Galena Cemeteries

Galena Cemeteries Transition to CIMS Platinum

Looking to upgrade their cemetery management software and streamline their record-keeping practices, Galena Catholic Churches in Galena, Illinois, partnered with Ramaker to implement CIMS Platinum.

Galena’s three parishes began conversations with Ramaker’s CIMS team about transitioning to a cloud-based service for their five cemeteries in March of 2020. The staff were familiar with cemetery software, having used a different solution in the past. In fact, that management tool’s shortfalls inspired the parishes to contact Ramaker. Their previous software was desktop-based, meaning that all data from the parish’s five cemeteries resided on one computer. This arrangement made it difficult for staff to keep their records accurate and up to date. These accessibility issues, paired with limited tech support, eventually prompted the staff to pursue a change.

Ultimately, decision-makers at Galena Catholic Churches chose CIMS Platinum, Ramaker’s flagship cemetery management solution, because the web-based software would allow users from all parishes to simultaneously access and update cemetery information. This feature, along with Ramaker’s industry leading mapping technique, would help the parishes simplify their data entry processes and better serve the Galena community.

To get Galena Catholic Churches started with CIMS, Ramaker’s GIS team used their drones to produce high-quality orthophotos of the cemeteries. These images were used as the bases of the five digital maps in CIMS Platinum. After building highly accurate maps that charted each plot at each cemetery, Ramaker migrated all previous records to CIMS Platinum, linking all burial and interment records to the real-time, interactive maps of the cemeteries.

In addition to CIMS Platinum, the churches implemented Burial Search sites for each of their cemeteries. These sites will allow the Galena community to browse burial information without the assistance of cemetery staff.

Since 1998, Ramaker has partnered with more than 1,000 municipal, religious, and private cemeteries to implement software that simplifies management and streamlines daily operations. Learn more about CIMS Light, CIMS Gold, and CIMS Platinum at cimscemeterysoftware.com.