Membership data meets Outlook
This is my Outlook address book: 
This is my Outlook address book four minutes later:
Any Questions?
Couple of points of clarification:
- Yes, the time stamps are real. It took about a minute to sync, and three minutes for me to save the first capture and reload the snipping tool
- Columns are resized and whited out to protect the innocent
- Note the size of the slider bar. 1600 member names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses imported in about a minute
- Windows 7 compatible (XP and Vista as well).
- All the normal view options in Outlook are available
So, what is this? It’s an Outlook(2007) plug-in that goes to AccessACS, grabs your data, and imports it. It creates an additional contact folder much like hotmail.com does if you use the Outlook connector. The official post from ACS Technologies is here.
Notice the miniature icon in the tool bar? That is your sync button. Everything is “One-way” so no one can change records in their Outlook and mess up your data. You cannot (at least I could not) create a distribution list from this contact list. You can add categories and filter that way, but the next time you synch, they will be overwritten. To interact with a group, your best bet is still the web login. However, you now have your member database in Outlook. Which is where our people work. This makes it SO easy to look up a member address, email, telephone, etc.
AND it is linked to an indvidual’s AccessACS login. So, this can go out to the whole staff (technically your members too, but you will have to support them).
The beauty? A member changes their personal info, church office does an upload, you sync your Outlook. All addresses are the same. There is now no reason for staff to maintain email addresses of members in their Outlook “silo”. Beauty.
No logging into ACSW or even into AccessACS or your self-branded version of it. In our case www.pinkpres.me.
I as well as members of our staff have been using the beta “look-up only” version for about a year. In fact, it was that original beta version that finally got our technologically challenged Sr. Pastor to handle his own email. No more printing it out and him dictating a response. This tool alone probably saved a dozen trees and at least one secretary from a nervous breakdown.
Member data within Outlook really is that handy. I personally had three instances yesterday where I had to respond to an email but needed to include a third and fourth party in the conversation. This tool made everything possible from right where I was.
Too bad it doesn’t work on the calendar…
But wait, there’s more!
Shameless Plug Friday – June 5
1. AccessACS running inside Facebook. I could write a post about this. Or I could just suggest you go check out Matt Irvine’s post. Either way, you are going to want to see this.
2. Andy Andrews book The Noticer. A full review is forthcoming, but suffice it to say, this book is full of axioms. What is an axiom? An axiom is a short sentence that defines action or direction. Like a cliche only with real value.
3. Documents to Go for Android. This is my first paid app. However, this gives me full functionality of Word and Excel documents in my phone. Including Word/Excel 2007. All of the normal functions I use in Word/Excel on the desktop are here. Working on functions, freezing and unfreezing panes, separate sheets in Excel. Bulleted lists and formatting in Word. There will be a free upgrade that will include PowerPoint as well as a pdf viewer. And yes, copy and paste.
Currently, if someone emailed me a doc to my Gmail address, I could open it in Google docs. Same thing with pdf. Now, no matter which address it goes to, I can open it PLUS I have full editing, saving capabilities. Almost makes me wish I took the bus to work.
4. Volcano Burrito from Taco Bell. This thing will light you up. LOVE IT!!
Tech Tuesday 5-19-09
Don’t get too excited. This may or may not be a weekly event. However, I wanted to pimp out Jason Lee and a brilliant idea he has been working on.
If you are user of ACS ChMS (There’s 50-60,000 churches right there.) and use Outlook via Exchange w/ Active Directory, Global Address Book, Jason has a deal for you! He has a couple of blog posts on it here and here. That is where you will find the technical nuts and bolts.
Think of this as the contact information version of your file server. What happens when an employee saves a document to their local C drive? It becomes their work in the “shadow lands” and your problem when the drive fails. They think “mine” and you think “oh, man”.
If they store it on the Public drive, everyone feels secure. There’s back up, there’s redundancy. There’s access. Life is good. With the right education and incentive, there’s really no need to store to the local drive any longer.
This would give you Exchange folks the same option for emails and addresses. Yes, we all know if people would just use the database, or AccessACS this would all be a moot point. Points are seldom moot in the real world.
If all the contact data that is stored in your ChMS isthen pushed into that Outlook client that your staff can’t live without, it eliminates the need (and the habit) of maintaining Outlook contacts. Especially when it will be updated FOR them! Just think- Everyone working off the same email and address lists. Always. Without coercion or strife. Visualize world peace.
Jason summed it up well:
“If this were in production, I won’t get any more emails from attendees saying “I have told you to update my email but staff continue to email my old email address”.
The downside to this is it is still WAY preproduction. Just “proof of concept”. Which is engineering speak for “We made it work, but we need some cash to make it work well enough so people won’t try to kill us later when it breaks.” How much cash? Not nearly enough to make Dave Ramsey yell “Sell the car!”
Jason had several comments on the usefulness of this. With the right amount of “buy-in” or proclaimed need, this project could move to the front burner. For more info or questions related to groups, etc. hit the blog links above or email: Jason.Lee “at” nwoods “dot” org.
