Thanks Gary, I've added your suggestions to the Costs section and we can add whatever Integrations that we current use / are considering (I just put the ones I know about). I also added BuddyBoss to the platform list, though my personal concern with that solution is that WordPress is the the most attacked platform in the world and we do not currently have sufficient staffing or capabilities to defend ourselves or recover afterwards. That's beyond my expertise, but if Blake (or someone similar) can take ownership of that, then I'm game.
What were the roadblocks you found with Discourse? I've only superficially dug into it so far, but it appears to be the most similar to "SocialCast" of our current options, so I'd hoped that would be user-friendly enough.
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Steve Iwanowski, NextStep Technology Advisors, aka DSD Lancaster PA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-22-2025 11:56
From: Gary Feldman
Subject: Meeting Agenda for August 27, 2025
A couple of comments and suggestions:
- Consider change management in the evaluation. Some non-technical aspects should definitely be considered in evaluating products.
- We have a very particular user community with high expectations of speed and usability. Higher Logic may not win in these categories, and neither might any of the alternatives.
- How easy will it be to administratively manage the solutions? Our members are mostly technically savvy but our administrative team may not be as technically oriented. I see feature and function, but not ease of use.
- Should Higher Logic be on the list? Doing nothing is always an alternative?
- Data Conversion - Most seem to have utilities these days for importing our history, but we should consider what can be imported and any potential limitations i our evaluation.
- Cost analysis, there are multiple aspects to "Price"
- Up front cost for software or annual subscription cost. I assume annual subscription will be the only alternative.
- Training and consulting for implementation? Data conversion costs? Do we think we can do this on our own without help?
From my recent personal experience, Discourse will not meet our needs and it is way too technical a solution. BuddyBoss Platform has improved greatly since it was last evaluated. Although I do NOT think it is "better" than Higher Logic, I chose it for the SAPB1 Community because I could set it up quickly, it has a very nice look and feel, and it is very inexpensive. I think they all have "endearing qualities" that make them wonky (see change management above), and BuddyBoss definitely has a weirdness associated with Groups and Forums. I can show you what I have done so far if you are interested.
I really like your integrations section. Consider having some in categories such as:
- Accounting - QuickBooks, Xero, other?
- CRM / Marketing - MailChimp, Constant Contact, HubSpot, other? (I am using Groundhogg)
- Productivity - Zoom, Slack, O365, G-Suite, Notion, other?
For Technical you have Cloud Hosted or Self-Hosted. Isn't WordPress on the integrations a technical option?
Finally, there are two other categories of integrations we may want to consider:
- Payments and Collections - Some of these should integrate with tools like Member Clicks and Woo Commerce for online payment for conference fees, memberships and other services we may offer.
- Learning Management Systems - Many of these community tools also have LMS components or work with Lifter, Learn Dash and other platforms. This may be a nice to have, but if we are moving towards more between conference activities, the new LMS systems integrate with Zoom (and others) for integrated community communication, sign up and tracking of participation.
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Gary Feldman
Principal
I-Business Network
Marietta GA
16786270646
http://www-i-bn.net
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