Tony Dye

Technology Evangelist, Higher Ground Technologies

I'm thrilled to announce that I'm significantly stepping back into the Church/Ministry IT world by joining Higher Ground Technologies. My new title is Technology Evangelist (a title I've semi-secretly wanted for years) and I have the opportunity to help churches and ministries with their technology needs.

Those of you who know me have heard me say that one of my favorite things to do is visit with, and interact with, church and ministry IT people about technology ideas, best practices, etc. Now that's my job! OK, there is more to it, but that's a start. I'll be doing some hands-on work, some account management, some new business development, some writing, some marketing, a bit of social media, and a lot of intentional researching of products for the ministry-based technology users.

I'm excited!

Higher Ground has been in this business for quite a while, and we have a lot of delighted clients. At the same time, we've been a well kept secret. Part of my new role is to change that. We want to let others know who we are, what we do, and that we can help. We're a bit non-traditional sometimes. We don't always align ourselves with the biggest, or most well-known, brand-names, but we stand behind our product choices like nobody else. Our model is primarily managed services, with the slight twist that we consider ourselves to be managed service partners. Yes, we do the heavy lifting, but we do it in a coordinated fashion with our clients. We may not visit you very often, but we are some of the most approachable, friendly, and likable people you will ever encounter. We believe in personalized service. When you call us, we're likely to know your name!

If you are in need of "just a little more" help in your IT department, or if you want to outsource a majority of what you do, we can handle either case and everything in-between. Give us your challenges, let us help make you an offer. Where others may make offers you can't refuse, we'll make offers you want to accept. Try us!

We are a leading provider of Rukus wireless equipment, Switchvox VoIP phone services, and Tereo backup services. We can help you with network architecture and engineering, remote monitoring and management, email hosting and filtering, and if you have other IT-related needs, just ask. We are here to help you be successful.

Has Your Church Considered Sermon Transcription?

Have you thought about sermon transcription for your church? If you are doing audio, then you're already part way there. But how do you search audio? And some people are just visual learners and do better with written (or displayed) words, and some need the audio and the words!

If you've tried automated transcription, you probably know that's a technology that's not quite ready yet. If you've tried off-shore outsourcing, then I guess the fact that you're still reading this indicates how well that worked out. Would you like a better option?

Yes, this is going to be a plug for a great service I believe in and do have some connection with. So, with that disclaimer, here goes

Let us transcribe your sermons each week so you can:

• Post transcribed sermons on your church website
  • Makes it easy to search through them
  • Many people love being able to read the sermons
• Have a written transcription of each week's sermon
  • Build a database of your sermons
  • Use for reference purposes

• Typically $75 per sermon
  • Easy payment options
  • Billed monthly
• Scripture and references always included
• Varying levels of editing available according to your preference
• Sermon transcription usually completed within 3-5 days (can be sooner if necessary with advanced notice)
• I simply download the audio sermon from your website or you can send it to me as an mp3, then I email the transcribed Word document back to you

Contact Margaret Salyers, Sermon Transcription, MargaretSalyers [at] gmail.com or call 606-706-5006 and receive a FREE TRIAL - your first sermon transcribed at no charge.

(Please tell Margaret you saw the reference on my blog)

Did You Know?

If you have *anything* to do with Church IT, please join the CITRT group on LinkedIn. For all things Church IT related, check out http://CITRT.org/

If you are considering a new Church Management System (ChMS), be sure to include MinistryPlatform by Think Ministry Inc. in your research

 

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ChMS Selection Process Part 5 - Starting to Look at Technology

It’s still too early to be thinking about particular products and companies, but it is time to think about your environment, and especially your technical environment. If you have a big IT staff, that offers different opportunities than if you don’t have (or don’t want) an IT staff. That’s not to say one environment is better than the other – it’s a choice each church makes and that choice will weigh heavily into the ChMS decision.

