Your church calendar and facility management software should be speaking the same language. Therefore, that leads me to a very important question: are your solutions fully integrated?
In our blog a few months ago, we discussed the difference between Event Scheduling software and Facility Management software. While these are different, it is still crucial these systems communicate with one another.
Let me explain:
Setup and Teardown
When planning to set up for your event, do you print out the events for the week and just hand it over to your facility manager? There is a better way to handle this. Here are two methods I recommend considering:
- Setup and teardown details assigned as a work order: If your Event Scheduling software can automatically create a work order for an event or assign it to your facility's team, you are way ahead of the game. At Smart Church Solutions, we offer this service to bundled eSPACE clients.
- Access on-the-go: If you prefer your team to work from a report, let them access it on the go! Rather than printing the schedule weekly, give your team members a tablet to receive real-time data. No more setting up for canceled events or last minute room changes. We also recommend that the whole staff has mobile access to the church calendar.
Nowadays, simple tools can save large amounts of wasted time and effort.
Closures and Booking Conflicts
Have you ever booked an event to later find out the electrician is also scheduled to be in the same? Or maybe your team is in the middle of painting the room?
Rather than working from two separate silos, integration allows you to create a closure for certain work orders with one easy click. Therefore, if someone books an event using the church calendar, the conflict detection will let them know it's not available because of work occurring in that room.
The best part? There is no need to call or send a mass email to notify the team. Instead, all communication is handled in one simple, automated place.
Also, if an event is already scheduled in a room, the closure will notify the event owner that they will need to find a new space since there will be maintenance occurring.
Easier For Your Team
Nobody likes to have 100 different logins and tabs open. Therefore, having your facility management software and event management software under the same program is one less hassle for your facility's team.
Our software, eSPACE, makes it easy to toggle between facility management and event scheduling. You can even have different permissions per module so your team can see exactly what you need them to see.
For example, we can have a church facility's manager as an admin for Work Order Management to approve and assign work. However, we can also list that person as a sub-admin for the Event Scheduler to allow him to only approve of items with setup requirements.
Why is this ideal for churches?
eSPACE is the market-leading suite of facility management software applications that allows your facility management software to integrate with your church's calendar. So, why don't other companies do this?
- We are designed for churches. Most commercial facilities have set schedules they work their maintenance around. Knowing the uniqueness of church facilities, we understand the randomness of events on a weekly basis and the need for a management tool.
- We specifically focus on the facility of a church. Other than your staff, your building is the greatest expense in your ministry. We want to help you focus on your mission as we focus on your facility.
No wonder eSPACE is ranked in the Top 20 Facility Management Softwares of 2020 by Capterra.
You can see an overview of eSPACE on our website by going here.
