Church Information Management System

Brenda Gray, Church Secretary writes...

"It is a pleasure for me to write a user evaluation on Cims. After being introduced to the program and working with several modules, I can say it is indeed an excellent tool for storing, organizing and retrieving large quantities of data and a full range of parish stats. The pre-designed, pre-formatted data entry screens made initial entry of base data relatively quick and easy. The true benefits of the program became most apparent, however, when I began to retrieve and work with the information entered. With only a few “clicks”, using the Report function, I was able to view and/or print any number of detailed lists ie. active members, inactive members, business contacts, etc. Using the Group function, I was able to classify the base data further to generate lists by committee or group - for example – name and contact information for members of the church committee or members of the choir. Using the Mail Merge function, I could create all types of individual or group letters, envelopes and labels. While my short introduction to Cims centered mainly on the 3-4 contact modules, additional modules are included which monitor in detail areas handled solely by the clergy, the envelope secretary, and others. It has been my experience, over time, that data collection can quickly become fragmented and piece meal. We often work “on the fly” and create small pockets of information here and there, with this program or that, as the need arises. While working in this way does satisfy immediate needs, at some point we inevitably find ourselves having to rely more and more on memory to keep up with all the individual additions, deletions, and changes. It is for this reason that I am especially impressed by the ability of this program to bring together all of the information management tasks in one comprehensive system. The password security features and the ability to do regular data back-ups are also important benefits."