Contact: Pattie White, 843-413-8087, pattie.white@acstechnologies.com
FLORENCE, S.C., May 12, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- ACS Technologies (acstechnologies.com), the world's leading provider of church management software solutions, announces its acquisition of The City from Zondervan. This acquisition will allow ACS Technologies to combine The City's innovative community and communication engagement tools with its unmatched portfolio of church office solutions.
The City is the best known and most widely used church-focused social community with over 600 churches and over 200,000 people engaged nationwide. It was birthed by one of the country's leading megachurches with an innovative spirit to serve the local church and to encourage community transformation from within a local church. The City allows churchgoers to engage with one another on their own terms, whether they're scheduling events, sharing prayer requests or information, connecting for outreach, using a community calendar, giving, or keeping contact information accurate. The City has led the way in social community and communications innovation since 2008.
"Our team has worked tirelessly over the past two years to establish a strong foundation for The City and has done a tremendous job in creating a valuable resource for the churches we are privileged to partner with," said Zondervan President & CEO Scott Macdonald. "We are confident that ACS Technologies is the right organization with the experience and skill set needed to take what we’ve started, to continue to expand and improve on it, and to bring these community tools to more churches. We share a vision with ACS Technologies of serving the Church and we know that our current and future church partners will be well served under their leadership."
"We have admired what The City has been doing to build church community for a while now," Tom Carringer, Executive Management Team member with ACS Technologies. "So when Zondervan inquired if we were interested in carrying The City forward, we knew this was an opportunity to serve churches in fresh and compelling ways, adding even more strength to the solutions ACS Technologies provides. We believe in The City and its mission."
Steve Cumbia, Executive Director, R&D for ACS Technologies said: "Our goal with The City is to not only continue its development but to bring a true and meaningful connection to the broader data management structure that a church needs to run itself. Our vision is to couple the power of the 'back office' data management with the engagement and ever widening social interaction of the congregant facing community tools. Together, that's a match made in heaven."
"I've been with The City since the very beginning and it's been an exciting and challenging road to innovate as a start-up company. We have certainly seen God's provision along the way and are excited that by joining ACS Technologies we'll be enabled to really take The City to the next level," said Mark Blair, Senior Program Developer for The City.
For more information and continued updates on The City, please visit: onthecity.org.
About The City
The City (onthecity.org) is a former division of Zondervan, and will remain located in Seattle, Washington. Its innovative, web-based platform enables churches to connect newcomers and regular congregants to meaningful relationship and discipleship. The City uses social networking technology to help keep everyone in touch throughout the week, serving each other's needs, sharing life together and responding to the needs of the wider community the church serves.
About Zondervan
Zondervan, a HarperCollins company, is a world leader in Christian communications and the leading Christian publishing brand. For more than 75 years, Zondervan has delivered transformational Christian experiences through general and academic resources by influential leaders and emerging voices, and been honored with more Christian Book Awards than any other publisher. Headquartered in Grand Rapids, Mich., Zondervan publishes its bestselling Bibles, books, audio, video, curriculum, software, and digital products through its Zondervan, eZondervan, Zonderkidz and Editorial Vida brands. Zondervan resources are sold worldwide through retail stores, online, and by Zondervan ChurchSource, and are translated into nearly 200 languages in more than 60 countries. Visit Zondervan on the Internet at www.zondervan.com.
About ACS Technologies®
ACS Technologies (acstechnologies.com) is the leading provider of information management solutions to nearly 50,000 faith-based organizations with focused development and unsurpassed service in 6 key areas: megachurches, medium/large churches, small churches, organizations, schools, and the Catholic community. With leading brands ACS™, PDS™, Membership Plus™, and Headmaster™, ACS Technologies enables churches to manage every vital area of their ministry from finances to relationships, from events and groups to giving and serving. Whether online, desktop, or wireless, the passion that drives ACS Technologies is maximizing technology's value for ministry.
