“It’s all about timing.” How many times have you heard that? How many times have you said it? A lot…I bet. No one can doubt the truth behind that simple statement. Choosing the right software at the right time is no exception. Knowing when to buy that key piece of software for your organization and more importantly why you’re buying it is important. Let me give you an example of how our organization recently messed up on this very thing.

One of the most crucial aspects to any business is keeping up with it’s customers and prospects. Some type of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is vital to keeping a history of all communications and relationship details with your customers. By they way, churches and nonprofits you need one too. Either a ChMS or some Membership Management Software….look into it. Anyway, we set out to get a CRM. But we didn’t do our homework, we just signed up for Salesforce. We don’t use 2/3 of the system. Sure that happens a lot when you get a feature-rich (ready “bloated”) software but the worst part is that we spent too much money. We should have selected a much cheaper, simpler solution for the first year (perhaps 37Signal’s Highrise). Salesforce was the wrong software at the wrong time.

At the same time, we totally missed the boat on the software that we should have been running since DAY 1. It’s called KissMetrics. From their website: “KissMetrics is the simplest and easiest way to visualize your conversion funnel in order to increase your ROI”. Basically it helps businesses increase sales and conversion rates. We should have adopted this type of software even before we had customers! Live and learn.

Here are a few points to keep in mind when thinking about software for your organization

1. Most software has been created because there is a tangible benefit. Seriously…like saving time and/or money. This is especially important to keep in mind for young organizations that assume they cannot afford software or worse that they should not have to pay for it. In the middle of any organization process that’s taking place you should always be asking yourself if there is software that makes this easier. Sometimes that means spending some money on software. If you’re a small organization (like a church plant) can you really not afford to pay $12/mo to enhance communication and centralize all all logistics? Yes that was self-serving :).

2. Learn the tangible benefits the software offers. Does the software pay for itself? Can the return on investment be measured. If so, make sure you know what the ROI is. If the software offers a free trial then try it out. And really give it a go. You may crash and burn but you’re better off trying something then just thinking about it. If you can’t tell by the trial or just looking at the website, then pick up the phone!

3. Call software providers. Yes, pick up the phone and call them. If they don’t list a phone number then that’s a bit questionable in my opinion, but the point is…reach out to them. You’ll usually find that honest and fair people are behind most of the reputable software that’s available on the internet these days. Even more…

4. Ask for a discount. If you really can’t afford the software at the time, but you know you need it, then simply ask for discount. Talk is cheap (sometimes). We use coupons at MemberHub and there a handful of them floating around the internets. Just like us, many vendors will be happy to help you out for a little while. Just ask.

So, what’s that piece of software that you’ve been thinking about for a while now? What can it do for your organization? What are you waiting for?

Yesterday I listened to a webinar put on by Drew Goodmanson and Cynthia Ware on the State of the Church Online. You can read an excellent review of the research findings that they presented over here and the slides from the presentation are here.

These guys are doing a really good work. I personally believe that this research and the motivation behind it is edifying, reverent and inspired. God’s timing is perfect. Churches are undoubtedly trying to make some sense of all this social networking, private community tools and online technology. And they have nothing to guide them.

Kevin does an excellent job of pulling out the conclusions that have been reached. He points out:

One thing that stands out to me when I look at those key findings is the overwhelming awareness in the church market of Facebook yet very little brand awareness of comparable tools designed specifically for churches. You might chalk this disconnect up to ineffective marketing strategies but I believe it points to a more crucial issue which is: churches aren’t approaching social media strategically.

Kevin goes onto to point out that:

Churches dive headlong into social media (primarily on Facebook and more and more on Twitter), investing their time and their churches reputation without a solid sense of how exactly their efforts are going to redeem lives and bring glory to God.

Let’s also take into consideration the top 5 requested features/functionality sought in church/Christian social networks:

1. Ability to find, register and/or get details for events.
2. Ability to post prayer requests or needs.
3. Ability to find serving opportunities at the church based on interest of gifts
4. Ability to join and interact with home/bible study groups.
5. Integration with existing church website.

Here’s my conclusion so far: The respondents are NOT looking for another social networking tool!

In fact, there are so many instances where churches are looking to use social networking for communications, logistics, planning, etc. when that’s not at all what social networking is intended for. It’s intended to “network”. Facebook is definitely not the best way to connect your members and groups. When you’re in a church and are involved in various ministries and groups you don’t need to network with these folks, you need take care of the business of being a member. You need to plan, share a calendar, get reminders, have discussions and generally be accessible to each other. Technology and the internet is perfect for that! It’s not about social networking. It’s about giving the groups in your church and other organizations a place for them to connect, share information, share ideas, plan, and again, be accessible to each other. This takes the burden off the administrators of the organization, by empowering the groups to connect and get things done on their own accord! What they want is a private, groups communication tool.

