EzRA blog

Streaming is a beautiful thing

2006-10-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

EzRA has released a new streaming page front end. It is easier to use and totally customizable so that it will match your current website. With dynamic search menus it will be easier than ever for your members to find the messages they are looking. It has built in e-Members Area and e-Connection Card menus making it easy for people to connect with your church. Your Podcast link and RSS link to all your podcast info and files are just a click away. Check out our sample page at http://ezraonline.net/test/Media.html.

Speaking of podcast, we have improved our podcasting service by creating a dynamic XML file that is automatically populated when you upload your podcast file through EzRA Media Manager. An XML file is required in order for iTunes to pull your messages down. Many times updating this XML file is a manual process and can be complicated but we have changed all that. No more dealing with XML. We have done all the work for you.

Be blessed!

Mike Ortner

Customize Me

2006-10-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

EzRA has released its new customizable e-Link modules. Now the e-Members Area, e-Connection Card, e-Small Groups and e-Calendar are all customizable through EzRA’s external preferences module. Upload a banner image and change any color you like to make your e-Link pages look more like your website. Take advantage of these powerful tools to reach out to your members and community.

Mike Ortner

Our New Online Calendar Has Arrived

2006-08-23T13:18:00.000-07:00

The new online calendar has arrived and we are excited about it. The calendar has three major sections.

The staff section which allows EzRA users to post new calendar events for themselves or their shares. Event levels for the staff section range from Public to Private and many levels in between.
The second level is in the e-Member’s area. This allows the members of your church that are logged on to the e-Member’s area to view all Public events as well as post new events for themselves. This enables them to use the calendar for their own personal use.
The third level is the Public calendar. This allows you to link directly from your website to the calendar. This is a great way to keep your church up-to-date on what is going on in your church and it will show only Public level events.

New event entry is much like that of many of the standard desktop calendars. The EzRA calendar has a range of options like a single event entry or recurrent event entry as well as the ability to set email reminders for your events.

Calendar sharing is easy. You can share your personal calendar with as many people as you like. Anyone you share your calendar with will be able to view your personal entries as well as create personal entries for you.

You can download your calendar events to a file in which Outlook can import. This allows you to have your EzRA calendar with you at all times.

EzRA Church Management is one of the best web-based church management applications out there and with the addition of the new calendar, it is even better. As always, we have taken great care in the creation of the calendar making it easy to use and very intuitive.

Because we have created EzRA with true ease of use in mind, EzRA is arguably the easiest full-featured web-based church management application around. This allows you to get your whole church involved in church management whether it is data entry, follow-ups or small group’s data entry. No matter what, you will be able to easily train just about anyone to use EzRA.

Be blessed!

Mike Ortner
President
EzRA Church Management

We Have Moved To The Planet

2006-06-21T08:49:00.000-07:00

EzRA has moved its church management and child check-in to The Planet. The Planet is a high end hosted solution. They have multiple internet trunks, tight security and generator backups among other services. We have also upgraded our servers to bigger, better and more powerful hosting machines. You can get more info about The Planet at http://www.theplanet.com. Although we have always had a stable and reliable hosted solution, we decided to take one more step to increase EzRA’s reliability, security and dependability. With The Planet’s services, our nightly offsite backups, a speedy database and a stable application, EzRA has a great easy to use product that serves the kingdom of God in a big way.

Mike Ortner

All New Attended Check-in System

2006-03-06T09:53:00.000-08:00

EzRA has released its new attended check-in system that will rival any check-in system out there. It is totally web-based so no need to install any check-in software on your computer. It is touch screen capable and very easy for volunteers to use. It prints the name tag labels and also a separate unique security code for the parent to retrieve their child at the end of the service. A parent can check in the whole family at one check-in station. The greatest part about it is it isn’t expensive. The pricing starts at $25 per month. Prices are based on weekly attendance so the price increases only as your church grows.

We feel that child safety should be at the top of a church’s priorities. This is one of the reasons we are offering our check-in system at a reasonable price. A price any church can afford to pay.

Our check-in system is fully integrated into EzRA church management. Once a member has been put into EzRA, they are available for check-in.

To find out more about EzRA church management and to get a demo go to www.ezraonline.net.

Mike Ortner

Your website….. Dynamic or Dud?

