recent than 2004.

Plus, we could use a little more on the usability side with some new features we’re adding soon. Thanks for your comments!

As for potential other CRM solutions - I have heard good things about CiviCRM so its great you folks are tied in and active there. But the unfortunate reality is there is just not a lot of options on the CRM front. Its desperately needed, that’s for sure.

Great blog, Ryan. Keep up all the good work!

p.s. why is your blog not connected to your website at all?

We’ve had many good experiences with DIA, including information from our numerous clients that use them directly as well, so I’ll have to counter your comment. At the same time, however, our goal isn’t to simply pair only with one CRM solution. We helped bring CiviCRM (www.civicrm.org) to the Joomla world, and are currently also looking to see how we can better bridge the gap between Salesforce and Joomla.

At the end of the day, we don’t profess to be CRM experts; however, we follow client demand in that market, and we know that DIA has a very large following. Our goal is to serve these organizations and clients in a manner that makes their lives easier, and J!DIA helps meet that goal.

Mike, maybe you can share some other CRM options that you think would be helpful to have better integrated with Joomla as well?