GiftWorks Limitations?

We have been trying out GiftWorks and really love it! However, I am concerned that GiftWorks may not be able to handle the amount of data we will be importing. We have approx 30,000 donors in our existing database. It took about 3 days to import donor records and donations into GiftWorks. Now GiftWorks seems rather sluggish. We will have about 7 different locations accessing GiftWorks through our VPN. For the test installation, I installed GiftWorks on an unused terminal server with dual Quadcore Xeons and 8GB of RAM, and it runs acceptably well, but what about when we have 10 users accessing simultaneously? Could GiftWorks be too underpowered for our organization? Does anyone have experience with multi users in GiftWorks? 

Hi,

I am not personally familiar with GiftWorks, but do have some experience with donor managment software in multi user mode. First, check with GiftWorks. They should definitely be able to tell you if you are pushing the envelope with the number of donor records you have. Also, they should be able to tell you the same about running it in multi user mode, ie at what point you may start to see slowdowns.

Very often, actually, it is the network set up that causes slowdown when running a program in multi user mode. If that is the case, you will need to have your own IT manager take a look at the set up and see if you can correct the problem in that way.

Best wishes,

Sasha

Thanks for posting on TechSoup!  As a GiftWorks customer you have free email tech support  - support@missionresearch.com ; you may wish to follow up with the GiftWorks team.  GiftWorks does support 30,000 records; some of our clients (with powerful hardware) manage well over 100,000 records,

Sasha's suggestions are spot-on, and accurately reflected the nuanced nature of hardware "robustness".  (Thank you, Sasha; love your 4-legged friend).

The problem may be a matter of licensing.  GiftWorks is an installed application that can be used by one or more users.  For one user, the GiftWorks application is installed on the personal computer and the GiftWorks database can be located on the personal computer or another accessible location (flash drive, shared folder, etc).

For multiple users, the GiftWorks application is installed on each personal computer that needs to use GiftWorks and the GiftWorks database is placed on a shared folder that each user has access to.  This shared folder can be on a server, a peer-to-peer shared folder, network-attached storage, VPN,etc.  The scenario described in your post requires seven user licenses.  I hope this helps!

Best Regards, Ellen C. Mowrer, Director, Business Development Mission Research

I'm afraid the real problem is that GiftWorks is based on the Microsoft Access database engine (also known as JET), which is known to have performance problems, especially with large recordsets(>5,000 records) and multi-users.

The problem really lies in the way how Microsoft Access locks records when changes or large queries are executed.  Most professional database systems use single record locking.  Microsoft Access uses page locking, which means that editing or querying one record almost always causes other records to 'lock', which can cause massive performance problems when you have more than one user accessing the system.  In many cases, you can be locked for hours as one process is 'dead-locked' against another.

There really is no cure- other than using a system that is based on a more robust platform.  For example, it's no secret that Microsoft Access has these limitations- Bill Gates and company make much more money on Microsoft SQL server, which eliminates most of these issues (but costs much, much, more to purchase and maintain).

Here is an excerpt from Microsoft's own website (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303528):

Microsoft Jet is not intended for use with high-stress server applications, high-concurrency server applications, or 24 hours a day, seven days a week server applications. This includes server applications, such as Web applications, commerce applications, transactional applications, and messaging server applications. For these types of applications, the best solution is to switch to a true client/server-based database system, such as Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) or Microsoft SQL Server. When you use Microsoft Jet in high-stress applications such as Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), you may experience any one of the following problems:

• Database corruption
• Stability issues, such as IIS crashing or locking up
• Sudden failure or persistent failure of the driver to connect to a valid database

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303528

It really is the trade-off between a low cost system and something more powerful.

-Jon

Jon Biedermann
Vice President
DonorPerfect Fundraising Software
http://ww.donorperfect.com

As a Microsoft Access consultant, 30,000 records is not the problem.  Microsoft Access applications easily handle hundreds of thousands of records.  The multi user limit is usually around 25 people (however Microsoft says 255).

I believe giftworks is some kind of .net front end with an Access back-end.  Typical because a good majority of desktop software uses an Access database.

The VPN or some particular code in giftworks would be the issue.  I wouldn't jump ship to the big guys and SQL Server just yet.  Find out details from Giftworks.

My two cents,
Mark Andrews