Question

Photo of Thomas Cheevers

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How much upkeep does Rock take?

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Once everything is up and running, how much upkeep does it need? How many hours per week?

  • Photo of Jim Michael

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    It depends what you mean by "upkeep." The windows server itself doesn't need much hand holding, but you'll want to keep it patched with security updates. Rock itself doesn't need much time once you get your config dialed in, but you'll likely be constantly tweaking this or that for quite a while after initial setup as you realize how Rock works and what you can do with it. It can be addictive in a certain sense ;-)

    That said, you really need someone in your org to "own" Rock and be THE person who knows it inside and out. Without that ownership you likely won't really get the maximum benefit from the software.

    The alternative is to pay a Rock-specific vendor to handle everything for you except the actual day to day data operations.  If you're looking for "turn key" without any on site staff expertise, that's what I would recommend. 

  • Photo of Jeremy Hoff

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    What Jim said. :-)

    If you're hosting it internally, the work to maintain is an infrastructure concern, and it boils down to a few hours per month on the low end; if you're hosting it externally, there's little to do on that front.  

    With any ChMS, you'll want a "champion" on your team to care and feed the system to get the best out of it.  This means watching the forums and checking the Slack channel(s) to participate in the community and get ideas, attending the RX event to meet other users and get inspired, and sharing what they know and learn with your staff to help amplify their ministry efforts.  How much time does it take?  If we accept the meme "work expands to fill the time allowed" then it could be a full time position. But, it doesn't need to be.

    I'd hazard an (educated) guess that it will take your "champion" a dozen hours per year per staff member and key volunteer to implement, and 4-5 hours per staffer-year after.  As the church staff grows, you can scale back.  As the sophistication of your staff increases, you can scale it up.  At ~150 staffers, Shepherd (where I work) we are putting in about 15 hours per month for ChMS-related duties.  This includes lunch and learns (we serve lunch, people show up, we teach), maintenance on the software/infrastructure, related helpdesk questions, retraining and reminding, and the odd report that needs special attention.  I'd say we're on the sophisticated side of implementation, and hoping and planning to increase.

    Keep in mind, this DOES NOT include time that would be spent using the software:  keeping track of your congregation, sending email communications, and other such needs that would be akin to caring-and-feeding your congregation.

    RockRMS is pretty special software.  I dare say you can "set and forget" the system, at least aside from the updates... and updates are pretty simple.  As with any ChMS system, the more you put into it, the more you can get out of it.  And RockRMS can scale and grow to suit your needs without obstacles... and thanks to the ecosystem you'll have plenty of good company to help you along the way.

    I hope that helps,