ShelbyNext Websites Reviews & Product Details

cloud based. Had everything we were looking for: membership, financial, giving, online and text giving. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The entire thing. Spent a year looking at different ChMS and ShelbyNext hit all of our requirements. But after spending 6 months plus trying to implement, the decision was made to pull the plug. Membership was huge selling point, but didnt have a good reconconcialtion/reporting to make sure we filled out all forms. And financials didnt talk to membership..and I dont even want to get into their giving solution. I really hope the make improvements as it was not what ministry brands should have as their go-to-market solution. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The ability to access all my data on any device, anywhere Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Some functions are limited on some devices. ShelbyNext is great on mobile devices, but it really shines on a computer. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Arena has been instrumental in connecting to our congregation, tracking serving and small group involvement, and following up with people for countless reasons! Arena's profiles for individuals are extremely helpful and clear. I have to train many employees on this program and it is very user friendly and easily understood for use. I also have found great value in the attendance tracking, report building, and data inputting. It is easy to edit, mark notes, input dates, etc. If you are looking for a data system, I highly recommend Arena! They also have helpful support and conferences where you can really dig deep into the depths of use of the program. There is great potential in this program! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

While sections of Arena are very user friendly, there are some 'attributes' of the program we have found unhelpful so we simply do not utilize every aspect. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like the ability to create a registration form for events Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I don't like the fact that the system doesn't keep track of the number of times and dates of visitors. In fact, that has made my job cumbersome. I have created a spreadsheet on which I keep the visitors, dates visited, family members, address, phone and email on. It would be much more simple if I could put all of that in the system without going over our maximum number allotted for our Shelby plan that we have purchased. It's also not clear (maybe that is just me) about how to run specific reports. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Arena’s system for managing volunteers, keeping tabs on church members, and organizing teams is very efficient and more useful than my old Excel spreadsheets. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I’m not overly thrilled with the fact that Arena works best on Internet Explorer, since I use Chrome to access it, often on a Chromebook or iPad. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It connects with our financial system and it offers an in-house photo directory. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The learning curve is somewhat steep, but the support is helping with this. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It appears to be unordinary Arena would give you so much customizing opportunity. You can thoroughly switch up the look, route, fields, alternatives, reports, and so forth to extremely meet your requirements or make it less demanding for your staff to complete things. We're using Arena to cross-reference information and computerize to streamline procedures and help individuals making meaningful associations. For instance, we just started using an Arena driven process where supplication requests are assigned to senior citizens. A calculation (worked with SQL and the Holy Spirit) is used to pick the best association. Instead of an overwhelming list of all petition requests, Arena sends an email to each senior every week with only a couple of requests so they can make more personal connections and they follow up and pray with individuals. I hear the senior citizens love it.

Oh, in light of the ongoing review, 'Arena check-in system for kids church': Check-in is one small piece of the great program. I would not suggest Arena solely for check-in. However, its check-in is very customizable with some effort. That flexibility comes with a degree of complexity which takes some practice, and if you don't have the resources to make the desired customization, there are companies out there that can help. The friendly folks at Arena can help connect you up. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The best part of Arena is also its hardest part - its ability to be customized. Each instance of Arena is unique. It takes a lot of work to move in and get services set to work efficiently. It takes a strong lead person to have a vision that gets the entire staff working together and moving in the same direction. Services are often used to working in isolation from each other. If they don't learn how to standardize the way they work so the entire organization works the same way, everyone fails. Following the direction of the mentors is essential! Incorrect setup of check-in, group structure, etc., causes massive headaches and wastes time. Without a well-developed strategy for setting up Arena, it doesn't work. Strong guidance is required for successful setup. Communicating with PARENTS (or split families) of students involved in groups or tags is not effective. Custom methods are needed to do this easily. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Out of the box, it includes a lot of features that are at the core of what a church might need. People database, giving reports, attendance reports, etc. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Arena is a rarely updated piece of software that has bugs and fixes that don't work. Their API is non-existent and when there is something that says an API exists, only exists between Shelby Systems products. Most developers in today's markets understand that when they offer an API, it should work cross product and with different vendors. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The interface is pretty streamlined, but also offers a number of customization options based on our/your specific needs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It can be challenging to get Arena to work with other systems and processes, but that could just be user error. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.