These PowerPoint slides from an online training present best practices, processes, and tips for caring for your organization’s data.

Below are a number of database-related information and resources, posted in conjunction with the USA PATRIOT Act documentation and toolkits.

TechSoup has a set of resources specific to data care, database planning, software selection, custom development, implementation and maintenance:

Database planning assistance                                               Database needs assessment

This is the basic language I use in many projects to explain how different databases are deployed to the user. It usually works well coming out of conversations with clients who are throwing database names at me and asking for instant comparisons between them. This frame has helped many of my clients to focus a bit on the type of solution they are looking for and to avoid blindly comparing available options.

Deploying Databases

There are essentially three categories of databases:

CompuMentor's Database Planning Guide for Nonprofits is designed to help small and medium-sized nonprofit organizations to develop a database plan, and as a result, purchase or build a database that effectively serves their needs.

We are preparing to update this guide and would appreciate your suggestions regarding, what's missing and what needs to be updated. We also welcome your ideas about how the overall guide could be improved. Lastly, if you have database planning tools and resources that you think would be useful to the community, please post them!

Comparing Online Registration Systems

(Leland Design - April 2004)

The following review was conducted for a client based on the key features they required, listed in the left column.

Online Community Software Review

Prepared by Eric Leland, Compumentor - July 2004

 Introduction

 The purpose of this project is to provide ([CLIENT]) with a high level vendor review of online collaboration/community building tools.  

Products considered in this review include Tomoye: (http://www.tomoye.com/), Gomembers (www.gomembers.com), Groove (http://www.groove.net), IMIS (Advanced Micro Solutions) - http://www.advsol.com, Memberclicks (http://www.memberclicks.com/), Kintera (http://www.kintera.com), Icohere (http://www.icohere.com), Isoph (http://www.isoph.com/), Intranets.com (http://www.intranets.com), OfficeZilla (http://www.officezilla.com/), Convea (http://www.convea.com), Blackboard: (http://www.blackboard.com/), CommunityZero (http://www.communityzero.com/), Cvent (http://www.cvent.com/), Accrisoft (http://www.accrisoft.com/), Acteva (http://www.acteva.com/), TIMSS (http://www.tmaresources.com/)