Choosing a new church management system can often feel like a thankless chore. Is it worth the effort of switching from your current solution — even if what you have isn’t sustainable?
You shouldn’t have to feel stuck.
In “What to Know Before You Switch: 10 Questions to Ask When Choosing a New Church Management System,” our church technology experts unpack the top things to consider while you’re evaluating a new system.
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VBS. Giving slowdowns as members go on vacations. Mission trip fundraising. Prepping for Promotion Sunday.
The summer is a unique season for the church with specific challenges and opportunities. The good news is, church management technology has evolved some awesome tools that not only help you survive the summer but set you up for a successful fall.
In this webinar, we unpack:
… And so much more! Don’t miss this chance to equip your church for a fruitful summer season.
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An effective ChMS will empower you to develop deeper relationships with your church members. But if your current church management system isn’t getting the job done, that’s a problem.
Evaluating systems can be a headache.
That’s why we put this goody together for you.
Download our latest ebook, “What to Know Before You Switch: Top 10 Questions to Ask Before Choosing a New Church Management System,” to learn the key questions you need to ask when choosing a new church management system.
Here’s what you can expect to learn:
Complete the form to download our latest eBook. Don’t wait to start asking the right questions about how church management tools can help you better engage and minister to your church.
There are literally dozens of church management solutions out there. Given the abundance of systems available, it can feel overwhelming to start narrowing down your search. But you can eliminate well over half of the available options simply by deciding which features your church management software must have.
“Well,” you may be asking yourself, “that’s great and all, but how do I even know which features I should demand my church management software have?” A practical way to approach this question is to first establish what you would like to accomplish as a church.
Ask yourself and your team: What’s one thing you want to do better as a church and ministry staff? A few examples of top ministry goals include:
Once you’ve established a concrete and measurable goal, you can begin to evaluate each church management system’s suite of features for how well they will help you reach that goal.
Some examples of features that could help your ministry achieve the goals noted above include:
There are a lot of great church management systems out there that can do a lot of great things. But they may not necessarily be great for your church. Focus on your needs by honing in on what you really want to accomplish. This will help make your search more targeted and fruitful.
If your goal is putting tools in the hands of lay leaders, look for systems with things like check-in and registration features that will be useful to them. If your top priority is unifying all your data, make sure you focus only on systems that will connect directly to your database. Let your goals drive your search, especially in the early stages when you have a ton of different options in front of you.
Learn more tips for finding the best church management system to meet the specific needs of your church. Download our free resource “What to Know Before You Switch” now.
Anyone who has ever lost a Word document they were working on because they forgot to save the file or their computer suddenly shut down knows the painful heartbreak of lost data. It’s a soul-crushing experience. You have something so valuable and then, in an instant, it’s gone.
What will happen to your old data is a too-often-overlooked element of switching church management systems. Here’s what you don’t want to happen: You don’t want to fall in love with a software on the front-end, only to find out on the backend you’re not going to be able to bring over the data that you thought you could. That’s why you have to ask the right questions early in the process.
When it comes to data conversion, what are the things you need to think about as your explore new church management systems? Start with these questions:
1. What data do you need to bring over?
What data do you have that it’s critical you bring over to the new system? This is an important thing to know and may even help determine which systems you choose to explore further (it could be a non-negotiable).
Make sure you ask software salespeople upfront, what kind of data can I bring over? Giving history? Attendance history? And what might be lost if I switch to this software? Know what the situation is with each software, so you can ask yourself and your team the next questions…
2. What would losing your previous data mean?
What’s it going to mean for your team if you can’t bring over your giving history? Or what if you can bring over last year’s giving data, but you can’t bring over any previous years? What’s it going to mean for your small group leaders if you can’t access attendance history from last year? What’s the impact level?
For some churches, losing past data might not be a big deal. It may be easily accessible from another space when necessary. For other churches, it may be a big deal. Your team may need to access that data for all sorts of things. That’s why you want to make sure you ask whoever’s telling you about the software, am I going to be able to bring over the data that I need?
3. What are the hidden costs of lost data?
Going back to the previous conversation about cost, how much will it cost your church if you lose your previous data or if you can’t have all your data in one place? Again, this doesn’t necessarily mean how much money will it cost you. Is it going to cost your team time and aggravation?
For example: If there’s ever a question about who attended camp back in 2015, the person who’s checking will have to go to a separate system to find that data. It may seem like a small hassle in the moment. But, over time, small hassles tend to pile up and become big hassles. And that can come at a cost.
Switching over to a new church management system isn’t only about what happens to your data moving forward. It’s about integrating your existing data to make it convenient and accessible for your team. You want to make sure you can bring over information from previous systems without losing what’s important.
Learn more valuable insights about shopping for a new church management system by downloading our free content paper “What to Know Before You Switch” now.
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