subject: 6 Features to Consider When Choosing Church Membership Software [print this page] Recently there's been a huge increase in the number of applications made available to assist churches with the management of their online socialactivity. Church members of all ages spend 22% online each week dedicated to social media apps like Facebook, Twitter, and most recently with check-in apps like Gowalla and Four Square. Churches recognize that its members want a true, online presence with their congregation and they want to connect with them.
When lookng for Church Membership Software, it's important to consider the following six things:
1. Is it Secure?
There's been a lot of chatter in recent days of how to choose between proprietary and open source software. It's important for businesses and organizations that are concerned about data to never depend on open source software. the highest forms of security will always been found with the use of proprietary software.
2. What is the Back Up system like?
There are many different types of back up systems that organizations use. These include:
-- In House back up systems that may include using external drives.
-- Offsite back up systems that use external drives that are then stored in a different location. There are also services that allow you to push data to a place outside of a local server.
-- Online Solutions
Your product selection should always include an integrated back up system to ensure that the data is never at risk in a single or even a double location. Look for a redundancy feature. This simply means that the data is backed up frequently, both on and off site on an hourly basis.
Does it Have a good Historical Track Record?
The cornerstone of an organization is its database. If there aren't any people, there won't be an orgazization. When choosing a membership software package, make sure you're working with a company that is historically successful in delivering the product. New companies open for business everyday and many of them are very, very good, but "time tests all things". Churches want to be careful to find a company that has withstood the test of time and consistently provided their products and services to their clients. Did you know that only 1 in 25 companies lasts more than 10 years?. Finding a company that has existed for a least that amount of time is always a good move.
4. Support Services
When choosing a church membership software package, identifying the types of support services and their hours of availability is crucial. Are there online support services? Is there support documentation and multi-media? Is the company's staff available to field support questions? Does the company have multiple ways in which you can reach them?
5. Interconnectivity
It is important to consider a software package that allows members online access to update their own information in the software package so that all of the data is accurate, in sync and available to those who need it.
6. Scalability
Can this package grow with your church? With all of the software options available, it's important to choose one that can grow as the church membership increases. In the world of software there is a term called "tipping over", which means that the database structures reach a certain point and once there, they can't handle the activity any longer. This means that it is no longer scalable. Make sure that the Church Membership Software can grow at the same rate as the church.
6 Features to Consider When Choosing Church Membership Software
