Even as Hope VA allows discipleship tracking within Hope VA, the teams at Adventist Media and AdTec now have the ability to track every contact from their first click on social media advertising to a landing page (pictured) to their bible and health lesson journey with Hope VA. This level of detailed tracking opens a new era for ABCD testing, whereby the team can refine their advertising campaigns, track user preferences between WhatsApp and Messenger platforms, and see the interactions of students with the Bible and health lessons.
With better data comes better decision-making and resource allocation. With real-time data, comes the ability for better planning, preparation and followup. In time it is hoped that we will be able to give churches forewarning about followup needs, even before students request in-person followup, making for a more streamlined approach to nurturing contacts in their walk with Christ.
Visit the Hope VA landing page here to commence a study online (PNG): https://hopeva.adventist.technology/share/?phoneNumber=67570001190&msgWhatsApp=Hi%2C
Visit the Hope VA marketing website: http://www.hopeva.org.au/
In early 2024, AdTec was asked to present on the Hope VA chatbot and Thrive app at the LEAD Conference, hosted at the General Conference Annual Council in October. This is the first time that AdTec has been invited to share on this level with the world church, and an exciting opportunity to share how we are working as a mission partner not only in SPD, but looking to support other parts of the world church with missional technology.
Pr Russ Willcocks gave a plenary on how Hope VA was already making a significant impact as a digital Bible School, and shared the progress to date, namely that regular student numbers were already around 920, even before the team has worked out proper landing pages, or even conducted advertising campaigns beyond the testing phase.
In the afternoon, Pr Willcocks presented a workshop on the new Thrive app which was being trialled in North New South Wales, with views to expand to other Conferences in 2025. Both presentations were well received and opened new doors for missional collaboration with other Divisions.
Our Digital Transformation Strategy was approved by the SPD board. The board recognized that to remain effective in supporting the Church and its denominational entities, significant investment was needed in technology. To this end, the Board also approved the Digital Transformation Fund of $4m.
Ministry Development platform was transferred to the Division by AUC. This enables other Union Conferences/Missions to benefit from this innovative application where ministerial development is tracked as well as a repository of resources for pastors. The platform has been adapted (MDLite) for the Missions to become more mobile friendly. In September, MDLite was launched in TPUM, with Fiji Mission the first to pilot the application.
AdTech took a lead role in the development of the Enterprise Risk Management Framework for the Division. The framework also included a risk appetite statement for all areas of risk and can be easily adapted for use by other denominational entities.
Tithes and Offerings system replacement will go live November 2022 as ACAS (Adventist Church Accounting System) for 500 churches in Australia and New Zealand. ACAS required significant resources from the AdTech team who managed the design, build (including external developers), and migration.
Cybersecurity has also been a focus of AdTech in 2022. Multi-factor authentication was enabled to over 3,000 Adventist domain accounts. At the same time, through a partnership with Netskope, a leading security vendor, Adtech has enabled connectivity anywhere/anytime offering additional security layers to prevent data loss.
Office 365 has been rolled out to 3,500 users which has enabled our users to have additional benefits such as Microsoft Teams and OneDrive. All users in Australia and NZ use Teams for voice communication, with plans in place to migrate TPUM users.
The new committee for Information Governance has been established. The new committee has oversight over policy development over Information assets for the Division and will form the new Information Governance Framework.
Our new team members have come at just the right time as we are very busy. Russell brings with him the Ministerial Development program which he has worked on while at the AUC and South Queensland Conference. This application is ground breaking in creating a platform for pastors and ministers professional development which has been widely accepted in Australia and NZ. The project by coming to AdTech will ensure that it will receive all the technical support needed for further development.
Another major project that we’re working on, is the development of the new Tithes and Offerings system (T&O). The old T&O had served its purpose and needed to be retired, as it could only be accessed via an Internet Explorer browser, and with the announcement that Internet Explorer would be discontinued mid 2022, it was time to build a new system. The decision was made last year that we would commission the build of a bespoke system for our local church treasurers and Conference Treasuries. Tamzin will be deployed to this project.
Finally with our new intern Lindsay, we’re very excited about giving him a new project which will use his newly acquired skills in data analytics. This is where we give Lindsay data from different systems, so that he is able to develop new insights by cross referencing data.
We’ve also in mid February moved back into the offices after more than 6 months working from home during the lockdown period. Thanks to the Property team, who have worked tirelessly to enable us to move into lovely renovated offices at 148 Fox Valley Road, Wahroonga. As we return to work, we have come to appreciate our team members again and while technology is an incredible enabler for working collaboratively and remotely, it’s also nice to see our colleagues face to face.
I hope you have a great productive day,
Eva Ing
Director, Technology Operations and Strategy
Adventist Technology
