My church has recently reviewed it’s technology related services. It has become quite a patchwork over the last few years and we are trying to come up with a more comprehensive, well integrated system. One part of which we are considering is Google Apps. Not just because it’s been a blessing to the IT Office here, but Conference staff appreciate it as well. So, is it right for your church? It depends on the church’s needs, people and what services are already being used. I wrote down the basic process we’re using that should work for just about any church.
- First determine what the churches needs are regarding technology in general. This may require much discussion because in most organizations technological needs and solutions can change greatly over a short time. The technology committee should have a “big picture view” of the churches current needs and meet every so often to ensure that those needs are still met. Then will Google Apps fill or partially fill those needs. One church deciding if Google Apps was the correct solution raised these issues.
- Use a search engine to find out what other churches did or are considering doing and why.
- Determine if current IT support can handle the transition while maintaining their other responsibilities. If not, look into hiring someone with experience to help make the transition, like Cloudsherpas.
- Will the church staff need training? If so, what form should the training take? Google’s online training for the education edition (the version non-profits get) is designed for schools, is free and most concepts can be applied to churches. Books can provide more depth but are quickly obsolete with the ever changing nature of Google Apps. Professional technical training can be expensive and inconvenient if only provided off site. Most of the individual applications are similar to Microsoft’s popular productivity applications. If they already have personal gmail accounts additional training is probably unnecessary.
- Who will provide support after the transition? It’s possible that staff may be able to support themselves. Google’s help is clear, jargon free and comes in several forms, such as step by step procedures, videos, webinars and forums for asking questions. Once again the needs and abilities of the staff must be considered along with the budget for the transition.
- If a company is being hired to make the transition, they will handle the technical details otherwise, make use of Google’s many deployment resources to help guide the actual implementation.
