Those of us who use technology a lot have a collection of little tools and utilities that we've come to rely on that help us get a lot done. Those of our friends and colleagues who use technology very little are often amazed at what we can do! Though many of these are simple, here are a few of my favorite tools that help me accomplish a lot and Wow! the masses.

Our team has had the privilege of working on hundreds of ministry networks around the country. We are often appalled at the high support costs our clients paid with their prior engineering/support firm. There are usually three reasons ministries pay more than they should, let’s identify them to help you avoid unnecessary support fees.

Who would think of crossing an ocean in a boat with their family — without a first aid kit? Ministries relying on computer systems are in a similar situation: Your staff, like your oceangoing family, is trusting that you’ve done your homework assuring their well-being; While out there on the computing ocean of life, islands of good support and safe harbor can be few and far between; The chance of a problem being inconvenient is high; and Poor planning on your part could very well end in mutiny! Like so many areas in life, this is one in which advance planning pays off. Hopefully, like an insurance policy, you won't need to be thankful you had coverage in place. But if disaster strikes, you'll be glad you had a lifeboat with provisions packed. More than that, your staff, will appreciate your thorough preparation.

As a team of consultants that work on church and ministry networks nationwide, we have wrestled through many hardware issues. Having worked on so many hundreds of ministry networks, we’ve seen firsthand which hardware improves system reliability and which hardware hurts it. In this article I’d like to share with you the hardware we currently spec for our clients— specs that help ministries build the Kingdom.

Our team has had the privilege of serving many hundreds of ministries nationwide as systems integrators. In that role we have found, as you might expect, that some software works better in ministry offices than others. We have also found that some software seems to operate more trouble-free than others. It is with that perspective that we make the following recommendations.