Higher Logic Thrive

Pros: Higher Logic is great for communities and directories. There's lots of automation that makes contacting members and keeping everyone up to date on things very easy. The communities make it easy for members across the globe to communicate daily, sharing the latest information, tips and tricks.

Cons: The content management system/website portion is not as powerful or customizable (without serious HTML/coding experience) as other web platforms out there.

Pros: Higher Logic provided the perfect platform for our research team to stay connected. Working on a project of ancient manuscripts that involves scholars from around the world who rarely are in the same place at the same time, Higher Logic connected our membership base to one another in a way that kept our research moving forward and our relationships with one another strong throughout our project. This was especially true with the peer-to-peer support tools that allowed us to make our research deadlines as we utilized technology to keep our team productive and accountable.

Cons: Utilizing any platform that ties together a research community requires a slight learning curve and Higher Logic was no different. However, the software was very user-friendly and intuitive to our research community.

Pros: The software is fairly easy to use if you only want to create basic pages

Cons: There is no way to hard code the search function. We are using it as an intranet - a place for sales to find product information and sales tools with a dedicated page for each solution area. However, the search function is awful - there is no way to ensure the top results are the pages we want them to find. Search for "Cloud" products - and you get a bunch of random search results with cloud on the page - instead of the Cloud Community Page coming up first. Second issue is that the editor is hard to use. It is not easy to set up an attractive and interesting page. There are lots of good html editors - but this one is buggy and challenging.

Pros: On the plus side of things, the software is fairly intuitive and only takes a little time to figure out the basics of. It really isn't too difficult to get started with it or show someone how to use it. We mainly use Informz from Higher Logic, and use to send our retail oriented emails. It's easy to set up test groups, and do some basic targeted emails.

Cons: The software is extremely unreliable, half of the time you get server errors or the whole platform is down. There is also very little customization built into the platform. There is no way to modify your CSS or integrate other features into creating emails such as branded fonts and visually interactive elements. As someone who builds the emails I want to be able to have my emails be on brand with other marketing and promotional materials, this is hard to achieve without sacrificing legibility and flexibility on this platform.

Pros: It shows that they use their longevity and experience to improve their products based on user and client feedback.

Cons: As a single product user, it sometimes feels as if our needs are not as urgent (bug fixes, improvements).

Pros: I love the integrations with our AMS and LMS. Unlimited flexibility with design.

Cons: The library is a bit outdated, but apparently there are plans to improve it.

Pros: I really enjoy all of the functionality. I like all of the options it allows me to utilize to engage our users. I find it to be intuitive to access and engage with. Our users find it accessible as well.

Cons: The support response time is longer than I would like.

Pros: Our community has been a success from day one and has been a great addition to the benefits we offer our customers and to our marketing program.

Cons: Some of the user features and interfaces are a little clunky.

Pros: This software is a one stop shop for bringing our customers together to collaborate and learn.

Cons: There is a learning curve, but it is learnable.

Pros: The volunteer module and the functionality to recruit new volunteers

Cons: the need for custom report for the things i need usually

Pros: Higher logic allows your members to interact long past your annual conference. Keeps the conversations going!

Cons: Implementing to many software types at once, pushed back our implementation.

Pros: better than listservs, allowing users to connect and find messages

Cons: double clicking on library links! not being able to customize gamification based on individual communities

Pros: Ease of use, team members, sales process and implementation timeframe

Cons: There is a lot of information and I'd love to see more interaction with my HL team.

Pros: The platform is easily adapted to be configured for different clients and fields of work. Although there are best practices for initial structure, there are options for customization.

Cons: At times I have run into issues since we are a long term user of the platform, thus some of our setup is not good for utilizing other new features and enhancements that have been developed for the platform. It would be helpful if there was a bit more information to assist legacy clients so we do not get left behind.

Pros: I like how user-friendly the HL Community is, and all of the features that can be used.

Cons: The implementation process was very rocky, but I believe our project manager was new. I found that we had to do our internal project management and really had to ask the right questions to the HL representative to understand the process. We are a non-profit that is not very good with technology, but our PM operated with us as if we were. She was responsive when we told her we need further explanation or things didn't make sense. Also, does not work so well in any browser except for Google Chrome

Pros: The online communities are a great place to bring value to my organization. They provide invaluable marketing data for us and allow our members a unique place to gather

Cons: Some of the functionality is not intuitive. It is difficult for some of my staff and members to learn how to use at times.

Pros: I love the various options and add-ons available with the platform which enhance the product and overall feel. The site is very user friendly to the end user (not admin support staff).

Cons: I love the various options and add-ons available with the platform. However, I found implementation to be a little frustrating and the support team did not fully explain the ins and outs of Higher Logic. I would have appreciated a more comprehensive training and overview of the system. I felt blind for the majority of our implementation/launching process.

Pros: Our group has been using the Higher Logic Community Platform for almost two years. We continue to get new members and look for new ways to engage them. Higher Logic makes it easy to offer a solution regardless of the size of your organization. It has been a wonderful success and a great solution for our need.

Cons: The learning curve with some of the automated features. It is robust so at times the process seemed overwhelming.

Pros: I love how easily configurable this platform is and how extensively I am able to customize our brand through customization. We chose to integrate directly using activity sync and I am excited to see how these two products are able to work in tandem to drive behaviors and engagement.

Cons: Lack of localization. As a global organization of 1.2 million members in over 180 countries, we support multiple languages (including English, Italian, Spanish, Korean, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Swedish). No being able to provide the platform in multiple languages gates off members that we would otherwise like to engage.

Pros: We use this software to manage and provide resources to our state and regional affiliates. It is a resource repository and a communication tool that allows them to share resources and best practices with one another.

Cons: The current library features are clunky and slightly difficult to use.

Pros: I have worked with three organization that used the Online Community platform and the major benefit in recent years is how HL supports the organization from start to finish and continues support ongoingly. My first organization did not have that level of support during launch, but HL recognized organizations needed that support and they responded to that need. Now I feel between the HL staff and HUG, you can really conquer any problem you encounter as an admin.

Cons: More recently we're experienced some problems with regard to the volunteer opportunities module and sending opportunities. I know changes are coming down the pike that may improve this activity.

Pros: Very easy to use as an administrator and even more easy for our member base that is not always tech savvy.

Cons: Functionality could improve to do more. We are always finding more things that we wish we had.

Pros: The Higher Logic platform allows for members to communicate with each other in a safe place, removing the middle man. My company, prior, had been tasked with being the middle man. Our members would contact us with queries, we would have to make the appropriate questions. HL helps to remove us as an extra step in THAT process, allowing us to focus on other matters.

Cons: There are times when I wish HL had some more plug/play style technology. The ability to drag and drop entries, personalize a homepage, etc. I have been in my current position for only 6 months so a lack of familiarity with the product is part of the issue; but is seems that some of these features arein the works as we speak (per the opening sessions).