Soon after he launched his consulting firm in 1997, ServiceU founder and CEO Tim Whitehorn learned an important fact about churches.

“Because so many people and resources are involved, churches have a more complex scheduling and work flow process than most organizations,” he says. That discovery led Whitehorn to begin marketing the computerized scheduling system he’d developed for a church client. Since 1999, Whitehorn’s Memphis, Tennessee-based company expanded its product line to cover the entire event management spectrum. Whitehorn estimates that ServiceU currently has 20,000 users in over 900 churches.

Full Product Line
ServiceU sells multiple products, but EventU has always been the firm’s most popular offering. “People like EventU because it solves a tough problem in the church world: facilities and event management,” Whitehorn explains.

EventU automates resource scheduling. A single event might include reserving multiple rooms, a vehicle and driver, room set-up, food services, and childcare. Using EventU, you can coordinate the necessary resources, notify volunteers, and post the activity on your church’s online calendar.

To start using EventU, you simply set up your church resources such as rooms, vehicles, volunteer and minister time, and furniture and equipment in the automated system. Then you’re ready to process requests. For example, your room coordinator may receive and approve a request for an adult education class, book the rooms, and send the request to your support services person who reserves tables, chairs, and janitorial time. Finally, your central calendar coordinator posts the event and displays it on your website.

Churches found the system so helpful, they began asking for new EventU features. ServiceU responded by adding online registration capability for events ranging from concerts to youth camps to retreats. According to Whitehorn, “People want to come to events but they don’t want to stand in line to register for them. Also, online registration capability is more efficient for churches that would otherwise have to keep staffers and volunteers available for long periods of time.”

Churches also asked ServiceU for an automated way to accept payments. In 2004, the company introduced TransactU, an online payment system that churches use with EventU. TransactU allows churches to receive event payments and pledges. Whitehorn notes that some churches bring in close to 10 percent of their annual budgets via TransactU. Mindful of security, Whitehorn assures that ServiceU has “gone the extra mile to make sure personal information is protected when members make online payments.”

To help churches improve ticket management, ServiceU recently added TicketU to its product suite. “Some churches have thousands of seats,” says Whitehorn, “and without an automated system, staffers and volunteers may be tracking reserve and general admission tickets by looking through file cabinets, which is time-consuming and inefficient.”

With the TicketU module, churches can allow members to print e-tickets at home or pick up a ticket at a will-call window. TicketU can even be used for free events, especially when crowd control is important. For example, using the automated system makes it easier to set aside blocks of visitor seats during Christmas and Easter services.

Ease of Use
ServiceU software products are ready-to-use and need no customization, although company staffers set up the unique visual displays of church theater seating on the web for TicketU users. Whitehorn and his staff know that many church members are still progressing up the learning curve on computerized systems, so they offer plenty of help.

When you get started, you’ll designate a main contact person, usually the system administrator, to serve as the event coordinator. ServiceU trains the system administrator over the Internet. Then, using ServiceU’s online help facility and manuals, the system administrator trains other church users as the paper event management system is transferred to the online system. According to Whitehorn, most churches complete the conversion within a month or two.

From the beginning, ServiceU has delivered its products via a web-based system. This strategy gives users the capability to check calendars, register online, and receive customized e-mails while minimizing the impact on church computers and networks. Because the operating software resides on ServiceU servers, churches don’t have to worry about software installation. And when ServiceU updates one of its products, users have access to the new features immediately.

Flexible Pricing
ServiceU recognizes that churches have different scheduling needs. The company’s products work well in small (100-200 members) and large (20,000+ members) churches. To accommodate varying church requirements, ServiceU has adopted a usage-based pricing model. A church pays a base monthly fee to access Service U’s system. Additional fees accrue according to the number of resources and users a church sets up and the number of transactions processed each month.

For the future, Whitehorn notes that ServiceU remains committed to delivering the highest-quality event management software to churches. If you’ve experienced one too many instances of a double-booked fellowship hall, maybe it’s time to graduate to ServiceU’s state-of-the-art products for managing your facilities, vehicles, and time.

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