Chadmin

What is Chadmin?

It is:

• a tool to help community-focused organisations connect with their members more effectively and efficiently.
• a central resource that is accessible from anywhere, which provides the relevant information to the people who need it - when they need it.

Capturing information is quick and easy with an intuitive interface that works from any web browser, even mobile devices (phone, tablet, etc).
Users are assigned roles which allows access to only the information that that user needs to see.

Screen shots

See some Screen shots of the application (with demo data - please excuse the random names).
Note: Page contains images. Load-time may be longer for slower connections.

What it does

The functionality includes:

• member information management
• family relationships
• group management (home cells, volunteer groups, etc)
• logging group meeting attendance
• role-based permissions system
• user management with assignable roles
• multiple organisations (campuses)
• contribution logging and statements
• capture of calls and interactions with members
• member course management with attendance, assignments, tests and payments
• capture of meeting attendance
• check-in and check-out system (for children-minding)
• various reports and forms for the different areas of information
• a message system between users on Chadmin
• audit logs of changes made to data
• scheduling system for volunteers, with email notifications
• discipleship information
• bulk emails with unsubscription
• events management with self-registration and automatic email notifications

The application uses a permissions system which gives logged-in users the required permissions according to the roles that they have been assigned.

Chadmin Demo site

The demo site has been set up with full functionality, and real data where the names of the people and the groups have been obfuscated (jumbled up) for anonymity.
The demo site can be tested at demo.chadmin.biz.
Log into the site using username | password: pastor | pastor OR admin | admin
The data is reset each morning.

Chadmin Pricing Structure

Solution includes:

General

• The asking-price to new clients may change without prior notification.
• The monthly licence fees to existing clients may be adjusted due to increased hosting costs and/or inflation rates. Annual increases will not exceed 10%.
• Upfront annual payments attract a 16% discount. i.e. only pay for 10 months!

Support

• Additional remote support may be contracted @ R450/hr (€30/hr) pending availability.
• Call-outs will be charged on a per-cost basis including transport- and accommodation costs when applicable.

To make a payment, if needed, please convert to Euro (see xe.com ).

Reference

What users are saying

Next Steps

Ok, so this is what we need. Now how do we get it?

Installation and Setup

The system is hosted for you so there there is very little work needed from your side.

• Send an email to sales (sales @ chadmin.biz) with ALL of the following information:
  Full Church Name:
  Church website:
  Name of Contact Person:
  Church contact email:
  Church telephone number:
  Church address:
  Billing address (if it differs):
  Logo as a .png or a .bmp file, of approximate size 300px X 300px.
  Be sure to state that you are signing up for an instance of Chadmin.
• You will be sent an email with an invoice for the licence & setup fee.
• Make the payment (via EFT preferred) and send proof of payment to sales @ chadmin.biz
• It typically takes about one business day to process the request and set up the new instance.
• Once it has been set up, you will be sent an email with your brand-new Chadmin web-address,
  and the login details that have been added using the contact person's information.
  You will also be sent the user manual (pdf).
• It is possible to change your Chadmin address to something like: chadmin.mychurchwebsite.com
  Just ask your IT person to contact our support team (support @ chadmin.biz) to arrange it.

I have logged in, but what do I do now?

Firstly, congratulations, and welcome to the Chadmin family - your information is about to get better.

Next, lets get started with the basics:

• Adding members:
  Go to members and click "Add" to add your senior pastors and then yourself.
  You can also add all the other members that will be users on Chadmin.
• Add and update users:
  Go to settings > users > list. Update yourself (click "Edit") by linking your user to your member info (enter your name in the member field); and then add users for all the other users that will be using the system, and link them to their member profile.
  Remember to add the role(s) that each user will need. This gives them permissions on the system.
• Member data:
  If there is a spreadsheet of all the members' information, then it might be easier to request a once-off data import. Contact Support if this is needed.
  Alternatively, members can be added and updated quite easily from the front-end, and it is often a good idea to use this opportunity to make sure that the data being loaded is accurate.
• Training:
  There are a few hours of training included in the setup cost. Now that you have a basic feel for the system, it is a great time to get a jump-start on learning how Chadmin can be used most effectively.
  Send an email to support (support @ chadmin.biz) requesting your training sessions and arrange a time that works.
  Training is scheduled as time allows. Cancellation might forfeit those scheduled support hours.
• Forum:
  The forum is there to help you. When you are not sure about something regarding Chadmin, please go to the forum and see what additional information is available; hint: try a search :-).
  If you don't find what you are looking for, please post your question; friendly staff, and other users are very helpful in giving assistance.
  As you get more proficient, you are also welcome (and encouraged) to help others.

Technical background

Why it was built

As the organisation grew over the years, the different departments needed different functionality, for example Bible College needed different functionality to the pastors.
As there were very few viable solutions available at the time, some departments installed local desktop applications to achieve the functionality needed. This resulted in multiple systems that each provided the specific functionality needed in that department.
The maintenance of multiple desktop applications was time-consuming, and the out-dated technology often caused down-time and even data loss.
It was also high maintenance as different systems also meant that people's data had to be maintained in multiple places.
i.e. The same church member (pastor's data) was attending courses (bible college) as well as making contributions (finance department).

With the expansion into multiple campuses the challenges increased as the information was only accessible locally (older desktop applications do not work well across the internet) so the remote campuses were not able to "work" effectively on the systems needed.
The ensuing duplication of work and frustrations with out-dated information (only updated in one department) often challenged our core focus - equipping our church members and reaching our community.

A system was needed that:

• was accessible by all users
• was a central source of data (information updated once for all departments)
• included functionality essential to each department
• was low-maintenance
• maintains privacy by assigning role-specific data access (pastor's notes; contributions; etc.)

The build strategy

The system was built as a central database with a web application front-end for access to that data.
A web application was chosen because it meets the needs outlined above, and with a central data source, simplifies - maintenance, backups and upgrades. It is also platform independent from the users perspective - i.e. it runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, and even tablets and smartphones - anything with a web browser.
No more desktop application limited to Windows OR Mac. No more installing updates on every workstation.

The web front-end was chosen for compatibility as it works with all major web browsers (mac, pc, mobile, etc) and makes it accessible from anywhere with internet access, even slower connections.
All pc's, laptops and mobile devices come out with a web browser, so there is no additional software needed - it just works.
The functionality of a web-based system is historically less flexible compared to a desktop installed application, but the benefits of a web-based system far outweigh these limitations.
With the advent of HTML5, the gap between the abilities of desktop applications and web applications is narrowing. This also motivated the development of a web-based system.

Chadmin is built on an MVC (Model View Controller) framework to:

• keep to well-known development standards- and methods
• ensure the stability of the system
• develop a system that is easy to maintain
• minimise errors and code bugs
• enhance application security
• ease future development and expansion

The MVC framework chosen was CodeIgniter as it is a fast framework which uses a well-known language - PHP, and has good documentation.

The database used is MariaDB, which is a drop-in replacement for MySQL and provides a robust storage system for the data.

Speed is very important for a good user experience and this motivated a functional system more than a pretty application.
(Read: it's not pretty but it works - fast)

Contact Details:

Address: Somerset West, South Africa

Email: info @ chadmin.biz
info @ roamingsolutions.net