Current Projects

Well I thought I would just share some current projects I have right now. 1. Installing and configuring ISA Server as our firewall with CA Secure Content Manager for webfiltering 2. Researching and implementing a backup system with policies to follow. (we currently are really not prepared for much of a disaster.) 3. Finish cabling our youth complex for future check-in PC's. (cables are run and just need crimped and punched down.) 4. Continue to research and eventually come to a conclusion with the help of a great team of people on a new ChMS. 5. Website redesign and implementation of many new features (online giving, small groups manangement, teachers section, worship leaders section... etc- some currently done through a dotnetnuke portal system) Well thats the big stuff.

Fellowship One (Part 2)

Well its over. We had our second demo with Fellowship One today. We ruled them out as an option about a year ago, when their feature set just did not provide what we were looking for, but they made a second appearance on our list when they took the initiative to contact us. We were very impressed with the new features and the direction of the company.

Fellowship One

After many weeks of research by our deacon of IT and my self, we now have another demo set with Fellowship One for tommorow afternoon. I am excited to see what they have to offer as far as some new features. The last demo we had with them was about a year ago, when we started throwing around the idea of switching to a new ChMS, and well... we were just not that impressed. But after talking with other church's and reading they look to have come along ways. I am really excited to see what they have to say about their new "self check-in" system, that would not be run by volunteers.

ChMS Options (2)

Well like I said in the last entry were down to some final choices for our ChMS. Arena is diffently the only one we are really looking at, but I am excited to see what Fellowship Technologies has added to Fellowship One in the last year. Who knows maybe they will make the list again. The main features we are looking for are these: 1. Will work as a staff intranet 2. Has a qucik search for looking up people, addresses and numbers 3. Self- touch screen check in 4. Easly do reports of different feilds 5. Work as a website content managment system 6. A database that our youth staff likes 7. The abilitiy to do a mass email through the software 8. Work as a tool for communications department to keep track of bulletin and news letter requests I am sure I am missing some, but thats a good start.

ChMS Options

I had a great conversation today with Tony Dye form Perimeter Church today about different ChMS options, and we are both running into a lot of the same problems. There is really not one option out there that is good enough. I really like the idea of the Microsoft CRM, even though I have not heard much about it. Something about a bunch of companies working together and a choice of companies to work with for competitive pricing sounds like a great idea. Latly our church has been leaning towards Arena, mainly because we want to keep Shelby for the financial side, and the fact that Arena will have the option to add, change and manipulate the code. New Covenant will most likely be switching to Arena in the coming year if all goes as planned. It may seem like a coincidence, but is any one else observing that there are a lot of church’s out there looking to switch to a new, or do an original purchase of a ChMS? Well that is where we are at right now on our decision process with Arena and other ChMS’s.