Easy Question, re: Choosing a ChMS

But the answer may be difficult. If you're looking for a new ChMS (even hypothetically), what are the few key points that would cause you to pick one vendor over another? Company? People? Price? Features? Integrity? Referrals? Is it conceivable to build a survey or matrix or simple piece of software, where by answering a few questions, the most obvious choices would be presented? Any good ideas? Chris, Jerry, Joel, you've all touched on this. Here's your chance!

Comments

[Dave Bolt]

We're currently looking. For us here are the features we're looking at.

1) Software as a service. We want something running out in the Cloud. Been running a ChMS in house and want to get out of the technology hosting business (at least for this app). Don't want to invest in purchasing server hardware just so we can run Shelby or ACS. Any solution that is not 100% web-based is currently not an option for us.

2) Features - Management of basic contact info, attendance, contribution, ability to help with scheduling rooms and resources, dashboard reporting. FB like social networking for church groups is a plus.

3) Eval is based on review of web sites, webinars of systems, pricing, matching of features to our church's unique DNA.

[Jerry Fultz]

Tony & all -

Been giving this a lot of thought. At Computers In Ministry, we currently partner with 11 churches that are utilizing ChMS. The breakdown is as follows:

CCB - 4 (1 of these also uses CCB in its Christian School)
ACS - 2
Servant Keeper - 2 (1 is also using EMS Lite for facility mgmt)
F1 - 1
Membership Edge - 1
Shelby - 1

It would be relatively easy for me to survey these churches about the criteria they employed to reach a decision. We would just need to develop a survey (or utilize one of your previous ones).

Here's an more intriguing angle we may want to pursue. We also partner with a denominational HQ that has 1,000 churches and 250 missionaries. We could possibly approach their communications dept about developing a matrix based on current ChMS utilization in their member churches. I have no idea how many churches in the denomination are currently using ChMS, but I think the denomination would look at a matrix as a valuable tool they could offer their member churches considering ChMS.

Thoughts?

Jerry

[TonyDye]

Thanks Dave. It's interesting to me that you, and others who have commented off-line, have talked about SaaS being more important than features of the product. (OK, I guess SaaS is a feature) This tells me something really big. Now I just have to figure out what that is! :-)

[TonyDye]

Jerry, I'd welcome any input from others. I'm about to start a series of what *I* think is important, knowing that what I think doesn't really matter. Hopefully it will at least spark some thought or further dialogue.

[Joel Lingenfelter]

I've more than touched on this, so I'll keep my comments short. The worst reason to choose is price! The costs of training your staff, setting up the database, getting the congregation to use the public facing features of your database, and maximizing the use of the database will all _far_ exceed the purchase price or monthly fee. Make your selection based on which is the best product for your organization. THEN worry (and argue) about the price. Not before.

Joel

[Jerry Fultz]

Tony - I have been with 3 churches in the past 10 days that are considering or changing their ChMS. I was even with one church that is using 2 different ChMS solutions (one for children's ministry & a different one for everyone else). I don't have a fully developed matrix yet, but I think I can now, with some assurance, say that one of the major factors weighing on the ChMS decision is SaaS. Those that are hosting in house are increasingly frustrated with access or infrastructure issues and want the flexibility of the cloud.

The hosting decision is a big bucket issue that includes or eliminates many providers. More to come (sometime....)

[TonyDye]

Jerry, I owe you a phone call this week. I have a short list too. SaaS is a deciding point, but there are still a lot of people for who SaaS is NOT the answer. (and like you've seen, for others, SaaS is the ONLY answer!) We'll figure this out, eventually! Thanks,

[Jerry Fultz]

Exactly. Regardless of which side of the SaaS question a church lands on, once this question has been addressed, the church will have eliminated a large number of potential providers. The fishing pool/decision matrix becomes smaller and more manageable.

Just saying the SaaS question is one of the high impact, game changing questions that is relevant to every ChMS discussion. It should be included in the decision tool we're hoping to provide for ministries.

Still noodling about others.