At times, our human condition can cause us to endure a long, drawn out search only to discover that what we are seeking can be found simply in our own backyard. You’ve heard it before or maybe even experienced it, the old “grass is always greener” syndrome. As technological developments make leaps and bounds faster than we can cut our grass, it is challenging at best to determine if we do in fact have the latest and greatest.
Seeking the Latest and Greatest. The ROCK of Wilmington North Carolina is an example of a church that experienced first hand that decision to explore the uncharted territory of their Church Management Software (CMS) system. When The ROCK opted to end their 18 year relationship with ACS Technologies to pursue another software vendor of choice earlier this year, it was only about 4-6 weeks when they noticed that their “grass” was dying. Executive Pastor, Bryan McGee said, “The new software had glitches, failed to live up to our expectations, and lacked functionality and security. Basically, it fell short of meeting our needs.”
McGee explains he has a propensity toward all things digital and admits, “I sometimes want to move too fast for those around me. I must always remember to study, verify, test and troubleshoot before I spring new technologies on our team.” With that in mind, McGee wondered where to turn next and decided to pray for divine guidance.
Solution Found. It wasn’t long before McGee encountered a post from a blog whose author had paid a personal visit to ACS Technologies headquarters in January of 2006. The blog linked to ACS Technologies CEO, Hal Campbell’s reply to find an open invitation welcoming all current, future or former clients to drop by. This was just what McGee needed, an opportunity to get some answers to those perplexing questions that ultimately created a disconnect between his church and their relationship with ACS. The next step as McGee recalls was, “I recruited my senior pastor (who happens to be my father) and began the two-hour drive south to Florence, South Carolina to visit the ACS Technologies base of operations.”
“When we arrived, I expected to get about an hour or so of ‘face time’ but we ended up being there for the greater part of the day,” McGee explained. “The executive team (CEO, COO, Product Manager and the Executive Director of IT) listened to our needs and heard our ideas about what we would like to see and really took our concerns to heart.”
Main Reasons for ACS. That day solidified a decision that was imminent. “We knew that we needed to get back on track with ACS.” McGee continued, “We needed to for several reasons. ACS has depth, and breadth that only comes with a mature product. They have been doing CMS for a long time (29 years); they want to listen to their customers; and they are committed to moving completely to the web. Our visit showed me that it would be best to utilize ACS rather than rewriting our database. We agreed to let the new system live in the SQL database, rather than rewriting the old desktop database.
“ACS also has a vast wealth of underutilized resources at our disposal including: tech support on our terms such as the phone, an extensive web knowledge base, live chat or email. Finally, ACS offers many training resources that we haven’t used including online web training videos, user groups, regular regional training seminars and traveling trainers that will come to us.”
Training is Key. “One of the main reasons that we fell away from ACS was that we felt that the software wasn’t doing what we wanted it to. Once we became educated we noticed that the product can do just what we want and need. Our problems were more a result of not taking advantage of the training,” McGee admits. The ROCK is now planning to have an ACS trainer come to their campus for two to three days to determine how the modules can help them work more efficiently or as McGee puts it, “Help us with the way that we do church.”
McGee had some reflective thoughts after his visit to ACS Technologies. “ACS has some of the best manuals I have ever seen to help clients set up their software. Tech support is hands down the best of all the vendors that we work with. I also had to remember that this is a company that is over 28 years old and serves over 22,000 organizations worldwide. Not 100 or 1000…but 22,000.”
Long Term Stability. When asked about one outstanding feature about ACS that has impressed him over the years, McGee said, “The stability of ACS as a company and the fact that they aren’t going to throw a new module out there until it is ready. We know that with ACS, it will be a quality product; they don’t turn quickly on that dime to change but, they do implement things in a consistent way and they have a strong foundation; which ultimately begins to work together.”
As executive pastor for his church, McGee is responsible for the management and fostering of various programs such as the visitor assimilation program and their small groups. “When visitors come to the church, our Connections team takes their contact information and helps that person in a variety of ways. From helping them to plug in to our church to simply praying for them, we want to be able to minister to whatever needs they may have.” McGee continued, “We are looking at ways that we can combine that information with our Connections module and later Access ACS.”
Managing Small Groups. Regarding the management of their small groups ministry programs, McGee is excited to implement the small groups feature that will enable the groups to operate in a more organized way. Schedules, meeting details, curriculum, attendance and other trends will be available instantaneously. “We are planning a training session for our small group leaders where we plan to walk them through the use of the product, showing them live on a large screen how the module works. We even plan to preload the data of their members so the training will look very similar to the way they will use the system,” said McGee.
As ACS Technologies helps to implement The ROCK’s church wide goals, McGee is quick to remark that the ongoing relationship with ACS has been instrumental. “Our sales person is outstanding. He doesn’t over promise what ACS is going to do - I’ve actually had that happen with other vendors. He has provided us with more feedback and has guided us and taught us how we can do things better. He will follow-up even when there isn’t a product to sell. We are consistently kept up to date on how to use the product in a way that will help us meet our needs. If he notices that there is a way to use the product and we aren’t doing it and he thinks it will benefit us; he lets us know. In fact, I have a message on my desk from him telling me that he just went to a conference and learned about something he thinks we might want to implement.”
In closing, McGee stressed, “We are happy to be back with ACS Technologies and are very pleased to have them moving us in the right direction implementing what we want to see done and walking right along side us as we do it.”
About The Rock
The Rock is a multi-racial, Spirit Filled church committed to building strong families. As the first racially diverse congregation in one of our nation’s oldest cities, The ROCK continues to tear down walls of racism and segregation in the church. Services at The ROCK are filled with exciting worship and practical, relevant teaching focused on living our lives to honor God.
ACS Technologies Products and Services Used
People: People, Contributions, Attendance, Connections, Reservations,
Financial: General Ledger, Payroll, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets
Church Growth Tools: Ministry Scheduler, CASS It!, Max It!, Church Growth Tools, Volunteer Manager
Web: Access ACS
Services: Livestor, Network/Multiuser
Web Site
www.rockwilmington.com
