The Serenic Navigator financial software offerings may appear as separate, individual offerings, but are in fact interconnected and interrelated. Guided by our commitment to serve not-for-profit organizations, Serenic Navigator is a family of products designed to grow with you and give you the features and functionality your nonprofit or NGO needs to achieve its mission in a highly efficient and effective manner.

Once you have determined which purchase model you want to follow – license or subscription – you’re ready to determine what fund accounting version is the best fit for the needs of your nonprofit.

• Basic, only available in under the Subscription model, is designed for smaller organizations with very basic processes and needs. It includes all the necessary core functionality as well as some moderately advanced functionality. For example, Purchase Requisitions are not supported in this version, but Purchase Orders and Purchase Invoices are available.

• Business Essentials, or BE, is available under the Subscription and License models and builds off the Basic version by adding functionality, including Purchase Requisitions and Batch Allocations. Also included are two additional modules: AwardVision Basic and BudgetVision.

• Advanced Management, or AM, is available under the Subscription and License models and is our most advanced version. The additional functionality included in this version is designed for larger nonprofits and NGOs with more complex processes and accounting needs, and includes Workflow Management, a transaction approval module, and the advanced BudgetVision features “Calculations & Assumptions” and “Approvals.”

View a list of some of the features and functionality available in the Serenic Navigator family of products. For a full feature comparison, download the full fact sheet on our website.

Contact us if you have further questions about the License vs. Subscription models, and the Basic, BE or AM versions. Lots of options; we’re here to help you navigate through them!

When considering nonprofit accounting software, the purchasing model adds another dimension to the decision process.  Which is the best fit for your nonprofit, NGO, or public sector agency?  Last week we discussed the license purchase model.

Another option you have is to move to the cloud by subscribing to the product.  Under this model, Serenic installs and maintains the software on servers belonging to a 3^rd-party provider under contract to our company.  Your data is stored on these servers in a solid-built facility, secured at multiple levels, including locks, video cameras, biometrics, and guards. At all times, our service provider is proactively monitoring the system for problems, with anti-virus technology, backup and disaster recovery, and data privacy protocols in place.

In addition to the relief from the IT requirements, your organization may prefer predictable monthly fees, as compared to a single, initial capital investment.

With Serenic Navigator, you will purchase named users – for example, if you have 20 users needing access to Navigator, each of these users will require a subscription. (If you’ll remember from last week’s article, under the License model you purchase concurrent users.)

To access the program, you will be provided with two implementation options, depending on certain functional requirements of your organization.  In both cases, you’ll install a low-profile application to your computer, or to multiple computers (e.g., office and home computers).

• Option 1, Application Virtualization Client (App-V) – Once App-V is installed, an icon is added to your computer’s desktop and you will open Serenic Navigator Online just as you access programs installed directly to your computer.  You will be able to import and export to your local installations of Word and Excel.
• Option 2, Citrix Receiver – Once the Citrix Receiver is installed, you will open a web site to log into the system and access Serenic Navigator Online.   You will also have access to Word and Excel from this interface.

Under the subscription model, Serenic is responsible for applying all upgrades as part of the service. To support this process, customizations are not allowed.

In our next article, we’ll look at some of the feature differences between the different Serenic Navigator offerings.

Serenic offers multiple versions of its award-winning fund accounting software, and multiple ways to purchase our software – in fact, it can be a little overwhelming to determine what combination of offerings is the best fit.   In this article and the next, we’ll explore the two purchase models: License and Subscription.  First up, we’ll explore the benefits of following the License model and how it applies to a purchase of Serenic Navigator.

Under the traditional software model, you purchase a license that provides your organization with the perpetual right to use the software. You then install the product on your organization’s computers and servers.

Some nonprofits are most comfortable with their data stored locally and are willing and able to make a capital investment in the necessary servers.  Additionally, they may prefer to pay their costs upfront, rather than a monthly subscription fee.

An alternative under the traditional model is to purchase a license and contract with a 3^rd party to host the product on their servers and to provide access via the Internet.  Under this option, your nonprofit or NGO is spared the cost of purchasing and maintaining the servers.

With Serenic Navigator, you will purchase concurrent users – for example, if you have 20 users needing access to Navigator, but expect no more than 10 users accessing at any point in time, you would purchase 10 concurrent users.

One benefit to the License model is that should your nonprofit need specialized functionality, you can contract to have the product customized to meet your specific needs.

For example, a client outsources their Payroll to a 3^rd party, which provides a data file in a specific format.  The client would like to import this data into Serenic Navigator.  Without a customization, they would need to modify this file to match the standard import format required by Serenic Navigator.

However, because the client owns a license for Serenic Navigator, they can arrange for a customization to the import process so that the system uses the data layout defined by the 3^rd party Payroll provider.  When they receive a data file from their provider, they can seamlessly import their information with no manual steps by their staff.

With both of these options, maintenance of the financial software – for example, applying upgrades – is under your direction and control.

Next week we’ll discuss the subscription model, providing online accounting software in the cloud.

We’re excited to announce the expansion of our Serenic Navigator Online (NOL) product suite, which is now available in three offerings:

• Serenic NOL Basic
• Serenic NOL BE (Business Essentials)
• Serenic NOL AM (Advanced Management)

Serenic NOL is a Software as a Service (SaaS) version of our award-winning Navigator financial management system. The cloud-based subscription model leverages Internet streaming functionality with access to Serenic’s financial management software for the term of the subscription. The Serenic NOL product features are designed to meet specific needs of nonprofit and public sector organizations, which are increasingly connecting to the Internet to automate and simplify business processes “in the cloud.”

“Serenic Navigator Online offers NGOs and nonprofits financial management functionality coupled with the advantages of a decentralized software deployment model,” according to our CEO and President Randy Keith. “Organizations with multiple offices, remote workers and distributed workforces especially benefit from using a cloud-based solution. If their situation changes for any reason, NOL clients can easily and cost-effectively transition to the on-premise version of the Serenic Navigator financial management suite.”

NGOs and nonprofit organizations can download the Serenic Navigator Online Success Kit or informative white paper for more information.

A few months ago, we announced our Early Adopter Program (EAP) for the Serenic Navigator Online (NOL) product, our cloud based fund accounting system for small and mid-sized nonprofits. Today, it’s time for a quick update.

First, we decided to rename it and in the span of an afternoon, the EAP became the CFG (Customer Focus Group). This allowed us to emphasize that NOL is not new – it’s built off the same Navigator NA (BE license) that’s been around for years, serving hundreds of customers. The cloud based delivery system and implementation tools are the new element in the mix, and the CFG was designed to allow us to work closely with customers to prove our concept works and identify areas for process improvement.

Second, we looked for customers. And we found them – four diverse organizations that helped us work through the things we hadn’t thought of, were patient while we streamlined our processes, and provided suggestions for ways we could improve the experience for future customers.

Some facts about our first four customers:

• They range from a 4-person accounting office to a “1-man shop.”
• Their environments are varied, including Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Mac environments. (Note: On a Mac, you must run Windows in a virtual environment.)
• They include employees accessing the software from locations across the United States and abroad.

Each customer brought a new perspective to the process, helping us ensure that we provided all the correct materials and support. And as the first CFG customers prepare to go live, we’re now ready to go live ourselves.

It’s an exciting time to work at Serenic!!!