Think of these questions from two perspectives: 1) what do we have today? and 2) what do we want to have in the future? Here’s maybe a very high level question – how much are you willing to change your staff and environment to fit a new ChMS need? There are plenty of choices without changing the rest of your environment, but there are some products that may be ruled out. Be sure you know your answer before you start looking at products; it will make your life a lot easier!

1. Do you have an IT staff than can support a product, or do you need (or want) to select a product that doesn’t require any internal IT staff?
2. Do you have a bias for “cloud” vs. locally hosted? Can you quantify that bias? Maybe more importantly can you explain the reason for any bias you have? Be sure you look honestly at the situations.
3. Do you want both on-site and off-site access for staff? (Who wouldn't?!)
4. Do you want lay-leaders to have access to the ChMS, or at least some features of it? Can you fully describe what you want them to be able to access? Is it view only, or should they be able to update the data?
5. Do you want the contregation to have access to the ChMS? What features? What specficially do you want the congregation to do with that access?
6. How do you want the ChMS to integrate with your website? (somewhat related to #5). How important is it to "skin" the ChMS to look like your website, and to be able to reskin it when your site changes?
7. Can you describe in detail the kinds of reports you want to receive from the system? How dynamic are your reporting needs? Do you have someone on staff who understands the concept of report writing, and the tools to "build" reports? (An unfortunate reality -- there aren't any reporting tools that can read your mind and produce what you think you want)
8. Do you anticipate wanting to extend the product with custom programming, and do you have the staff to do it? If you don’t’ have the staff, are you prepared to invest in those extensions through outside vendors? (Even without looking at products, you probably already have a great idea of how much you want to go outside the box)
9. How much integration do you expect between the ChMS and your email system? Your address book system? Your staff calendars? (think “Exchange/Outlook integration,” but applies just as much to any other email-contact-calendaring system). What is the business purpose behind that integration? Is it really necessary or do you just think it is? If you haven't already thought through the Single Source of Truth concept, this would be a good time to consider it
10. Can you quantify the balance point between “ease of use” and “powerful?” For example, if you can get 100% of your staff to use the product for maintaining basic contact info, are you willing to give up complex reports? Of course, we all want the product that is both easy and powerful. That doesn’t exist yet, so can you pick your point on the continuum between those two typically-opposite endpoints? Counter-argument: Easy and powerful aren't so much polar opposites as in the past. There has been a lot of progress toward providing both together. Still, think through the types of tasks you want ALL your staff to do regularly - what if some of those tasks aren't easy? Also keep in mind that some things are difficult, and that's just the way it is. (Gee, Rocket Science is hard!)
11. What’s the IT adoption quotient of your congregation?  Many ChMS solutions now rely on user defined  interaction (i.e. logging on to update address changes, prayer requests, small group self management, etc).  How is the congregation going to be engaged to encourage the greatest effectiveness with your ChMS solution.  Does the congregation want this, is there perceived benefit for them?  You have to determine what they will want by making it worthwhile. If you provide a good reason for them to login, they will. Many churches have failed to provide truly compelling content that motivates people to login
12. Mobile integration.  To what degree do your staff & congregation embrace mobile technology?  Do they want ChMS functionality on smart phones? (does anybody ever say 'no, I don't want that?')
13. Social media integration.  Does seamless integration with Facebook, Twitter, etc. mean anything to your staff & congregation.  No one wants another tool to update, but integration with their current media is sometime desired. Do you desire to build a church social network, or to integrate with existing social networking platforms such as facebook, or both?

Steve Caton (disclamer, works for CCB, but that's not the point of this post) had some similar Questions to Ask about a ChMS recently. Worth a read.

Thanks again to Joel Lingenfelter who contributed heavily to this post. (to put this nicely, and not overly embarrass myself, Joel was very good at completing some of my insufficient thoughts). Jerry Fultz also contributed some key segments.

Next: Part 6 - Thinking about ChMS Companies

Previous: Part 4 - Some non-Technical Questions

ChMS Selection Process Part 4 - Some non-Technical Questions

Sticking with the concept of not getting into particular products and technologies too quickly, here are some non-technology questions to start wtih. Again, avoid giving much thought to any particular companies or products.

