| MicroEdge FIMS Software Review |
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| Written by Scott Koegler | ||||||||
| Thursday, 30 August 2007 05:38 | ||||||||
MicroEdge's FIMS (Financial Information Management System) is a bit
different from most of the other fund accounting systems in that is truly a system for managing funds. Specifically, FIMS is made for use by community organizations that award grants to agencies. In fact, according to MicroEdge, the company supplies the lion's share of this market segment with something north of 85% market share. If you are an organization that manages multiple sources of funds and
allocates those funds to multiple grant organizations, then it's likely you are already be familiar with FIMS. And if you aren't familiar with FIMS, you should be looking at it. FIMS is a server based application, generally installed on a Microsoft server. It can be run on a Novel server, though demand for it has declined over the last few years. The system is used on Windows PCs connected to the server's network. Like most all the other fund accounting systems I've seen, this one also needs some kind of remote access service like Citrix in order to allow remote users to access the application. Some organizations might opt for the company's hosted system, called Hostnet. MicroEdge doesn't publish pricing so I can't comment on whether this is an economical plan, but if all else is equal, outsourcing the technical duties to experts is a good thing. It means that all connections are remote and that users can be located anywhere they can get an Internet connection. I was struck with the simplistic look of the user interface. It isn't a bad design, but is very Spartan. Even so, (or maybe because of the design) I found it easy to understand and consistent from screen to screen. In Use The Profile Module holds information about users, contributors, and grantees. It is the central storage for much of the activity that takes place in FIMS, and can be considered a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager). It is used to record information about people and organizations. The main screen begins with a data grid that includes extensive search functionality, which makes a lot of sense. You can either add a new entry or search for one that's already there. In the demo, the search was very fast and brought up the contact we searched for immediately. Many of the other functions, like funds and organizations start with a data grid identical to the Profile page. This consistency is good, and lets users become very familiar with using the program's functions. I found that once I was accustomed to using the search and select features in the Profile page, those same skills applied to the other pages. Once the requested record is found, the screens show a more graphical look and present a variety of functions available for that particular entity. This design is a good way to handle differences in data, showing functions that apply to funds when viewing a fund, and functions for constituents when viewing a constituent. But at the same time, not changing the look of the screen helps reinforce users' familiarity. Reporting is fast and flexible. I found a wide variety of predefined reports available and was able to use any of them as the basis for designing a report that delivered the specific information I needed. The reports are not interactive, in that it is not possible to click a line item and drill into the detail that made up the line. Finding the detail requires looking at the data grid page for the account itself. From there, I was able to find the transactions that made up the account balance. Overview MicroEdge's FIMS is designed to support a special sector of the nonprofit market; the community foundation, and it has the chops to handle the needs of these organizations well. The program has a consistent, easy-to-understand interface that will help users get up to speed quickly and build understanding across the functions. MicroEdge does not publish its pricing, but says that it works with each customer individually to recommend the appropriate components for the size and function of the organization. Advantages Consistent interface means fast learning Created to support the needs of community funding organizations Flexible reporting Disadvantages Reports do not support live drill-down to detail | ||||||||
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About the Author: Kurt Martin is a Founder and Group Publisher of Progressive Media Group (PMG) and the Publisher of Nonprofit Technology News. During his 4 years as Publisher of The NonProfit Times, he grew the imprint from a single newspaper to a community of websites, online job boards, email newsletters and digital editions of the print editions. Prior to taking the role of Publisher he was the East Coast Sales Manager for Broad Daylight, Inc. a knowledgebase company. He also held management roles in advertising and ciruclation sales at American Banker/Bond Buyer (Thomson), Faulkner & Grey (Thomson) and SourceMedia (Investcorp.) Kurt graduated from Montclair State University with a B.A. in Political Science and Public Administration. |
