Technologies

Introduction

Below we explain why each specific set of technologies was chosen for each tool.

Automation tools

Applies to the Member Database, Billing and Receipts Automation, Membership Management, Simcha Announcements and the Messaging app.

Google Sheets vs. Microsoft Excel

While most of our automation tools can be similarly accomplished in Excel, we use Google Sheets for the following reasons:

1. Ease of creating reports, i.e. presenting specific information from one sheet in another tab or sheet (using SQL syntax).
2. Ease of importing data from one sheet to another sheet.
3. Ability to use programming to automate messages and other tasks within the sheets.
4. Ease of sharing with specific users or with the public. Microsoft Office 365 is very behind the times with this.

Winner: Google Sheets

Group emails

G Suite vs. Office 365

This is a discussion that can fill a book. I want to bring out one point as it relates to this specifically. In G Suite Groups, when adding a member, unless the email address is part of your organization — i.e. an email address issued by you at @yourshul.com — it will show on the list as the email address only. It is often very difficult or impossible to decipher the recipient based on email addresses. This makes the list very difficult to manage. With Office 365 it is the opposite: you will see a list of names, not email addresses. This is a strong point in favor of Office 365.

Winner: Office 365