Ministering to more than 200,000 Catholics in 66,000 different households the Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky actively supports and lifts up the 125 parishes that form its existence. Consisting of 24 counties in central Kentucky covering 8,124 square miles, effective communication throughout the organization is a direct lifeline to the success of this ministry. That is why the Archdiocese opted to select ACS Technologies, provider of PDS software solutions for Catholic organizations to manage its church management software needs as well as their Internet presence.
New Web Site Launches. In June of 2005, the Archdiocese unveiled its new Web site with the help of the ACS Technologies Extend platform. The site has given the Archdiocese the benefit of having a state-of-the-art site complete with photographs, audio files, forms and more. According to Director of the Office of Information Systems, Lori Massey, Extend was the logical choice because of the increased functionality. “We knew that down the road we were going to want to have the ability to increase our communication with our parishes and this solution was one of the best ways to do just that without requiring the parishes to have to do much additional work.”
One of the things that solidified Massey’s decision to select Extend was when she decided to take a trip to Asheville, North Carolina for the ACS National Convention. While there, she had the opportunity to learn first hand about the product. In addition, Massey noted, “When I was there, I could tell that the people at ACS Technologies have their hearts in their work.”
When the bid selection process was complete, ACS support staff was available to assist and provide direction from site architecture, to content, to training, even layout. “We let them know what we wanted and we had their support every step of the way,” Massey explained. “We took a good deal of our textual content over from the old site and added so much more.” One of the additions to the site is The Record, which is the second largest Catholic newspaper in the country and has been in circulation for more than 100 years. The paper is host to 67,000 readers every week and is now accessible from the Archdiocese’s Web site.
Within just 30 minutes of the sites launch, it had received approximately 200 hits and on the first day alone, the site had 1,500 hits. Massey added, “We are all very proud of our site. Comments are rolling in like crazy and all of them have been positive. We have person after person raving about how wonderful the site is, it’s been amazing, really, and a very strong testament to the great work that ACS Technologies does.” Archdiocese CAO, Dr. Brian Reynolds was so impressed with the caliber of work on this project that he made a point to contact ACS Technologies CEO Hal Campbell to let him know how pleased the Archdiocese is.
Massey isn’t the only employee of the Archdiocese familiar with the quality associated with ACS Technologies. Archdiocese Controller Phylliss Wilkins ensured Massey that she would be making the right choice with ACS Technologies largely due to her positive experiences with PDS. Currently, 115 of the 125 parishes actively use PDS and its Church Office Management modules in addition to their Ledger/Payroll module. A number of parishes and schools are using Formation, Foccus, School and Facility Scheduler modules.
Common Platform. Having been in this role with the Archdiocese for the past five years, Wilkins knows her business well. “The biggest thing that we experience as a day-to-day benefit with PDS is that we now have a common software system where all of the information is available in one place and all of the data is linked.” Wilkins added, “This is particularly helpful when it comes to developing our chart of accounts. We are also able to issue reports to the Archbishop and our archdiocesan Finance Council and have that information broken down by parish, region and the Archdiocese as a whole.”
Prior to having PDS, the Archdiocese was unable to execute these types of functions and when the information was compiled it was a very tedious and time consuming project. Now the information can be prepared within minutes. Preparing reports has also been simplified with the use of PDS. All of the Archdiocese’s parishes and schools are required to run their general ledger and income statement reports which are now produced in a unified system with a specific format ensuring consistency.
Wilkins notes that having all of the parishes on the same platform has been a lifesaver to the Archdiocese. For example, if a particular parish has an accounting staff member out ill or on vacation, the parish can call the Archdiocese or a neighboring parish and request that they execute their payroll for them. Having PDS can help to pick up the pieces along the way and ensure that all processes continue to be up and running.
Audits Simplified. This consistency has also aided with the parish auditing process. Now their auditors need only to be trained to read PDS reports, resulting in a much more simplified process. Wilkins remarked, “PDS has enabled us to have a more efficient audit process. Before we had PDS everything was done manually. When we needed information about how much was spent on some grounds keeping work for a particular parish, it was time consuming and cumbersome to research. Now, the information is available at the click of a button. We can justify everything and have the information in our hands instantaneously.”
Donor Letters. Because archdiocesan regulations require that parishes send out donor statements to their parishioners, PDS has enabled this process to flow smoothly. With the Church Office Management module, PDS allows the parishes to conform to their required standards from parish to parish by keeping track of all of their members and know who is involved with each organization. Statements of pledge drives and financial contributions can be run at any time in addition to allowing the pastors to customize their letters to parishioners resulting in a more personalized appeal.
Facility Scheduler. Another aspect of PDS that has proved successful within the parishes of the Archdiocese is Facility Scheduler. This module can help schedule anything from simple one-time events to complex multi-year events using multiple facilities. Wilkins recently attended the business manager’s roundtable where she heard many positive comments about Facility Scheduler and how useful it has been for parishes. “Most of the members mentioned that Facility Scheduler helped them to be more efficient. They could be at their desk and schedule events without having to do this manually which gave them more time to do their job and less interruptions throughout the day. Wilkins added, “They enjoy having the information that they need at their fingertips.”
Superior Service. Among other topics mentioned at the roundtable was the consensus that the parishes have been very happy with the support that they have received. For years they were supported by the Archdiocese but a couple of years ago some cut backs took place at the Archdiocese that made it impossible to provide this resource as they had in the past. The parishes transitioned to PDS direct support and haven’t looked back since. Wilkins explained, “We have benefited in a number of ways with our support. Now, we are able to bring in a trainer for a week and all of the parishes can come together to receive training all at a nominal cost. This is very cost effective and efficient because many of the parishes don’t have the funding for travel to go to seminars all over the country, and we can just conduct it here locally. That way, our staff can receive consistent training and keep up to date with the latest upgrades. It has been fantastic for us!”
About the Archdiocese of Louisville:
The oldest Roman Catholic Archdiocese west of the Appalachians, the Archdiocese of Louisville was founded as the Diocese of Bardstown in 1808, transferred to Louisville in 1841, and elevated to Archdiocese in 1937. The Archdiocese covers 24 counties, and hosts a Catholic population of more than 200,000 individuals. They are a community of believers rich in their tradition and growing in diversity, striving for fullness of life in God.
Website: www.archlou.org
ACS Technologies Products & Services Used:
PDS
Extend