1. Are you currently using a ChMS plus something else? How well is that working? Example: ChMS product AND Service U, or ChMS product AND Church Teams, or ChMS product AND The City (even though The City could be the ChMS product used with something else). Or, very common, ChMS product, perhaps other things as well, AND a whole bunch of spreadsheets, or Word processing documents, or other “databases” that aren’t necessarily very well connected with the implied main database
   • Learn and understand what these other products do. You will either need to replace them with the new database, or integrate them with the database if they provide functionality that your chosen solution does adequately address. Planning Center Online is a good example here. Many worship departments live and die by planning center. If the database cannot replace it (I don’t know of any that can) you need to start asking questions about integration. Planning Center has a published API for integration with church databases, by the way
2. How many of your departments have some other system (distinct user login) that they primarily use? (list department and system name) – define system. People will not think of Excel or Word tables as a system, but they will use them to manage data that should be in a ChMS
3. How many of the departments using the ChMS as their primary system use a secondary system (list department and system name) – See above
4. IF you are currently using multiple components, and want to change that, what staff process or commitment will enforce that change? If you (the team) are not willing to enforce, what is the likely outcome? Eliminating data silos is one of the most important advantages of a modern ChMS
5. How committed is the staff leadership to fully embracing a new decision? Can that be quantified and fully articulated?
6. How committed is the staff in general? What processes will be used to encourage and equip the staff to utilize only the selected product(s)?
7. Should there be a mandate on staff use of the selected solution? Are there consequences of failing to comply? (and if there is not a mandate, which is certainly a choice, what are the consequences of that decision, both on the data and on the staff?)
   • Like Cortez, we should “burn our ships” (a historically disputed event, but go with me here) regarding old systems. Obviously we cannot kill off office, but we can limit and ultimately shut down access to any current system with a login. Making old systems read only upon conversion is the most effective way to get there from here
8. If any staff member needs a phone number, address, email, picture, or anything other information about someone in the congregation, do you expect them to go to the ChMS, or might they go elsewhere? If “elsewhere” is the answer, what does that mean to you? – “Might” is too vague. “Will” is really what we are after. If the ChMS is inaccurate, but their private outlook DB isn’t, then you can bet they will use Outlook. A successful ChMS transition should eliminate this very quickly, by eliminating other silos and making the ChMS the most accurate source of data. Once this happens people won’t need convincing
9. Who are the key players or departments who will make the final selection?
10. How important is task management or business process, or workflow, in your solution? (if you don’t have such a solution now, should you?) – This is very difficult for people to grasp on the front end of a transition, and sounds sales oriented by a solution that offers it…
11. How many of your departments would say your ChMS is their primary system for communication and ministry management (list them)
12. Are you, as a staff, willing to adapt to best-practices of the ChMS you choose, or are you determined to forge your own path? (Those two aren't necessarily oppisites)
13. Have you have a major church-wide initiative where the ChMS facilitated well? One where the ChMS was an impediment? Can you articulate the issues? – Were the failings the fault of the ChMS or the staff, or some other cause?

Thanks to Kevin McCord for the majority of these questons and Joel Lingenfelter for some great clarifications.

Next: Part 5 - Starting to Look at Technology

Previous: Part 3 - Developing a Selection Process

ChMS Selection Process Part 3 - Developing a Selection Process

A successful ChMS selection and implementation process is rarely an individual effort. It takes an engaged and equipped (and trusted) team, with a clear leader.

