Implemenation Timeline

csimmons:

• Groups Set Ups (this is a priority as we launch small groups in the Fall)

I realize I didn't respond to this one.

Since this is a priority you will want to get to know a few things:

Does your small groups team really know what they want?

If yes, you will want to spend some training time setting up your group structure and then training your small groups staff how to create the groups.

Do you intend to launch the public-facing group finder?

If yes, then your small groups staff will need to learn how to add/change/remove small groups.  At a minimum they should be prepared with a current list of small groups and their leaders.  Also, they will want to determine which groups should be visible online, and when to consider groups "full."  

Also, you will want to determine whether the "core" group finder is adequate, or if you want to use the HDC group finder, or the CCV group finder.  The HDC is the most recent and is google-maps based.  We use it here (www.4lifegroups.org) and are very pleased.  However, in either case note that Arena Support may not be able to help you implement since it is a third party module.

You will also want to learn about the notification features, so that new group member registrations result in your group leaders being notified of potential new members.

Do you intend to launch the public-facing leader toolbox?

If so, you will want to get to know how to AUTOMATE security so that your groups leaders will automatically have the access they need simply by getting the proper small group role assigned to them inside of their group. 

I hope that helps,

We started January 2009, so it's been a while and things could have changed, but here's what I remember... 

Don't try to do everything at once.  Start with this:

• Prep v5
• take care of duplicates
• decide which Profiles you want (the Profile Analysis report in GlobaFile is handy for this) don't just take them all (see Profiles turn into Ministry Tags... below)
• decide what other data you want pulled from Shelby and where in Arena you might want it to go (Life Events, Custom Tabs, Mail Status, Other Dates, Servant, Reaching, etc.)  Support has scripts for this.  If you're using the v5 sync utility, you should be able to do some of this after your initial sync.
• Do a test sync.  See where things land and see what your data looks like in Arena.  Play around with it for a couple/few weeks.  Then wipe it clean before your real sync/switchover.
• At the point of switchover, be sure to lock down the Shelby fields that should be used in Arena.
• Setup Security (Jeremy had some great tips.  There's also been quite a bit of discussion on the community about this, such as here and here.)
• Reports - take note of what reports you are used to running in Shelby and think about if, when, and how you're going to run them from Arena. Reporting is very different. 
• Ministry Tags
• Plan to start using Ministry Tags right away.
• Even though tags can have child-tags (sub-tags) under them and have tag members in them, I recommend each tag only having one or the other.  Having tag members only at the lowest level of the tree structure makes life much simpler.
• Profiles turn into Ministry Tags at the top level with no useful security.  Plan to move them into a useful hierarchy of departments, then cascade security for each area.  This can take some time.

Instead of jumping into Event Tags, Serving Tags, and Groups right away, I recommend starting everything with Ministry Tags and then transferring over when there's a particular feature you want and it's ready to be used (online registrations, serving opportunities listing, small group leader toolbox or small group finder).  Ministry Tags are so much simpler, and they have met our needs just fine for so many areas. We still aren't using Serving Tags and have abandoned Groups because of their complexity (but, ironically, as I write this a staff member just happened to find the small group locater on another church's website and is asking questions, so maybe we'll be using Groups again).

• Agents - Add them as you need them, a few to note:
• MailQueue - this one is important if you plan to send emails from Arena
• SyncRoles - if you plan to sync security roles with Ministry Tags (we didn't start doing this until a couple years into using Arena)
• CreateOccurrences - if you plan to use check-in and allow Arena's "frequencies" to automatically create occurrences on a schedule
• Check-In - If you're using Shelby Check-In now, then converting to Arena will be a higher priority. If not, do this later.
• Custom Fields and Attributes - save them for later, add them as the needs arise.
• Missions - not hard to implement, but no need to jump in from the beginning, unless you've been using Shelby for this.
• External website/templates/promotions - wait if you can, do it later.
• Multi-campus - excellent tip from Jeremy to wait on this, since there's no turning it off. (We were a pioneer of the multi-campus church model having been at two sites since the 80's, and we don't use this feature.)

Implementing Arena will be a continual work in progress.  Focus on the tasks you're currently doing in Shelby, do the other stuff later based on church priority.  Like Jeremy said, don't try to eat the whole elephant at once.