Musing over the CRM for churches situation a moment ago, I began to read over my original post on the topic. The description of the solution sounds like some kind of networking software. Not the type of networking that involves cabling, electricians and tech-geeks, but the type networking that involves people.

The real world needs of a church are more complex than just managing people relationships, but it would be an important aspect of the software. In this regard, I think you could use a networking focus and still have a software package that could be easily “translated” across different industries. Networking exists in any business, church or other non-profit organisation, so that would be a standard “module” or feature of the software. From there, you could design a few more standard modules, asset management, POS and accounting that all businesses would find useful.

Some business modules that would unnecessary for a church would be sales and similar functions. Churches would definitely use other common modules such as rostering, staff management and marketing.

Come to think of it, there are many shared functions between a business and a church. I think the main reason why most current CRM systems fall down for churches and other non-standard businesses is that most software focuses on sales (not to mention the company-contact relationships mentioned in the comments of my original article), where churches are focused on people (God being the first focus of course).

Can anyone suggest any people focused CRM packages that are currently available? Do you think that this focus could work for an interested software developer, while still leaving open opportunities to target the current market?