You may have seen the Idealware report from January 2013 on Synagogue Management Systems (SMS) that describes many products (including Cloud for Synagogues). The initial report was sponsored by UJA-Federation of New York in order to help synagogues understand what their current and future needs for their data. The report identified key requirements for a SMS and evaluated 22 vendors based upon how well their system met the requirements.
At the time of the initial report, Congregation Connect (formally Cloud for Synagogues) was just getting started and we weren’t able to demo many of our current functions to the researchers. An updated Idealware report was published this past July this time only listing the top 9 systems. The report only covers changes which were made to the system which enabled Idealware to give a more accurate picture of Cloud for Synagogues.
According to the report, a synagogue management system should be able to provide a “360 degree look at all of your different constituents” where members, yartzeits, invoices, and emails are seamlessly integrated and easy to access and report off of and cloud based technologies are built to do just that. Cloud based systems mean that the synagogue can access the system as long as they have internet, a computer or mobile device without having to store any data on their own servers. CFS stands above our other cloud based competitors because we are website flexibe (we do not require you to use a certain content management system), have the power of the Salesforce.com platform, and Cloud for Good consultants are experts at implementing Saleforce solutions.
The results of the updated report show that Cloud for Synagogues is a very comprehensive and easy to use tool. We were rated higher than most of our competitors in the majority of the evaluated categories.
Our tool was described as a “Compelling option for synagogues looking to move to the cloud and interested in a user-friendly, customizable, and tech-forward system…very capable at handling family units, member tracking, and Yahrzeits…Cloud for Good also has an accounts receivable module, sophisticated event management support, and the ability to support a synagogue’s fundraising program.”
Because CFS has the advantage of being on the Salesforce.com platform the tool is described as “pretty user-friendly and easy to learn.. Reporting is strong—using the Salesforce ad hoc reporting structure, users can quickly configure their own custom reports, and it comes out of the box with some reports of use to synagogues.”
Also described in the report is that cloud based tools are the future of Synagogue Management Systems. While many of our competitors are just starting to have cloud capabilities, Cloud for Synagogues is fully cloud based and has always been.
A specific category that CFS was rated highly on is support. Cloud for Synagogues has an online user community where all users can come to an ask questions, collaborate with each other, and learn about system updates. CFS also has a helpful online knowledge base which provides step-by-step instructions with examples and pictures on each module in the system. Clients can also contact the support team by email for more personalized questions. Part of the implementation process is 5-10 hours of training so clients can use the system with ease once they are up and running.
Read the full report here and see below for a comparison to our competitors:
