Is it worth leaving software we've used for years?

Years of history in one tool is worth something real: everyone knows where things are, the quirks are known quirks, and nobody has to relearn anything. Software you've merely gotten used to gets credit it hasn't earned — but so does switching, when the pitch skips the costs. Here is the honest ledger, both sides.

The real costs of moving

• •Members re-save their cards once — a small ask, but one you must actually make, member by member, around your renewal calendar.
• •Volunteers learn a new tool. Less of a cost when the new tool asks less of them, but never zero.
• •Your website address and email habits move. Done well this is invisible to members; it still takes doing.
• •A season of divided attention while both systems exist. Plan for it instead of being surprised by it.

Signs that staying has become the expensive choice

• •The renewal letter stings every year, and the plan you're on charges for contacts you no longer serve.
• •Every website change waits on the one person who knows how — and the site is going stale while it waits.
• •Board minutes, event plans, and follow-ups live in Word, email, and spreadsheets because the tool has nowhere to put them.
• •Volunteers route around the software — keeping their own lists, their own spreadsheets — because going through it is harder than going around it.

If the first list scares you more than the second describes you, stay — we mean that. If the second list reads like your last board meeting, the familiarity you'd be giving up is mostly the familiarity of working around the tool — and the moving costs above are exactly the part SorrelSites does for you, with your list and website brought across for your review at no charge.

Make it a decision with a date on it, either way. "We looked at it properly in August and chose to stay" is a healthy organization. "We've been meaning to look at it for three years" is a tool making the decision for you.