CMS wish list, Part I

After posting about "doing church software 'right'," I figure I better try to describe that a bit. This is a real issue at Perimeter; we've been talking about limitations in our current systems (whining and complaining!) and decided to turn it around -- what is it that we really want?  We've even created a new staff position, "Information Architect," to put together ways to improve our systems.  Over the next few days I invite you to "listen in" on some of the thoughts and discussions we've had.  This is not so much about particular features and technologies, but about the values and philosophy behind what we're trying to do.

Trusted
Our first principle for a Church Management System is that it must be Trusted. "Trusted" touches on so many things.  Staff must trust, and rely on, the data in the CMS.  The have to know that looking in the CMS will give them the best possible data for whatever they're looking for.  The staff also needs to trust that the system will work and be highly available -- downtime is a very bad thing.  Finally, we as a church, or specifically the IT department, have to trust the vendor.  We need to choose a company that will help us store and retrieve the data we care about, in ever easier ways, and we have to trust the company will still be here next year.  If you look back across the last 10 or 20 years, there have been a lot of CMS companies that have started up, then vanished quickly.  Regardless of the reason, if the vendor fails, we're going to be in trouble right along with them!

Consistenly Used
Our second principle is that the CMS must be consistently used.  This dovetails with trust above.  If staff are storing data anywhere other than the CMS, then everybody loses!  We know that many of our staff, today, store important data in the wrong place.  The "wrong place" really means anywhere other than the central, accessible, common repository, which is what the CMS should be.  We certainly have lots of information stored in Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, Outlook contacts (sometimes shared public folders, sometimes not), and other random data sources.  We wonder how much data we still have stored in the world's most popular database (that would be sticky notes, for those who might have thought otherwise :-)

If we want to have a database that is trusted and consistently used, what's the starting point?  Staff won't use it until they trust it, and they can't trust in until it's used.  Hmmm… so what's the solution to that paradox?  Next time we'll discuss ease of use.

<< Innovative Church IT  >>Principle 3, Easy

Comments

[Hal Campbell]

It's great to see your wish list. We've talked together about many of these items over the years and your name comes up from time-to-time as we work on new products. I've forwarded your blog to our product manager for our web products.

I'm glad you talked about making sure the company is going to be around for the future. After 28 years in the CMS business I've seen hundreds of companies come and go. Much of this occurs when new technology is introduced into the market. DOS to Windows back in the late 90's produced a group of new CMS companies and eliminated another group that couldn't make the transition. The web is doing the same thing now. At one time a magazine identified 262 companies offering software for churches. Now, there are fewer than a hand full of serious providers. I guess it's no different than any other market. Consolidation happens as a natural part of the market. Churches need to make sure they don’t get caught in the transition.