History of Suran

Suran Systems, Inc. was founded by Rev. Randy Clay and Sue Clay in response to growing interest in CDM+, then called Church Data Master Plus.

Randy served as the senior minister at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Versailles, KY and had developed CDM+ for use in his own congregation and Disciples of Christ regions.

Suran is a portmanteau of Randy and Sue’s names—Sue + Randy = Suran.

One of Suran’s first projects was to assist the Christian Church in Kentucky with computerizing their record-keeping. This work began a decades long partnership with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) at the national, judicatory, and local levels, providing solutions for Search and Call, denominational minister tracking, and more.

Randy and a fellow Disciples minister, Gary Kidwell, formed Biblical Preaching Institute (BPI), a publishing and print house serving the religious industry. BPI’s first publication, Biblical Preaching Journal, provided ministers a curated set of sermons following the Revised Common Lectionary. These sermons, some of which were written by Randy, provided subscribing ministers source material and inspiration for their own messages.

As Suran and BPI grew, Randy, Sue and their employees developed skills and expertise in software development and support, desktop publishing, printing, binding, and mailing.

Suran established its Bindery Division, offering trade binding and bulk mailing services to local printers and business, often focusing on non-profit and religious organizations.

Suran is a portmanteau of Randy and Sue’s names—Sue + Randy = Suran.

Suran’s first user’s conference was held at Shaker Village. CDM+ users from around the United States travelled to the historic home of the Shakers to learn about CDM+, network with other CDM+ users, and spend two days enjoying the beautiful Kentucky scenery.

Held every year since with the exception of 1999, the user’s conference has become a premier event for CDM+ clients, hosting individuals from around the country in Lexington and nearby major cities such as Nashville, TN, Cincinnati, OH, Indianapolis, IN, Knoxville, TN, Louisville, KY, and Columbus, OH.

Building on Suran’s expertise providing judicatory software for the Disciples of Christ, Suran developed management software for the Kentucky Church of God State Office. This solution quickly spread to all COG State Offices, and Suran continues to proudly serve the Church of God as a partner in denominational data management at the local and judicatory levels.

Suran formed a strategic partnership with Wisdom Concepts, an IT Services company located in Lagos, Nigeria. Wisdom Concept’s founder and CEO, Oyelola Adeoluwa, connected church and district offices with CDM+ and continues to sell and support CDM+ for organizations throughout West Africa.

Suran acquired the software, staff, and user base for DonorWorks, a robust software package serving the non-profit industry. DonorWorks has since become a full Suran application, sharing and extending the platform and functionality of CDM+.

Suran debuted its electronic voting solution designed for the bi-annual minister’s meetings held by each region of the Church of God. Offering a full touch-screen experience and purpose-built voting logic, the electronic voting system continues to empower rapid and accurate voting every 2 years in over a dozen states.

Suran formed a strategic relationship with DealerBuilt, a software development company serving the automotive dealership industry. Suran separated and expanded its payroll component from CDM+ into a new product, DBPayroll, which provides payroll calculations, reporting, and HR services for dealerships of any size.

After many years of dedication and service to Suran and its clients, Sue Clay retired from active work with Suran in 2015.

In March 2019, Alex Clay became the company’s new CEO as Randy Clay reduced his time spent at Suran to focus on other business ventures. Randy continues to be involved with Suran as its CFO.

Now in its second generation of leadership, Suran is well-positioned to strengthen its service to its current clients while expanding to meet new and exciting opportunities.

Suran developed and release a new platform for Search and Call with the United Church of Christ (UCC). Following a successful launch, Suran was generosity awarded additional contacts with the UCC to provide denominational data management (Data Hub), annual yearbook reporting, a Group Tax Exemption portal, and more. We are thrilled to call the UCC our partners!

Suran’s long-time payment processor, Stewardship Technology, was acquired in 2018 and began phasing out its online donation and event registration software to focus on back-end payment processing. Suran acquired the Stewardship client base and released CDM+ Essentials, a platform for fundraising and donor management to provide ongoing solutions for Stewardship’s direct clients, now proudly Suran’s clients.