2006-01-16T10:08:00.000-08:00

In today’s technology growth, more and more people are online looking for tools that they can use on a daily basis. The Christian community should be the leader in this concept but many times we are not. Many times we find ourselves behind the leader and sometimes coming in last.

So the question for you is this. Is your website a dynamic, ever changing website or a yellow page add that seems to get updated once a year or less?

If you want a fresh new look with great tools for your members, then EzRA can help. Let us build you a website that is dynamic, easy to change and current.
Our CMS (content management system) service allows you to specify publishing and unpublished dates on all your content. That means that content does not appear until your chosen publishing date and is automatically taken off on the date you specify. It also enables you to take control of your website without having to know HTML. You do not have to be intimidated by the technical skills needed to maintain a traditional custom website. Content is easy to change and with a little time using the application, the content of your site is at your fingertips.

Do you want to give your viewers a reason to come back to your site? Then give them more tools to use so they have a reason to. We have many plug-INS for the Mambo CMS including:

Bible search
Proverb of the day
Scripture of the day
Weather
Changing announcements
And many more

Another great reason to use our CMS service is that online e-Connection, e-Members, e-Contributions and e-Media links all come built into your site.
Check out some of our partner’s websites we helped them implement.

http://www.newlifechurch.tv/
http://www.baysidecommunity.org/
http://www.thevalleywell.org/
www.lifechurchjackson.com

Do you find yourself paying your web master every time you need content to be changed? Would you want to take control of your website but think it takes a technical expert? Do you need a great website for your church? With our CMS service, you can easily solve these problems. By using EzRA's CMS service, you become the web master without having to know HTML or be highly technical. It is your website, why shouldn't you be in control of it?

Find out more at http://www.ezraonline.net/

Online Member's Directory

2005-12-19T13:53:00.000-08:00

EzRA’s member directory is now online! Publish your member’s information and other church members can log on to the e-Members Area and search your church directory.
With a simple name search, your members can get Name, Address, Home Phone, Cell Phone and Email addresses on all your PUBLISHED members. To publish a member, simply go to their members section and check the Publish checkbox. Or, have each of your members log on to the e-Members Area and check the “Allow other members to search my address, home phone, cell phone and email” check box.

No more out-of-date directories. Your online directory will be as accurate as your EzRA database. If you add a new member in EzRA and publish their information, it will immediately be available to all your other members.

We are excited to bring you this new feature. We believe this will help your members feel more connected to your church than ever!

Mike Ortner

New Version Coming Soon

2005-11-23T06:08:00.000-08:00

EzRA Church Management
EzRA Church Management's new version will be coming out the week of Thanksgiving 2005. We have included many improvements including reminders for meetings, follow-up transfers and the ability to attach files to emails. There are many other improvements in this new version. Stay tuned for other releases.

EzRA Media Streaming
EzRA is Podcasting! Our streaming service is now podcast capable. Also, EzRA Media Streaming has the ability to specify the featured message, attach message notes and allow for listeners to download the message. Our streaming services has just gotten a lot better!

In an effort to improve our services, we are always adding features to EzRA. The one thing you can count on is EzRA will always be getting better and better.

Mike Ortner
President

EzRA Church Management

2005-10-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

Who is EzRA

So, you are probably wondering why we named our web-based church management EzRA. EzRA was the man in charge of counting and keeping up with the Israelites during the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem. That, among many other things, is what we do. And what we do can help churches today do what they do best; minister to people. EzRA is a God given idea. We believe He has inspired us to produce a cutting edge product to help catapult His Kingdom to the next level.

Our beginning

EzRA Church Management was created out of a need for easier to use and easier to access church management software. EzRA was originally birthed out of New Life Church in Arkansas. New Life Church has several thousand members. Pastor Rick Bezet and his staff needed a better solution for church management. That is where EzRA came in. Built from scratch, EzRA is truly a church management that meets today’s growing church needs. Built with advanced technology, we have been able to build the tools needed by a church of any size. From member management to child check-in, EzRA covers all the basis.

Affordable but robust

EzRA is a full-featured product. Yet, you will find our prices very affordable. We know the importance of value for the dollar. We worked very hard in pricing EzRA so that even the smallest church could afford it.

You can find out more about EzRA at www.ezraonline.net.

God bless you as you help build the Kingdom of God.

Mike Ortner
President