Large churches may want to host bvcms on their own in-house servers. Smaller churches will want to have someone else manage the system for them. Starting June 1, 2009 bvcms.com will begin hosting small to medium sized churches on our servers. Contact us soon if you are interested in this service. Also, see the article on How to build a database of people. It has some interesting ideas about how you can enlist your members to build your database of people records. Of course we can convert your existing data too.
Here are some questions you might be asking:
What if their data center goes down?
This typically is a temporary problem due to power failures or Internet connectivity. Of course, the problem can exist on either side of the connection, yours or ours. We have taken steps to minimize this with diesel power generators and UPS (uninterruptable power supply).
Won't strangers have access to our data?
Well no. Karen Worrell and myself will have access to your data. But that is always true of the "Admin" support people. No doubt you would have that if you hosted it yourself. And we simply are not going to be snooping around doing bad things with your data. We hare trustworthy and frankly don't care about your data. (Other than to provide you with good service :-).
Doesn't the data travel across the public Internet?
Yes it does but it does so in a secure "tunnel". We use an industry standard encryption technology called Secure Socket Layer (SSL). This is the same security that banks use to display your account information to you on your Web Browser or when you pay for something via credit card on the Internet. The data is transmitted securely between your browser and our server, both directions.
Basically, it boils down to economics. There is a very large cost to maintain the data yourself.
You should understand your options. The choice is yours.