BetterThanBlank - Latest Comments in CCB Vs. Connection Power (Part 1)

Re: CCB Vs. Connection Power (Part 1)

alex — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:15:00 -0000

Dominic, thanks for the comment! I'm going to do a more recent update of our experience with Connection Power, which has been more positive, thanks you some recent communications we've been having. Give me a couple weeks...

Re: CCB Vs. Connection Power (Part 1)

Dominic Silla — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:27:47 -0000

Sorry for the delay in response. Just found this blog and think it is great. Let me begin by stating that as the VP of Sales for Connectionpower.com I have the greatest respect for CCB and the product that they have created. From what I understand, they are in the same business that we are in - Kingdom building for His glory! As this is a blog and will do my best just to respond to questions or clarify issues where our product is concerned let me weigh in on the online giving splash page issue. For churches that subscribe to CP PowerGiving we do ask that they select from one of three Merchant Accounts that we have built back-end gateways out to. (We have selected three of the biggest Merchant Account service providers so it is usually not that big of a deal). Once this is done, the church can then begin accepting three different types of payments: 1. Member logged in giving 2. "Friends of the Church" giving 3. Event registration payments. I believe the 2nd. type of giving is what was discussed here. Depending on the Merchant Account that is selected a Splash page can be set up so that anyone that visits the web site and wants to give can by simply filling in an information page including the payment information. This is very similar to creating a "Pay-pal" link from your site except it goes through the same Merchant Account as does the other types of payments. There are many other advantages to having people give via logged in section and if you are interested I can expand. Thanks again for creating this blog and the opportunity to comment.

Respectfully,
Dominic Silla
VP of Sales ConnectionPower.com

Re: CCB Vs. Connection Power (Part 1)

Steve Caton — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:01:48 -0000

Dean, thanks for giving us the opportunity to correct the early miscommunication and help you learn more about CCB. You may already know about this resource but Christian Computing Magazine has a page on their site where they compare several Church Management solutions side-by-side. Here is the link.

http://www.digical.com/cgi-...

Cheers!

Steve C.

Re: CCB Vs. Connection Power (Part 1)

alex — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:58:40 -0000

Dean - I suggest you get in contact with John Woolsey from Impact Church. He's pretty knowledgeable with CCB and has been using it for a couple years now. Here's his blog: http://johnwoolsey.net/

Re: CCB Vs. Connection Power (Part 1)

dean — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:40:42 -0000

Update - since posting my notes here, steve contacted me and we are now in communications with CCB about their services. The "No one has replied to that yet" was apparently caused by their over zealous spam filtering software that didn't like my "www.com" in my email address.

We have not made a decision yet, but at least I have been able to get all of my questions answered.

Does anyone know of a website where more of the technical aspects of Church Management Software are reviewed side by side and up to date?

Re: CCB Vs. Connection Power (Part 1)

dean — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:30:06 -0000

So far, yea, I'd have to say "despise" as in "To regard as unworthy of one's interest".

I agree, price is not the sole criteria. As I am sure you are already aware, I also sent your company an email with some of my other "unanswered" questions after spending a good amount of time trying to find them on your website. No one has replied to that yet.

I'm not saying I wouldn't still consider your services, but at this time I am skeptical due to your marketing practices.

Re: CCB Vs. Connection Power (Part 1)

Steve Caton — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:02:06 -0000

Wow Dean, you already "despise" CCB? That's strong! Hope you were just having a bad day.

I agree with you about the website needing background information on our company. Check back for that in the next two-three weeks. We are already working on it.

As far as pricing is concerned, our pricing is based on product version, size of ministry and a few other factors related to training, implementation and conversion so it is not practical to list the entire menu on our site. Furthermore, we believe that the ChMS decision should be based on benefit and value, not just price. Does the solution meet your needs? Does it empower your strategies to reach and retain more people for the Kingdom? Those should be the primary decision criteria. Price matters too but if it is the sole criteria, CCB is probably not the right choice even though our pricing is very competitive.

Steve Caton

Re: CCB Vs. Connection Power (Part 1)

dean — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:51:14 -0000

We are just starting to research CCB for our new church of about 200 (1000 in the next 2 years). What I already despise about CCB is that they don't put their prices anywhere. Everything is about "call us" - sales pitch - and no real information on their website. A real turn off. Who is this company, anyway? No address, no names, etc.

Re: CCB Vs. Connection Power (Part 1)

Steve Caton — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:22:05 -0000

Sorry to hear that we lost you guys. We retain almost 90% of our customers every year but it still pains me to see anyone leave. That said, we have made huge strides with our UI as John Woolsey mentions. We are still in Beta so more changes and enhancements are being made daily as our Beta Testers reveal new issues and areas for improvement. For those who would like to take a look at the new CCB "2.0" release, go to our website and request a Video Tour. We will send you a link to an 11 minute video clip that highlights the vision of CCB and the benefits of the new system. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Alex. It's how we learn and improve.

Steve Caton
Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Church Community Builder, Inc

Re: CCB Vs. Connection Power (Part 1)

John Woolsey — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:12:53 -0000

I am curious to see what else you have to say about the two. I have been participating in beta testing for CCB on their new version, you wouldn't recognize it anymore. None of these systems manage serving teams the way we need it to, doesn't look like they are improving it with this version either.

Re: CCB Vs. Connection Power (Part 1)

alex — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:30:42 -0000

Brett - That's EXACTLY what I'm saying (and that's what tech support said as well). Not cool.

Re: CCB Vs. Connection Power (Part 1)

Brett Anderson — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:32:27 -0000

We're currently considering CP. We've been long time Shelby customers but we're re-evaluating everything and need something a lot more user-friendly. Are you saying you can't give online unless you're already in the database system?

Re: CCB Vs. Connection Power (Part 1)

WorshipCity — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 10:32:57 -0000

Love the new survey. Apparently I'm the only one who's taken it :)