Why Should You Work With a Partner For Your Rock Implementation?

If you’ve gone through a Rock rms launch or are thinking about one, I’m sure you have thought to yourself at some point “Couldn’t we just do this ourselves?” The answer to that question is complex. Could you physically download a Rock rms instance and get it up and running? Many people with IT experience likely could. But, more importantly, what does the price tag that comes with working with an experienced partner offer you?

For one, working with an experienced partner, like 9 Embers, offers you a skill level that is unmatched, specifically in Rock data conversions. At 9 Embers, we are experienced in converting data from pretty much any church management system on the market and have written programs that are used time and time again to get your data where it needs to be.

Secondly, we offer experience. You don’t know what you don’t know. When you are launching Rock, it’s likely you know your process better than any vendor you could ever work with. However, we know how to take that process and leverage Rock to improve and sometimes simplify it. We can take things that are currently manual or housed in third party software or services and combine them inside of Rock, eliminating data redundancy and more importantly, inconsistencies.

Third, we have a tried and tested process. We’ve done this a few times. Our process has been adapted and improved over time. We know the road blocks churches will face and use our collective experience to help you not only overcome them but often times avoid them.

Although every partner brings a combination of skill and experience to the table, we could only speak specifically to our own unique offerings. With that said, here is what the process at 9 Embers typically looks like:

1. Discovery Meetings – We meet with every one of your teams and try to get to know your data, and more importantly, your processes. We basically draw a line in the sand between what you’d like to eventually have and what is absolutely necessary on day 1 of your Rock rms launch. We demo some of Rock’s functionality to give you an idea of what it can do, and come up with a custom quote to fit your needs.
2. Implementation Phase – We gather specific details that enable us to configure the core features of Rock to fit your needs. After working with many churches, not only on implementations, but also on support retainers and projects, we know the pitfalls to avoid and configure your systems to avoid them. We meet with your team at least one time per week to gather information about tasks we are working on and to pass off instructions on how to use the features we are configuring.
3. Training – Once all configuration is complete and signed off on, we begin training your staff. We have a series of Zoom trainings that typically take place over a week’s time. We record these trainings and give them to the church for their staff to review.
4. Data Conversion – We take the final data import file from your existing church management system and get that data into Rock rms. We run some cleanup on the data to ensure it gets to where it’s supposed to be and we hand it back off to the church to hit the ground running.
5. Phase 2 – Do you remember what I said about Discovery Meetings in step 1? Some of the items we identified during the Discovery Meetings were not necessary to launch Rock... but we get it... you still would love to make Rock everything you’ve dreamed it would be. That is where phase 2 comes in. Most churches that work with us typically sign a support retainer. The support retainer allows us to continue configuring Rock long after your 'go live' date. It also ensures that the benefits of the relationship we built during your implementation are also enjoyed long after your go live date. What do I mean by that? Well, everyone uses Rock a little differently. That’s the beauty of Rock rms. It’s versatility. However, if you were to use one partner for your implementation and then try to start a support retainer with another partner, it’s likely you would spend a ton of time (and money) helping them understand your processes and your system. When you sign a support retainer with us, we can avoid that learning curve and help you and your staff customize Rock to fit all of your needs. This also ensures that you have access to us as a resource, should you encounter any issues. This is where working with a partner becomes very powerful. Every person on our team works with multiple churches. If you want something customized with Rock, chances are, one of us has done it. If you encounter an issue, chances are, one of us has seen it somewhere before.

9 Embers was built on the belief that there is great benefit for churches to work with skilled and experienced partners. We strive to be a partner that makes that journey smooth, painless and immensely beneficial to the church and its mission. If any of the above rings true for you and your organization, we would love to walk through it with you and determine if a partnership with 9 Embers is a good match. Contact us if you'd like to chat.