Check-In Kiosks

Posted by David Drinnon on Apr 26, 2008 | 560 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.equipthem.info%2F2008%2F04%2F26%2Fcheck-in-kiosks%2FCheck-In+Kiosks2008-04-26+20%3A13%3A53David+Drinnonhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.equipthem.info%2Fcheck-in-kiosks%2F

After 2 months of development, we are now launching our check-in system at our Cypress location. Inspired by the "Kick Butt Kiosks" designed and used by Granger Community Church (and now available at Cornerstone Cabinetry), we designed and built some custom made kiosks for our family check-in solution.

Check out the photos:

We developed both the software and the cabinets in-house. Why? For several reasons…

• At the time we began development, the check-in solution offered by other companies would not accommodate our ministry processes. We looked very closely at Fellowship One; however, F1 did not accommodate a multi-hour Bible Study (or Sunday School) model. We learned this from Prestonwood Baptist who implemented F1 not realizing the hardship it posed. They had people standing in lines at the door because the software didn’t handle multi-hour check-in very well. To Fellowship Tech’s credit, they responded very quickly and just released earlier this Spring a new version that accommodated the multi-hour model. Besides, we aren’t using F1′s ChMS and buying just thier check-in system was not a wise choice for us.
• The back-end information architecture was already done when we began development on our check-in system. The back-end was our groups module that we developed to integrate with iMIS last year. We developed the back-end with check-in in mind…so little changes were needed.
• We developed our own simply because it was cheaper. No licensing, annual support costs, and no data gymnastics to make our data sync with a third party product.

We launch tomorrow, April 26. I will post at a later date an actual video of the check-in software. In the interim, if you are considering a check-in solution, let me give you a few tips:

1. Don’t be sold on the security a check-in system provides. The security of your children is based on your check-in processes, not your technology.

2. Don’t be awed by the wow factor. Check-in looks cool. It uses a touch screen and depending on the vendor, it may use fingerprint reader, bar codes, or RFID. All of this is cool and makes an impression on your members and visitors, but the real question is….what is the return on ministry? Does this indeed lessen or ease the ‘pain’ of member and visitor check-in? Or does it shave off a few hours of manual data processing for a few of your staff and volunteers. Check-in is a lot of money, most of which is hardware. So evaluate wisely the true need and the return on your investment and ministry and MOST IMPORTANTLY…what is the opportunity cost of investing in check-in verses other ministry or technology opportunities.

3. Some facilities just won’t work with a centralized check-in model…at least not without cost. The oldest of our campuses was never built with wide hallways and large lobbies, so centralized electronic check-in is almost impossible. So be sure and consider your facilities…that alone may bottleneck your check-in even if your system is fast.