1. Recognize the need for a new ChMS (sort of implied if you're reading this series)
2. Designate a project leader. Big projects like this live and die on leadership. Someone needs to be in charge. Someone needs to be the final decision maker. Even if ultimately “the pastoral staff” is going to make the call on which database to choose, the person who is the leader on the project is going to have to work through this process and make a final recommendation to the pastoral staff. The stronger the leader, the better. There will always be differences in opinion. Just because the children’s minister saw X database in person at Y church and thinks it’s the greatest thing in the history of the universe does not mean this is the right database for your church, and it certainly does not qualify the children’s minster to be able to know everything about the churches data needs…
3. Detail the failings of the current methods in use (data silos, inaccurate data, missing functionality etc.)
4. Make case to senior staff to engage this process
   1. Getting senior staff support is essential to the success of a ChMS conversion. The mandate to use the new product, and only the new product, needs to come from senior staff, not from IT or from whatever department has been put in charge of the actual selection and implementation of the new database. Do not underestimate the importance of this step
5. Begin by detailing what you utilize your current database for, if you have one. This is the baseline functionality you MUST replicate with a new system, or it will fail. For example, If you take attendance every week on a piece of paper, and enter that attendance in the system and the new system cannot handle this quickly and easily, the entire implementation will fall apart on this one simple task unless you have fully thought through how you are going to replace this day one with the new system
   1. What do people rely on from the data? Not what do they do (e.g. they enter attendance every week. That is something they do. WHY do they do it?)
   2. In many cases people are using very dysfunctional methods to accomplish a business purpose. Their natural expectation will be to replicate these dysfunctional methods in the new system. This is why you need to dig to the core of what is actually being accomplished, and then look at what the best way to do this would be in the systems you evaluate. Not looking to replicate the method, but rather the outcome
6. What are the business functions you are hoping to achieve with the new database. Not features, but business goals. Putting a picture in the database is not a business goal. Utilizing photos to provide the ability for staff to quickly and easily put a name with a face when making a phone call, or deciding on suitability for ministry is a business goal
7. Identify the key decision makers that need to be involved in the database selection process. This is not everyone who will be using the database. Not every secretary, but perhaps one heavy DB user and the office manager. You want someone who uses it day to day to help you evaluate the new solutions, and someone who is able to enforce the decision once its made. Thus for check-in you might have the children’s pastor and someone who directly oversees check-in week in and week out
8. Ask staff in general for a list of things they wish the database could do. This “second tier” of requests is helpful, but not essential. They may not realize that they want a database to do many things they do, so asking questions like “What are you using excel for currently” or “Do you maintain an online, access or filemaker database of our people? What do you use that data for” will get you better answers than just asking for a wish list. Evaluate these requests for feasibility and inclusion in your requirements
9. At this point the project leader should combine all of the various requirements and begin asking the type of questions that will be addressed ahead in this series

Thanks to Joel Lingenfelter for substantially ALL the content of this post.

Next: Part 4 -Some non-Technical Questions

Previous: Part 2 - Focus on Staff

ChMS Selection Process Part 1 - Where to Start?

Reminder: I am NOT a ChMS Expert. Thankfully, quite a few others have contributed to this process, and thanks in advance for others who I hope will step forward to further improve it. I know the following people contributed, directly or indirectly, and I’m sure I left some names out. (Please claim your contribution!)

• Steve Caton
• Jerry Fultz
• Clif Guy
• Steve Hewitt
• Chris Huff
• Joel Lingenfelter
• Kevin McCord
• Nick Nicholaou

Ahead, I’ll be pulling bits and pieces out of the contributions and suggesting a starting point to a process for anyone wanting to select their next (or even first) ChMS. As I’ve already mentioned to a few people, it’s rather scary that there doesn’t seem to exist such a documented process anywhere else; that seems so unlikely, but the search turned up nothing. So, here goes.

Some background
When choosing a ChMS, churches want to choose wisely, but how? Are there any objective criteria? What does it cost to have an independent consultant help in the process? Are there any qualified independent consultants? Is it possible to be truly objective in this process? Doesn’t everyone have biases? This series of posts is an attempt to offer some objective criteria that can be used by anyone to take a step in the right direction. It doesn’t preclude hiring a consultant; it simply sets the stage and hopefully helps avoid some [negative] surprises.

It's very easy to be overwhelmed by the nearly 200 named products in the marketplace (and I know there are a few more not even on the list!).

