Higher Logic

Overall: HL community allows our members to engage each other across the country - and across generations (we've actually had posts from members in their 80s and 90s - so you know the ease of use is there!) HL community also allows us better communications and project organization. (the competing product we use in this is Board BookIt.)

Pros: Ease of use for Open Forum communications is great We have used extensively in our governance and it really organized and standardized our committee work. Ability to integrate with Abila product Abiilty to aid our chapters

Cons: I wish the libraries were easier to use - like Windows Explorer (does that show I'm old and not yet used to Sharepoint?) Wish you could duplicate "events" in the calendar like committee meetings. Wish the libraries were like google docs/share point and could be worked on collaboratively.

Overall: Frustrating and time-consuming. It's already a lot of work to strategize, evangelize, build these programs from scratch, and recruit members; the last stress one needs is the hurdle of getting the platform to work the way it should and getting the resources one needs to fix issues.

Pros: The fact that it is a tool that can help me run an advocacy program.

Cons: There have been lots of bugs that I have caught and have had to escalate to the Higher Logic support team. I just keep finding them and I can't launch my program because of it. Bugs have also negatively impacted my customers' experience in the 2nd program I launched. Also, the support team is not one person who knows my platform, goals, and agenda when I need assistance/have a problem, but it's multiple people who get back to me within long periods of time, often not resolving the root cause, but just the symptom, meaning the problem will probably happen again... I have communicated my dissatisfaction, and more Higher Logic people are thrown at my concerns, which only adds more chefs over the pot, and no one takes direct responsibility to resolve it=takes longer to resolve the issues. I am sure Higher Logic's intentions are good, but when it comes down to it, I can't depend on them to be there, to do things quickly, or even really fix the bugs I am finding; it has taken LOTS of time to get things resolved if we even do. My colleague had the same experience. To add: as a new user, the platform is not very straightforward to use, and I have to look for their materials, which are all over the place, or watch long videos to find the one thing I am looking for. The advocacy platform is very basic in look and feel, unless I hire someone for lots of $$ to help design it up.

Overall: It's been good since going live with our users. The implementation was shaky, but we got through it together with the Higher Logic team. Now that we're live, I can't imagine using our old system, or anything else. It does what we need to keep our customers engaged, connected and knowledgeable.

Pros: We've been live about a year and our staff and customers love the Qualifacts Community powered by Higher Logic. The system is head and shoulders above our previous system. We have created communities by user persona and state. It's our central documentation and resource site. Customers are engaged, and have started doing a lot of self-support.

Cons: The CMS is capable, but quirky. I still get confused trying to arrange content blocks and creating content. The email/automation rule process isn't well designed for sending one-off messages, or even recurring, but unscheduled messages like system status updats.