Honeywell Administrative
takes Alpha Five to church Honeywell Administrative Consulting Services
“Alpha Five makes it possible for me to create powerful business applications for educational and religious organizations that couldn’t otherwise afford them.”
Dr. Wallace Honeywell, president,
Honeywell Administrative Consulting Services
Customer Situation
In the 1990’s the Catholic Diocese of Galveston-Houston comprised 160 parishes, most of which had limited budgets and staffing. Many of the small churches couldn’t afford computer programs or the training to implement them. As a result, they were keeping student records, room assignments, meeting minutes, grades, and other important records on paper. But the information was hard to organize, and downright painful to search. When Honeywell was the Diocesan Director of Family Life Services, he decided to implement an automated document management system. The goal: network the central administration’s PCs, and create a database that centralized data, organized information, and simplified records management. But there was a catch. Whatever solution he assembled had to be inexpensive, easy enough for a novice to program, simple for end users, yet powerful enough to manage hundreds of computers.
Partner Solution
A coworker suggested Honeywell try Alpha Five. It was a blessing in disguise. Honeywell quickly learned how to use Alpha Five, and soon created a database that tracked and scheduled room assignments. Every room of every building in the pastoral offices was featured in the database. Users chose a room, and could see if it was already scheduled. If not, they could schedule it. This eliminated long-standing double- and missed-booking problems. Honeywell then automated other manual business processes, solving several information management problems. Following this success, he launched Honeywell Administrative Consulting Services, and developed three commercial products in Alpha Five: School Office/Rectoria, Faith Formation, and Social Ministries. School Office/Rectoria is a private school management program for elementary and preschools that performs all administrative functions, including student information, medical and disciplinary records, tuition management, grading, and permission letters. Faith Formation was developed for church ministry programs, such as religious education and youth ministry, to track program attendance and fee records that can be adapted for e-mail. Lastly, Social Ministries manages a wide range of church social ministry programs, from personal counseling and referrals, to employment, to family food and housing assistance. Personal or telephone interviews are recorded in extensive client case notes, and the complete interview history is viewable on a single screen.
Benefits
Alpha Five made it possible for Honeywell to build a successful company that now provides educational software and consulting services to over twenty-five schools and churches throughout the United States and Latin America. The database and networking applications Honeywell built in Alpha Five meet the requirements of churches, despite their limited funds and resources. These simple yet efficient programs require minimal employee training, and now manage countless lists, records, and charts every day. Church records are now organized, searchable, and accurate. Using Alpha Five’s Action Scripting, Honeywell says he can create and update sophisticated applications in a fraction of the time it would take were they built in other tools, such as PHP, Java, Visual Basic, etc. He can use Alpha Five’s visual design tools to quickly build attractive, professional forms and layouts. And he can use Alpha Five’s Web capabilities to easily deploy his interactive applications over the Internet. Alpha Five’s low learning curve also lets Honeywell and his customers quickly master new tools and updates, without the costs and time of retraining. Most importantly, Alpha’s low licensing fees help Honeywell market his applications to budget-conscious parishes and schools. This cost advantage extends to maintenance, because the programs Honeywell builds in Alpha Five are reliable, and require little if any after-sale support.
For More Information
Alpha Software, Inc.
781-229-4500
www.AlphaSoftware.com
Honeywell Administrative Consulting Service
713-747-2833
www.HACS.biz