When you go to buy something on eBay, you look at the seller’s reputation, their “Feedback Profile.” It’s that magic number that says this person is okay to buy from. What is interesting to me is that a rating of 97% is great, but you may not buy from the person if you see two people saying the same bad thing about the seller, even if there are 300 people saying the opposite same good thing about the seller.

If you’re looking at ChMS products for your church, don’t throw Fellowship One out of consideration because of one post that I’ve written.  For my church, ACS is the right solution.  For your church, Fellowship might well be the direction you need to head.  Weigh the pros and cons of each heavily before making such a spendy decision.  I write posts, good and bad, about what I know and who I’ve interacted with.  To me, not sharing what I know would be burdensome, so I hang it out there.  The decisions are always yours to make.

Please hear me well that I am not bashing Fellowship Technologies.  My interactions with them otherwise have always been positive.  They seem to be a terrific company overall.  In fact, I’ve personally recommended them to a couple of churches who have ended up purchasing the product.

I am very encouraged by the quick response of Fellowship on yesterday’s post, and I wanted to share that with you here.

Curtis Harris wrote in this morning:

Matthew, I can’t apologize enough for the blog comment that apparently came from our company.  This is nothing we would ever condone and certainly not something I would want to be a part of; for so many of us, me included, this is a chance to use our God given skills for His purpose… it is our mission field.  I am very embarrased that this type of thing has happened and prior to this took some pride that we were above all that.  Sorry again.  Curtis Harris, Co-Founder and Director of Product Strategy.

Ah, just as I’m writing this post, I noticed that Jeff Hook, the CEO of Fellowship Technologies commented on the previous one.  It’s certainly worth a read.
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I have been working for the last couple of weeks on a new Web site design for our church.  There are plusses and minues still, and I have a long list of items still left to do, but I felt like it was time to get this thing out the door.  Now, when ACS gets around to implementing my needs for Facility Scheduler, we’ll really be in business!

Check out the new site, and  compare it to the old site.

I’m no expert designer, but I’d love to hear your comments, critiques, and questions.

Friends, I’m crazy about new toys. I like playing with them; I like learning them; and I like the status of having them. Some of you are with me, and some of you think I’m a little obsessive in that. Today, I watched a webinar from Profit Stars on their Remit Plus software. Our bank has been pushing us to perform a remote deposit capture, which basically means that instead of taking a group of paper checks to the bank for deposit, we would upload check images to the bank digitally. If only they’d accept scans of cash, we’d do it today.

Their software, in conjunction with a good check scanner, does some cool stuff. One thing that I really like is that you can scan the check and the software will use OCR to decipher the CAR/LAR information on it. Basically, the software reads what you wrote (in your own handwriting) in the CAR field (ie: $100.00) and the LAR field (ie: One hundred and XX/100 dollars). Then it compares those numbers. If it is certain that they match, you don’t have to process that check. If not, you have to 10-key the amount in.

This is all done in conjunction with a check scanner, possibly a Canon CR 180 (pictured at right). This particular scanner, which I would love to see in our building, scans checks and performs the analysis of them at a rate of 180 checks per minute. WOAH! So, it reads the MICR data (bank routing number, account number, and check number), scans the front and back of the check, and prints an endorsement on the back of each one at a rate of 180 per minute. Again, WOAH! Check out this video, if for no other reason, you’ve got to hear the soundtrack.

We’re currently using a Magtek MICR Image to scan checks. The beauty of that is not having to use a different piece of software. The Magtek links right in to ACS, and the check image is saved in our ACS software. We think that saving the images is important so that when disputes come in, we can show the donor their check. It has made a lot of situations smoother for us. So, we scan the check, it reads the MICR data, pulls up the associated donor, and we 10-key the amount from the check and associate it with the fund they’re donating to. The downsides of this setup, compared to the other, fancier scanner are that this model does not have a hopper, so each check must be fed individually. Also, it only scans one side, so it cannot be electronically transmitted to the bank. The physical checks still have to be deposited. Finally, we have to 10-key the amounts where the other system has OCR do everything it can.

Is the personnel time valuable enough to make the investment? I sure don’t know. We’ll see what the bank is willing to pay for to get us hooked into this. I want the toy, but it needs to be a wise investment before I’m willing to jump in. Any of you using a similar setup?

Today, I trained our staff on searching for information in ACS. It was a very basic training session, but it seemed to be helpful for those who attended. What are you doing to make sure that your staff are well trained in your Church Management System (ChMS)? I know that some of you have a dedicated training staff, some of you bring in trainers from your ChMS on a regular basis, and some of you just kind of let it ride. I’m interested to hear how you train staff on technology, specifically related to your ChMS. Are you intentional about it? For the ACS users out there, would you be interested in videos from our staff trainings?

I’m excited to see that ACS is now employing people to focus on software architecture. Due to a number of circumstances, they ended up with about 7 different unconnected calendars across their various products. Now, with the help of architects like Jamey, they are working to integrate their products more and more.

While all the pieces aren’t there, the future is bright, just looking from the calendaring perspective alone, here are some of the ideas that we’re looking to employ in our church.

• Integrating Facility Scheduler (FS) with an EMS to control HVAC systems. This reduces energy consumption and personnel costs!
• Integrating FS with our alarm system to arm and disarm the building on a schedule
• Integrating FS with our door locks to lock and unlock doors on a schedule
• Integrating FS with digital signage around the campus to display coming events
• Integrating FS with LCD screens by the doors of rooms to display what’s happening in that room
• Integrating FS with our Web site to display upcoming events
• Integrating FS with Outlook (where our users spend most of their time) to display calendar events
• Integrating FS with services like Upcoming.org to publicize events

All of these things work to reduce operational and personnel costs, which translates directly to more money ending up in missions and ministries.