One of my commitments to our partner churches is that Fellowship Technologies will stay current on what is happening in the overall software and technology industry. I came from that market and want to bring the best business and technology concepts from the commercial world to the church world. Along that vein: we are currently moving Fellowship One to be more Web 2.0-like; we are building our new functionality on a new architecture (MVC) that will allow us to develop new functionality rapidly and be more agile; and we are committed to put custom reporting tools in your hands so that you can directly access the data. And that is just the start!
One of the ways we all stay up on technology is via the Internet, through articles, blogs, etc. But that is not enough! I believe it is imperative to attend technology conferences and events to learn, affirm and network with others within the industry. One such conference is SIIA’s OnDemand Conference.
I wanted to attend last year, but chose not to due to the cost and timing. This year I took the plunge and made the trek to San Jose last week. I am glad I did!
In short, the opportunities and challenges other SaaS’s and their customers have are very similar to what we all together are experiencing. There were numerous presentations about: how processes are essential to successful application change; what was once hard to accept concepts about data being stored off-site are becoming non-issues; and it is not just a way to deliver software over the web more cost-effectively, it is about collaboration across departments, business partners, even competitors; and putting the customer at the center of the experience.
I am convinced that Software as a Service is the future of many application solutions, especially for the SMB (small and medium-sized business) market. By the commercial definition, that includes nearly all churches. The total cost of ownership, the integration capabilities via the Internet and the future of computing, all point to the fact that this is the way. Like other forms of new computing, it may that some time to truly take hold, but the value proposition is enormous and, in the long run, cannot be denied.
Grace to you,
jhook