Voracity Solutions Blog

Outlook Plugin

Jon — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 05:19:30 +0000

Are you tired of communicating in silos? One minute sending an email from your church membership system, the next from Outlook? With the Voracity Outlook Plugin you can now access the information in your ChMS right in Outlook. As you click emails membership data is displayed for the sender. This provides more context for the communication and allows you to quickly convert an impersonal email exchange to a more personal phone call. Find out more about this new plug-in.

Member Photos Inital Sale

Jon — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:00:53 +0000

Our Member Photos module has generated a lot of interest. We aslo hear that budgets are getting pretty low, so we’ve decided to offer a 2 week sale to celebrate the release of this new module and help churches get this new functionality into their database. From now until August 3rd you can purchase this module for only $750. To lock in the price simply email Jon Edmiston (jon@voracitysolutions.com) and we’ll send out an invoice.

Member Photos

Jon — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 21:00:24 +0000

Our latest module, Member Photos, is one of the most exciting to date. It allows you to dramatically increase the number of attendee photos in your database by simply asking for them. Anyone who has spends time working with member data knows the value of having an individual’s picture associated with record. It has the effect of turning ‘ministry tasks’ into ‘ministry moments’. It’s also a good way of creating connections in growing churches.

Until now the process of getting these images has been complex, time consuming and a bit awkward (ever had to ask someone if you could take their picture?) With the Member Photos module getting photos is as simple as sending an invite for them to upload their own picture. It’s a quick process for them to upload their photos and no Arena account is needed.

Jon Edmiston, Voracity Partner, commented on the creation of the module by saying, “The idea was born when a few months ago I was thinking about the difference there is when a attendee has a picture in Arena and wondered how we could get more. Then it struck me… duh… why don’t we just ask people for them. In the age of Facebook people are used to uploading pictures of themselves, why not jump in and do the same.”

This new module has been tested in both 2009.2 and 2010.1. Find out more about this exciting new module.

New Benevolence Module

Jon — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 05:28:03 +0000

It’s been a while since we’ve posted anything, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy… far from it! We’ll post more on some of our customer projects soon, but we’re also happy to announce the new Voracity Benevolence module. Now you can manage your benevolence ministry right inside your member management system.

Get more info on this new module.

First SMS Review

Jon — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 04:27:58 +0000

First review of our 2-Way SMS module is in… two thumbs up from New Covenant Bible Church. Thanks Austin!

Read the full review…

2-Way SMS Provider

Jon — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:33:26 +0000

Voracity is proud to announce the availability of it’s new 2-Way SMS module. The current SMS functionality in Arena allows you to send messages to cell phones much like emails. While the out of the box functionality is very powerful, it does not allow you to receive responses back from the recipient. Luckily, the Arena framework allows you to plugin additional SMS providers that can extend the current functionality. This module provides two way texting using the StrikeIron Two-Way SMS service.

All of the details are available on the 2-Ways SMS product page.

What’s In The Hopper…

Jon — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 04:49:27 +0000

Just because we haven’t posted in a while don’t think we’re not hard at work filling the needs of churches. In fact we’ve been so busy lately that updates have been few and far between… sorry. We’ll be posting after each successful project is released. In the meantime here’s a tidbit… we’re working on a 2-way SMS provider based on Strike Iron’s service. We hope to have it ready in the next few weeks. If this is something you think you might be interested in let us know.

Next Steps Project

Jon — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:35:08 +0000

Voracity recently had the pleasure of working with New Covenant Bible Church to create a Next Steps bar for the their person details page. These types of bars are a great way to quickly determine where an attendee is in the involvement process. Below is a sample of what the bar looks like:

If you’re interested in a similar bar don’t hesitate to contact us. We’d love you help you create something similar.

Contact Info:
Jon Edmiston – jon@voracitysolutions.com

Voracity Installer

Jon — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 06:30:16 +0000

Some say necessity is the mother of invention… others say laziness is the best motivator of innovation. We’ll let you decide which inspired the creation of the Voracity install program.

Soon after writing the Mobile Membership application we realized that we needed a way to allow customers to easily get up and running. We also saw the need to update the application quickly and often. That lead to what we call the Voracity Control Panel. It’s a quick means of installing new modules and keeping them up to date. It’s hard to describe how easy the installation process becomes, so here’s a quick video:

If you’ve ever installed a custom module you know all of the steps and processes you normally have to go through to get up and running. The complexities of the Mobile Membership app outweigh a normal module install because of the need to create a new portal, yet with the new Voracity Control Panel the installation takes literally just a few minutes.

Not shown in the video is the update process. Once a new update is released, all one has to do is go back to the Control Panel and the update is just a click away. The system is smart enough to look at the Arena version you’re currently running to ensure you only get updates that match your version. For instance there is already a new update for the Mobile Membership application for Arena version 2009.1. Once a customer installs 2009.1 the update will display and their one-click away from the new Mobile Membership.

We’re considering opening up the Control Panel to allow community modules to be able to be deployed and updated through it if developers of these modules wish. Our question to you is: Would this be of interest? We’d want to add a field or two to provide acknowledgement to the source of the module and a link to their support forum or wiki. Also the module developer would have to create the ‘package’ file to work with the Control Panel. So what are your thoughts? We’re very open to your feedback.

The Best Things in Life Are Free

Jon — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:20:45 +0000

Voracity Solutions has released it’s first free application, Image Compressor. If you’ve run Arena for any amount of time you know that your users often upload pictures of members straight from digital cameras. The size of these pictures is overkill for display in the membership system. The Image Compressor tool allows you to quickly and easily resize these pictures to a size you deem appropriate. The tool can also resize classified ad images as these often suffer from the same issues. In beta tests this utility has reduced the size of the Arena database by as much as 25%. Download and give it a try today!

Voracity Solutions is excited about this first free utility and is looking forward to providing more in the future. Be sure to subscribe to this blog to keep up to date of the latest news.

Mobile Membership Application Officially Released

Jon — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 05:36:14 +0000

Voracity Solutions is proud to announce that their Mobile Membership application has left beta and is now available for general release. This application allows you to take your membership data on the road where ministry happens.

Voracity Solutions worked with New Covenant Bible Church during the beta to test the application. Erin Bird, Middle Adult Pastor had this to say about the application:

“I’ve been using the mobile version of Arena for a few months, and while I was glad to have access to the church database at all times, it wasn’t very user-friendly. I’m thrilled to have this new version, Mobile Membership! It is much more user-friendly, and is far more useful too.”

Videos of each feature of the application are available on the Voracity website. What sets the Mobile Membership application apart is it’s mobile friendly design. It’s not just a repackaging of the normal Arena user interface. It’s been completely rewritten to support all modern handsets including the iPhone, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry.

The Mobile Membership application is also the first application to use the new Voracity Control Panel for installation and upgrades. With this new tool you can be up and running with the application in a matter of minutes.

If you’re interested in breaking out of the walls of your church office contact us to learn how the Mobile Membership application can help.

Mobile Membership Application Beta Release

Jon — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:10:50 +0000

Voracity Solution’s first Arena module, Mobile Membership, will enter beta next week (6/22). The official ‘Go Live’ release will follow shortly, hopefully within a week. This module will also feature Voracity’s new installation and update application which promises to impress. If you’re interested in more information be sure to see the Mobile Membership page of our website.