On November 15, 2016 Réal Bédard announced the sale of Helix, the developers of the Andar/360 donor management system, to the Volaris Group. This same announcement also revealed the sale of Access International, the developers of the competing Enterprise donor management system to that same company. The acquisitions were coined to be business as usual by Réal.
Andar/360
As your technology provider, we are paying close attention to this development. Upic Solutions is a member of the Andar CAB, has been present on all CAB calls related to this announcement, and discussed the changes with Réal in order to best inform our members.
Upic’s primary concern is ensuring the continued availability and development of the platform for our members. Helix has assured us that their intent is to continue developing Andar/360 for United Ways, with no change in price, primary development roadmap or leadership beyond the anticipated retirement of André Marcil. We believe that the additional back office resources being made available to Helix by this acquisition will allow them to focus their efforts on improving Andar/360 into the future, and are excited to see the acceleration of product advancements.
Congratulations to Réal and the rest of the Helix team!
Enterprise
Upic is vendor agnostic, supporting all technology platforms used by United Ways. In September, we began hosting our first customer using Enterprise in the public cloud. However, most Enterprise customers we have spoken with are showing interest in moving to a different platform, Andar/360 being their primary platform of choice.
In conversation with Réal, he indicated that both products will continue to be sold, marketed and maintained for the foreseeable future. We’re hopeful that by having both products under the same corporate umbrella, both will see improvements to better manage donor relationships.
Upic’s View
We’re going to discuss these developments further Internally, with the Andar CAB and with Upic’s Board of Directors. We’ll maintain an open dialog with Helix and share with United Ways our view to help you make the best decisions for your United Way. As always, if you would like to discuss these developments or we can help you in any way, call us at 1-877-459-5489 or send us a message via the contact form.
We wish you and your families a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!
Regards,
JR Howard, David Burley and Jim Mead