Far too many church, in my opinion, make their ChMS decision on either price, or a features list (probably influenced by a good demo). Few do significant reference checks.  Rarely does a church first determine what they are looking for. Can we reverse this process? Can we help a church know the questions to ask to help lead to a more satisfactory solution? Well, that's what I'm trying for here, and again, I'm very thankful for the input of many others.

Let me suggest that the starting point is NOT to look at the products available! Start by looking at the church.

Part 1: Jerry Fultz wisely suggested that the starting point should be at the highest level. Start with the church’s vision and mission.

The words Vision and Mission get tossed around a lot, and have different meanings to different people. Here are my quick descriptions with a couple more tossed in for good measure:

Purpose: Why Do We Exist?
Vision: What Are We Trying To Accomplish?
Mission: How Do We Plan To Accomplish Our Vision?
Core Values: What Is Most Important To Us?

If your church doesn't have a clear and concise vision and mission, then maybe selecting a ChMS shouldn't be a top priority yet. Maybe there's an argument that a good ChMS would help define vision and mission, but I think that's a long-shot.

So here's the hard question: how does a [new] ChMS product help the church accomplish it's vision? That's worth some deep thought, and I don't have any any suggestions on how to make it easy. I will simply suggest that you not go any further in your search until you can come up with a brief (1 or 2 paragraph max, 1 or 2 sentence better) statement of HOW a ChMS solution helps accomplish the church Vision.

Now I'm going to do something awful - I'm going to end this post right here without providing any answers!

Next: Part 2 - Focus on Staff

Do You Know a ChMS EXPERT?

Do you know anyone who is truly an EXPERT with Church Management Systems (ChMS)?

What would it take to qualify as an expert in ChMS? Knowing how to use a lot of different systems efficiently? Knowing how to pick the best system for each situation? How about even knowing what the choices are?

Sometimes I get calls because people want to get my "expert" opinion on ChMS. What!? OK, I can name a half dozen ChMS products, and I know some people at a lot of the companies, and I *care* a lot about ChMS, but does that make me an expert?

I'd like to know a real expert who I could suggest people talk with. I'm still looking. If you know one, please introduce me.

Project Time Consumption

I recently did a small research project for a company. I started about 7:30 in the morning, finished up about 1:30 in the afternoon, so that means 6 hours “went by.” However, I wasn’t fully dedicated to the project this whole time, I handled a few other things in some gaps.

During this roughly 6 hours, I spent precisely 2.5 hours of measured, “on the clock,” time on the project.  (Which begs the question what did I do with the other 3.5 hours?!, but won't go there now.)

The greatest value in this project (other than my summary report, of course) came from three brief phone calls of probably 10 minutes or less each, so theoretically, instead of 6 hours, instead of 2.5 hours, there was a very high-value 30 minutes spent.

So, how much time did I really “work?” Could the 30 minutes have happened without the 2.5 hours? Could the 2.5 hours have been effective without the elapsed 6 hours? I think there was some similar lesson in one of my favorite books from many years ago, The Mythical Man Month, which, highly paraphrased, came to the conclusion that projects had their own time lines, regardless of people and resources applied.

So, can I do a project for you that has 30 minutes of extreme value, 2 ½ hours of effort, 6 hours of elapsed time, charge your for half a day, and have you be thrilled? If you’re thrilled with the results, does the time consumed matter?

Frustrated with LinkedIn Changes?

Is anybody else frustrated with LinkedIn's recent change to hide the last name of anyone who's not a 1st or 2nd level contact? I've spent years developing my network, and until recently, the 3rd level connections were very valuable. Now I get things like this:
    
So now, if I want to contact this person, I can track down his office and call and ask for Jason, and hope there aren't two Jason's in the same office. Yes, I can work around this, but how frustrating.

I don't begrudge LinkedIn for wanting to make money, but darn, this is a big change, and a negative one, late in the game. The value of the free account just declined a lot.