| Is
IconCMO the first church management system written by
Icon Systems? |
 |
No. Icon Systems
has a rich history of software engineering. The company
released it first product in the church software market
in 1993. Revelations the award-winning windows-based package
quickly amassed thousands of church customers and served
as the springboard for IconCMO.
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| How
can IconCMO be so affordable and yet offer superior performance?
|
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We use an application
hosting model at the Icon Systems, which in essence
allows us to share and manage technology resources across
many churches. We purchase, implement and manage all
the technologies for optimal performance. We also relieve
your staff from performing backups, repairs and upgrades.
The result is superb performance and cost savings for
each IconCMO customer.
In contrast, with a Windows-based software package all
the hardware, software, cabling, telecommunications and
upgrades would have to purchased and managed on-site by
the church staff or paid consultants.
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| How
fast is IconCMO over the Internet? |
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IconCMO was designed
to optimize the performance of web servers, desktop hardware
and telecommunications. If you are using a broadband connection
to the Internet - such as DSL or Cable TV Broadband -
you will find IconCMO to be as fast or in some cases
faster than processing at your local desktop machine.
If you are using a dial-up modem, you will find that IconCMO
will process your requests much faster than loading web
pages. IconCMO was designed to support background transaction
processing, which means data and page refreshes do not
interrupt your data entry with inefficient wait-time.
For example, assigning attendees from a Sunday Service
can be done as quickly as you can check the boxes. You
will be challenged to out-pace the performance of IconCMO,
even over a dial-up telephone connection.
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| How
many users can access the IconCMO system at one time?
|
|
Access to the IconCMO
system happens from a web browser. As a result, there
are no physical limits to the number of concurrent users
that may be accessing your IconCMO system at any time
via the Internet.
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| How
secure is an on-line church management system? |
|
In many ways an Internet
based system is more secure than a system located at a
church office.
The Icon Systems is a physical processing center
that is protected with a premise security system to guard
against intrusion or natural disaster such as fire or
water damage. Your resources are managed in a secure environment.
User access to the IconCMO system requires three levels
of security: user name, password and telephone number.
These security algorithms make it nearly impossible for
an unauthorized user to access the system.
Each user is granted access by the church staff to designated
functions of IconCMO. Additionally, user access may be
granted per certain forms in IconCMO. For instance, a
user may be granted ("NoAccess", "ReadOnly", or "Read/Write")
on a specific form within the system.
IconCMO data that is transmitted over the Internet is
secure by using 128-bit Secure Socket Layer encryption
technology. This means that each time you connect to the
Icon Systems server, a new and unique encryption
process is invoked.
In contrast to the products from Icon Systems, most other
church management software products utilize a very insecure
database structure such as Access or Dbase. It is easy
to access this data with simple utility programs such
as Microsoft Access or Excel.
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| What
Internet browsers are compatible with IconCMO? |
|
IconCMO is compatible
with any browser that complies with the Internet Consortium
standards. That means nearly any personal computer will
be able to access and use IconCMO. Tested Internet browsers
include Netscape 6.0 and greater, Mozilla 1.3.1 and greater,
and Internet Explorer 6.0 and greater.
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| What
operating system and/or browsers are compatible with IconCMO?
|
|
Access to IconCMO
is not limited by the operating system used on the personal
computers accessing the system. The Internet browser is
the primary consideration.
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| How
often are backups performed by Icon Systems? |
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You can take comfort
in knowing that backups of your data are done each evening
and are stored at another secure site. In the event your
church experiences data problems, such as inaccurate batches
that have been posted, the Icon Systems professionals
will assist you with data restore procedures.
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| Can
IconCMO manage contributions and giving from children?
|
|
Yes, separate statements
for each envelope number and a combined statement for
an entire household are supported.
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| How
are reports and labels generated from IconCMO? |
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Each functional area
of IconCMO offers a reports menu that may be accessed
on the third menu bar. Users will be prompted for the
parameters required by a report and subsequently a new
window will open to display the report online. A report
may be printed by simply clicking the printer icon.
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| Is
IconCMO made for small, mid-sized or large churches?
|
|
IconCMO is designed
to address the software and performance requirements of
any church. Additionally, our subscription pricing model
is designed to align value with price. The monthly price
a church would pay is determined by the number of households
managed in the IconCMO system. Even the smallest churches
can afford to use IconCMO.
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| What
happens if we exceed the number of households that was
used to determine our subscription price? |
|
You can monitor the
number of households in your IconCMO system by entering
System - Owner Setup - Owner Information.
From a billing perspective, your household account is
reviewed by Icon Systems each month and your subscription
payment will be adjusted if necessary. For churches that
have pre-paid an annual subscription, Icon Systems will
send a notification regarding the household count. The
church may choose to remove inactive households or to
pay the new rate for the remainder of the year.
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| Do
we receive a monthly invoice for our IconCMO subscription?
|
|
No. In an effort
to streamline costs, we request a Visa or MasterCard number
from our church customers. Automatic payments are processed
each month from that account.
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| We
currently use Revelations church management software.
Can our data be converted to IconCMO? |
|
Yes. Icon Systems
provides an automated data migration process from Revelations
to IconCMO. All of your Revelations data is supported
with the exception of visitation, scheduling and group
event data.
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| Can
we revert back to Revelations software in the future?
|
|
Yes. Icon Systems
provides an automated reverse-migration process from IconCMO
to Revelations Version 10 or 11.
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| We
currently have a church management system from another
vendor. Can that system be converted to IconCMO? |
|
Yes. If you currently
use Membership Plus or Shepherd's Staff we will convert
household, member, fund, envelope and contribution information
at no charge.
For churches using other software products, we will convert
household and member information for a nominal service
fee of $99.
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| What
if we decide to discontinue our IconCMO subscription?
|
|
Your satisfaction
is very important to Icon Systems, and we would like to
resolve any issues you would encounter with IconCMO. In
the event you elect to discontinue the subscription service,
we will honor your decision.
The only obligation you would incur is the minimum three-month
subscription origination payment for IconCMO. That fee
which covers set-up costs at the Icon Systems
would be forfeited whether three months of usage had occurred
or not.
After the initial three-month period, the IconCMO subscription
can be discontinued at any time without penalty by terminating
payment. If you have pre-paid an annual amount, simply
call Icon Systems and you will be reimbursed for the remaining
months on your subscription.
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| What
happens to our church data if we discontinue our IconCMO
subscription? |
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IconCMO has an export
feature that allows you to export much of the IconCMO
data to a local computer. At your request, we will also
email your complete database in its SQL database format.
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