Offline territory management software

[fibrecat]

Hi, I'm looking for an offline territory management software. Can also be Excel-based.

Without territory maps, but with statistical evaluation, e.g. how many territories have

not been worked on for more than 6 months or which territories has Brother Johnson...

Thanks for your help.

[carlos]

12 minutes ago, fibrecat said:

Hi, I'm looking for an offline territory management software. Can also be Excel-based.

Without territory maps, but with statistical evaluation, e.g. how many territories have

not been worked on for more than 6 months or which territories has Brother Johnson...

Thanks for your help.

 

I don't know any such software. But definitely I can recommend not to use Excel. During the pandemic we prepared letter-writing territories and tried to manage them with Excel. After a few months they got out of control. A spreadsheet is simply not the tool for that (unless I am missing some advanced functionality).

[fibrecat]

Since our BOE does not allow online tools, I need an offline solution. My predecessor developed something with "Numbers" (Apple). Not bad. But I work almost exclusively with Windows/Android and Excel. And the export/import (or conversion) doesn't work properly. I would then be able to use it on my PC and smartphone (mobile).

[TheKid23]

46 minutes ago, fibrecat said:

our BOE does not allow online tools

Wow I can’t imagine our cong not using online tools now. They’ve been so effective for us 

[Korotkiy]

It will be a hour or two to make this as database in MS Access (as a part of MS Office).

Can generate fine reports and show all required information.

I have made TMS application in Access before find TMSWare.

Please contact me directly if you want to have more information.

 

[carlos]

You can use NW Scheduler in local mode only. It allows you to draw and print territory cards as well as managing territory assignments. But it's not free, it has a yearly fee.

[foghorn]

I also recommend NW Scheduler in off-line mode. This will do several useful things for you. 

1- allow you to easily manage territory maps, cards, assignments and completions

2- it will print the Society's official territory record sheet for the CO visit

3 - it can export records to Excel or csv. Thus you could use excel for your statistical evaluation. Or - since NWS also does some evaluation, it may be sufficient.

4 - protect your data better than Excel - NWS is fully encrypted.

[fibrecat]

I have already presented NWS to our elders and explained it in detail. Unfortunately rejected.

Btw, i‘m living in a land before time. 🙃

[Old]

2 hours ago, fibrecat said:

I have already presented NWS to our elders and explained it in detail. Unfortunately rejected.

Btw, i‘m living in a land before time. 🙃

Some BOEs are awaiting direct authorization from HQ before using the program.

I have a close friend, same ancient age as I, that refuses to adopt it even though his congregration uses it. 

[foghorn]

2 hours ago, fibrecat said:

I have already presented NWS to our elders and explained it in detail. Unfortunately rejected.

As a last resort, perhaps you could select a few of your more "flexible and adaptable" brothers and show them this page of NW Publisher Reviews and Testimonials: https://nwscheduler.com/jw-scheduler-testimonials-and-reviews/. Some comments are even in German! If a nearby congregation uses it, perhaps you could arrange for a respected elder to do a "show-and-tell" with a hands-on demonstration - really an eye-opener. Then, of course, there is always the opportunity to develop more patience 🤨

[carlos]

1 hour ago, Old said:

Some BOEs are awaiting direct authorization from HQ before using the program.

I have a close friend, same ancient age as I, that refuses to adopt it even though his congregration uses it. 

 

Years ago, when I was put in charge of territories, they were all in an Excel spreadsheet. When I tried to use an app to manage them, our coodinator refused, and said the Slave provides all the software we need. As if the Slave provided Excel.

 

And here we are, some years later, using NW Scheduler.

[foghorn]

Carlos - maybe you remember the days when we were told firmly that "congregation records do not belong on computers"!

[Paul s]

Funny enough in our congregation it was the eldars in their 70s who were most enthusiastic about NW scheduler the younger ones were the sceptics. Once we got it up and running everyone loved it

[molnarj]

11 hours ago, fibrecat said:

I have already presented NWS to our elders and explained it in detail. Unfortunately rejected.

Btw, i‘m living in a land before time. 🙃

That's to bad. Why would they want you to develop your own program when there already is such a program? 

 

NWScheduler has many advantages:

 

You can see who has which Territories

You can generate reports about how often the Territories are worked, how many have been worked the last 6 months, the last 12 months, How many have not been worked the last 6 months, the last 12 months. The avarage time it takes to work the Territory. Etc.

You can use it in offline mode

You can generate the S-13 report automatically 

You don't need to draw the map if you don't want to (And what is the problem if you do? It is easy.)

If in the future someone else is going to do the Territories in your congregation he doesn't have to invent the wheel again.

 

I hope for you they want to reconsider using NWS. It saves you so much time.

 

[fibrecat]

I can understand all your considerations.

I had a test account from NWS for several months and only worked with it locally.

I also dealt with importing the data. Very nice software. But using it only as a local

application would be like putting an engine from a Citroën 2CV into a Ferrari.

And unfortunately there are other inconsistencies on the part of our elders when it

comes to storing data on the Internet. But that would only cause eye-rolling here...
Our COBE said that there would be new instructions on this whole issue in the

foreseeable future (please take this statement with a grain of salt).

I'll be patient - hopefully I've learnt that now. 😄

[Pabo]

On 1/17/2024 at 6:44 AM, fibrecat said:

Btw, i‘m living in a land before time. 🙃

 

Are they still using the stone tablets that Moses had made with Basic coding? 

 

Or have they progressed from using scrolls to using a codex?

 

Boy, wouldn't they love me in their congregation! 🤣 They would be using the chair that @Qapla has in his congregation's Room of Doom. Oh, 🤔 they wouldn't have electricity to use it, and I also would think that they haven't heard of the "Rack" either.

[fibrecat]

As we are now moving away from my original question, I will leave the discussion. 😊

In Germany, people are very sensitive when it comes to data protection.

And discussing where the grey area begins and ends in theocratic territory is not going to get me anywhere.

 

Thank you very much for your interesting tips and comments.

I will continue as before and patiently see if there is anything official on the subject in the near future.

"Keep the pace" 😀

[TitoMoi]

Hi @fibrecat, you can use servihelper, it has offline territory management:

https://github.com/TitoMoi/servihelper/tree/main

It’s simple compared to nwScheduler, but it has all the necessary.

[jayrtom]

I attach the excell sheet I made for the teritory servant to use, adapted for a tablet, so there are no macros

 

You just have to translate to your desired language

 

Instructions:

 

Just change the things I tell you bellow

 

On this sheet put all the publishers names on column "A":

 

 

On the same sheet put all the territory numbers on column "E"

 

 

On Sheet "Início" is where you work with the program

 

At the moment you have already lots of information entered and this is how you can do queries to the information:

 

 

This is how you enter a record for each transaction, be it someone picking up a territory or someone returning a territory:

 

 

 

Everything has drop down lists so there is no need to write (only on "Notes")

There is no enter or submit button, everything is automatically updated

 

Don't change anything else on the structure like removing lines, looking into formulas (array formulas) or everything fails!RDT_EN_v3.xlsx

 

 

You can delete all data on the records form line 22 (but don't delete the table)

 

If you have already existing records on other formats just send it to me and I'll put it in the program so that you can start working with queries

Edited January 19 by jayrtom