What are your big complaints about Church Database products? What things do you most wish the vendors would change? Here's my list of 10 "reasonable" things I'd like to see changed. The good news: at least a few of the vendors have good solutions, or partial solutions, to at least some of these.
1. No more "modules" - one simple interface with menus/tabs for the different functions
The whole concept of loading and exiting the different parts of the system, over and over in the course of normal operations, is archaic. Maybe that's what needs to happen under the covers, but the user shouldn't have to deal with it.
2. Screen layout based on user functions, not underlying database tables
The user interface should group fields based on the function, regardless of how the data is stored. As with #1 above, don't make the user switch modules to perform a normal function.
3. CRM capabilities - documenting contacts, activity
Bring note-taking functionality to the top; make it so easy to track "touches" with a member that it becomes automatic.
4. CRM capabilities - database as core of "communications center"
Closely related to #3 focus on communication between the staff and the congregation. Sending letters, emails, or initiating phone calls, should be functionality initiated directly from the Church Management System without any need (or thought) of extracting to some other system. Take away one more excuse to have a copy of parts of the database.
5. Roles-based access; don't show what a role doesn't allow; simple roles have simple views
Map the user security function into the user interface such that staff members easily/automatically see *only* the data and functions that apply to the role they serve.
6. Hyperlinks from people to groups to people
Maybe this would be better stated as "link everything that can be linked." If you're displaying information about a person, show all the connections to any sort of group that person is in, and make those connections hyperlinks. Click on a group and see everybody else in that group. And, of course, have hyperlinks to each of those people so you can quickly jump around from a person, to a group that person is in, to other people in that group, to other groups those other people are in.
7. User-friendly Query builder
We have a church database because we want to be able to store data about our congregation. AND we want to be able to retrieve it in a variety of different ways that don't fit the model of a few pre-defined reports. Provide a tool that lets a *typical* user pull out the data they need without having to manage the relationships or worry about data type conversions, and without having to deal with the typical user confusion of AND and OR. (Select and Filter are much friendlier words that most users can follow) *Build* the query with representative data as you go.
8. Administrator friendly: Painless upgrades
How many vendors work to make life easy for the IT staff? Easy implementation tools, easy administration and updates. No surprises. No downtime. No 2AM updates because that's the only time the staff isn't using the system.
9. Eliminate the phrase "get everybody out of the database"
With a large church staff and the ability for the congregation to access selective parts of the data, downtime is unacceptable. Maintenance functions (which should be few) must be performed on the live database. Eliminating vendor support calls entirely would be a good goal too!
10. Super Searching
How about "Super-searching?" Expose considerable parts of the database to a great search tool like the Google Mini. Do a search on any reference to "leader" or "computer." From a Google-style interface, see how many hits you get on "Christian" in your database. Or "servant." Or "volunteer," or "web design." As long as you have great security and can control privacy, go ahead and allow searching across almost all fields in the database. Then you can figure out things like how many members of your church have had lunch meetings with Joe or who might be a good candidate for IT support work.
That may not be the "best" 10 features, but they all seem achievable. What would you add?
