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Industry by industry, this very topic is
being addressed ... continue running it from the local
computers in the company (network & server) or from the
Internet. There's arguments for both methods.
Continue Reading ...
The highly regulated insurance industry
is faced with this problem as well with some of the
vendors adamantly pushing agencies to purchase Hosted
Versions of their agency management system. Here's
a neutral website that discusses the pro's and con's for
an agency on each method ...
www.HostedAgencyManagementSystems.com. I'm
sharing this with you because it offers a lot of good
information.
So let's take a look at a few differences
between the two (the link above covers so many
differences we tried not to duplicate them here) ...
Network/in House System:
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Pro - Data is right at your
fingertips
-
Pro - The system as a whole is much
faster ... 1.5 Mb/s average speed on the Internet (www.speedtest.net)
versus 100 Mb/s on your network. This will
pull data, run reports, query records much faster
than the Internet based system.
Internet Based:
-
Con - This is another layer you have
to go through to get to your members records.
In other words, if you loose your Internet
connection you loose the ability to access your
records.
-
Pro - You and your staff can access
your CMS and all of the data in it from ANY computer
that has an Internet connection. Volunteers
can work from home.
-
Pro - Can make selected information
from your CMS available on open website like Groups
and information on how to join them.
-
Con - You pay a monthly "hosting" fee
which significantly increases the price of the
system compared to a Local Computer System where
it's generally a one time cost.
As you compare the two, make a list of
the features and/or advantages you gain, so you're told,
by going with an Internet based system. The
majority of these can be handled in other ways without
needing to pay the higher month to month hosting fee.
Here's a few examples ...
-
Use
LogMeIn and the Internet to access a churches
computer. You'll have the church desktop in a
window on your computer and can run any of the
programs on the churches computer. Very nice
program, and if you don't the ability to print
remotely then you can get the FREE version of
LogMeIn.
-
You can post group information
online, tie online donations/contributions to your
website, put a calendar of events at your website
and much more.
The most important thing is that you're
provided honest information as to the choices because
it's a fact that Hosted Versions are more expensive and
require a month to month hosting fee making them a far
more profitable solution over a network version.
Don't be "sold" a version.
Choose the version that makes the most sense
for your church. Be clear on your needs and then
start analyzing the differences between a network
version and a hosted version. |
