For all the talk about the increasing sophistication of malware and other threats to office computing, one good old-fashioned threat to operations remains current. That is back ups that do not work as expected. And technologist Randy Johnston says computer users must test backups, not just expect that they will work in an emergency.

A study commission by software vendor AccuFund has concluded that users must spend too much time manipulating data outside of their non profit accounting systems. Seventy-three percent of those responding spend one to five hours weekly pulling reports for staff; for 17 percent that rises to six to 10 hours and more than 10 hours weekly for 10 percent.

Nonprofit software vendor Blackbaud has taken steps that it says will make it easier for others to work with its software. The company is also adopting a common interface for its products as the Charleston, S.C.-based company implements a sweeping change to the way its software has dealt with the outside world.