Here’s a little more history about Arena and how the partnership between CCV and Shelby came to be.
Over the last two-and-a-half years we (CCV) developed our own ChMS system called Solomon. Like Jon mentioned, we were getting a lot of interest from other churches, and after seeing Solomon, churches usually asked what our plans were for releasing the product. After a lot of thought and discussion, CCV decided the best way to accomplish this was to partner with an existing software vendor. The vendor could provide support, documentation, enhancements, etc, and we could continue to focus on meeting the ministry needs of CCV.
Having worked with Shelby, they were our first choice. We talked to other vendors who expressed interest, but we were impressed by Shelby’s integrity and vision for the product. The agreement was finally signed last month. Shelby renamed the product to Arena ChMS and quickly formed a new division to support it.
Whats nice about the partnership with Shelby is that its exactly that… a partnership. Even though the agreements signed and Shelby owns all source code, CCV is continuing to work with Shelby to make sure Arena is successful.
Jon and I continue to share the same code-base and source control as the Arena developers. We’re all working together on the product. Shelby gets the ehancements we make as a large innovative church and we get the changes Shelby makes as they prepare for and experience the mass market. And, of course, the Arena customers benefit as they get even more improvements and enhancements. I like it!