The Phase 2 of this research and its findings will be a very powerful step forward in helping churhes sort through the options of online private community and group communications tools (of which MemberHub is one, of course). We are looking forward to that research that will be available in the fall.

While our website does a reasonable job of explaining MemberHub’s features and benefits, a quick video walkthrough of any software application can always help. The video below will give you a 50,000 foot view of the purpose of MemberHub and excellent walk-through of the application.

I encourage you to watch this short, 6 minute video and tell us what you think!

Seminaries face unique challenges. Secular universities and colleges are up to their eyeballs in the new world of communications that include social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook. There are few if any filters on these offerings and they generally pose more problems for a seminary environment than they do solutions.

Does that mean that seminaries are to be left in the Dark Ages with regard to communication? Let’s hope not. One of the main needs for future pastors and church leaders is to be in constant communication with their peers and to learn how to best handle the church congregation of the 21^st century. It ain’t like your grandaddy’s church anymore .

One way that future church leaders can be prepared is to have more modern means of communication within the seminary environment itself. Of course you can provide courses to help students learn the ins and outs of how the new world communicates (and even reads the Bible for that matter) but there is nothing like learning by doing.

While seminaries are often strapped for capital to implement these types of programs there are now web based software apps that can help facilitate the communication necessary to help them grow as leaders. Of course, MemberHub is one of those options (you didn’t expect me to not say anything about that now did you?).

Here are 3 very simple yet powerful applications for web based communication tools that should be considered.

1. Classes can have collaborative activities that strengthen their learning and help to reinforce what is covered in the class
2. Seminary wide communication can be taken beyond just e-mail lists and there can more information disseminated in a more efficient and effective manner
3. Seminary staff and departments can have greater continuity with less face to face meetings and more time doing what they do best; equipping.

Is your seminary living in the past in the way that it communicates with students and staff? Could there be greater learning and preparing taking place if there were quicker and cleaner communication for these groups? Could seminaries be using software to help improve communications and prepare students for using technology once they go out to shepherd their flocks?

We think so. Tell us what you think.

Have you ever prepared for a presentation and heard this advice:

Tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em. Tell ‘em. Then, tell ‘em what you told ‘em.

In case that slang isn’t very clear to read, that says to tell your audience what you’re going to tell them as the first step. Then actually tell the audience exactly that. When you’re done with that, recap what you just said. Basically it says to communicate!

This can be likened to what’s needed when an organization is adopting new software. You really need to inform your members, constituents and users what’s going on. Before you push the green button, here are 3 steps to help that.

1. Tell ‘Em What You’re Gonna Tell ‘Em

Send out an email, TPS report or general announcement that you’re going to be adopting a new tool. Inform your members well in advance that you’re going to be adopting new software and what they can expect. Tell them when they can expect to begin interacting with the new software and provide them with an outline. Depending on how complex the software is, the outline should detail not only the actions that the members need to take, but also provide a time-line of events and milestones.

2. Tell ‘Em

Launch you new software initiative. Push the green button! You have an outline too, right? An outline of all the settings and features that you need to turn on, tweak, adjust, etc. You should.

3. Tell ‘Em What You Told ‘Em

Now that you’ve pushed the green button and your folks are using the new software, make sure they understand the purpose and benefits of using the software. Provide best practices, help, and support. Recap why you’re using the software and how your organization will enhance its efforts towards world peace with this new software. Or just tell them how you going to save money, save time, and generally make the organization better.

What have been your experiences with adopting new software? Do you have any horror stories you’d be willing to share? Or any really successful launches? What contributed the success or demise of the new process?

I love well-designed software; that abides in usability standards and generally helps users. Or perhaps I should say that I can’t stand poorly designed, unusable software. You know the software I’m talking about. The one where you do the same action every time you use it, but it takes you 5 minutes to find it each time (and you always swear you’ll write it down so next time you don’t have to remember). There is so much software that is all about features. Basically the product and everything about it is just a list of things the software can do. 

This seems to be especially prevalent in church management software. Some of the older systems are so big and full of features (that you rarely ever use or need) and your church is forced to pay for training because no one can figure out how to use it! The worst part about it is that many people think software and computers in general are just tough and time consuming. Many people just deal with unsatisfactory software and even computers because they don’t know better software exists. 

MemberHub is easy-to-use. It’s the simple and affordable alternative. We want to take the 37 Signals approach to software…less is more. We have strived to make MemberHub a beautiful application that’s not only easy to use, but enjoyable. We know we have more features to add, but you can always count on MemberHub to be simple, well designed and just what you need. 

Feel free to drop us a line and tell us what you’d like to see soon in MemberHub. 

By the way, you know software is well designed if you don’t find yourself getting frustrated when you use it. You shouldn’t have to think to use software. Just like you don’t think when you pick up a shovel to dig a hole. The tool is made to dig holes.