User Reviews
Shelby Systems: Software for Faith-based Organizations by Shelby Systems
USER REVIEWS - All reviews
Purchased Date: October 01, 2008
CFO & Technologist, High Desert Church
October 06, 2010
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Pros
We did an exhaustive search of church management systems and came to the conclusion that for our church, Arena was the best choice. You can read our research here: http://tinyurl.com/chmsresearch
Arena provides a customizable solution that will flex to meet your ministry needs and goals. It offers an excellent, easy to use interface and provides powerful tools to keep your staff on task, your people plugged in, and your church moving in the right direction.
Our pastors use Arena to track confidential comments, to find the best location to launch new campuses, and to keep track of thousands of people and programs.
Arena offers the most options for children's check-in, with one official solution and three church-developed solutions providing check-in that meets almost every style and desire.
Arena offers a development program provides ways for your church to develop modules and applications that meet your exact needs.
Overall, we love Arena and we made the right choice.
Cons
Arena is not for a church that isn't clear on what they want to do or that does not have IT staff. The best Arena implementations are ones where the church has a clear leader in charge of the project, and has solid direction from the staff of where they want to go.
Having a developer on staff (or a volunteer) is not necessary, but makes arena even more customizable and flexible.
Overall
Do your homework. If you have the right staff and environment in place, Arena is an amazing option. HDC has benefitted immensely from Arena and has never looked back or second guessed our decision.
Purchased Date: N/A
Operations Director, River Valley Church
September 30, 2010
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Pros
Follows in the history of Great Product and Service/support from a great vendor.
I haven't found anything that I cannot accomplish (create or make available) for any staff members.
This web savy product leads the way for churches in this web based world.
Cons
Needs better connection with V5 Shelby. The membership links are horrible and create more problems that they are worse. This feature primarily needed for contributions history. Need to have the ability to analyse contributions out of the box like we had in v5. Include a similar choice of statment format type systems.
Overall
Its "The PRoduct" to own. I believe the best on the market. Your company sets the standard for customer service.
Purchased Date: December 01, 2009
Database Coordinator, Brookwood Church
September 30, 2010
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Pros
Arena is completely customizable. It allows us to have a system that meets our church's work-flow rather than dictate our processes.
Cons
Because it's soo customizable certain areas (check-in, small groups and reporting specifically) are more difficult to implement. Also, the software requires staff with extensive server experience in a wide area of focus.
Overall
I would recommend Arena if a church has enough IT staff to man the implementation and host the servers (including bandwidth for the website, online giving, event registrations, etc.)
