CPI / E-Mail News

August 4, 2005

Carter-Pertaine, Inc. - Volume 1

Welcome to the first issue of the CPI/ E-Mail News! We hope this will provide you with valuable information on new and existing CPI products.

This issue will focus on ViStA, our Student Information & Accounting System. Specifically:

· Product Review

· Migration Update

· Software Licensing

· Schedule of upcoming classes

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!

The Carter-Pertaine National Users Group (CPNUG) is pleased to announce its annual conference will be held in San Antonio, TX April 3-5, 2006.

This will be an important conference and everyone should plan to attend! The new GUI Software will be showcased, along with technical and end user trainings.

Look for more details on our web site: www.cpischool.com

Carter-Pertaine, Inc.

12651 Briar Forest Dr., Ste 246

Houston, TX 77077

Phone

281/558-1270

Fax

281/556-8980

E-mail

sales@cpischool.com

We’re on the Web!

www.cpischool.com

ViStA – Today & Tomorrow

ViStA is a comprehensive, integrated browser based student information system. It is a dynamic student accounting system which fully supports state specific reporting requirements in Texas, Louisiana, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Nebraska.

ViStA contains all the components needed to effectively manage your school district. Centralized databases insure accurate reporting, prevent cross enrollments and allow multi-campus grade and attendance reporting. This tight integration is key in running a smooth, secure system for your district.

New Features though CPNUG Funded Project

Student Online Course Requests

ViStA is continually being enhanced. Some of the most recent functions have been added as a result of a CPNUG/CPI sponsored project, the Student Online Course Request module. Students may now enter course requests for summer school and/or for the upcoming school year online. They will have immediate feedback as to course availability, and be able to see how requested courses will fulfill graduation requirements.

Summer School is made simple with a flexible campus setup where each grade level may be homed into a different summer school. When the student requests a summer school class, a summer school enrollment is automatically created in the appropriate summer school campus.

For ‘Next Year’ Course Requests - requests may be set by school, grade level and/or EGS graduation plans. Students are presented with the EGS Department Requirements showing credits required, credits earned, credits currently scheduled and credits requested.

What’s Changing?

With HP’s 2001 announcement that the HPe3000 server family would not be supported after 12/06, we at CPI began concentrating our efforts on creating a two stage migration away from the HPe3000. Our goal is to ensure that our clients receive a greatly enhanced product for a very small investment. We will continue to use the same multi-district databases and we anticipate the end user learning curve will be minimal. Although screens will have a different ‘look’, the information contained will all be familiar.

The new software is divided into three primary product lines – all browser based applications: Staff Connection, Parent Connection and Student Connection. Parent Connection is an extremely powerful tool – giving parents access to key student data – from grades and attendance, to homework assignments and test scores (all with strict security and privacy standards).

Parent Connection and Staff Connection are ready for release. We will be adding new features to both over the coming year. Parent Connection is a purchasable module (call for quote 281/558-1270 ext. 4). Student Connection, with Online Course Requests, is free to any existing client who runs the EGS Transcript Management System.

Migration Stages & Progress

The CPI ViStA team is just finishing up with Stage One of the migration. In this stage we moved the software off the HPe3000 servers onto the new HP-UX platform. At this point, the traditional character based software looks and feels almost identical on the new server. The learning curve will be minimal, with some training required for technical staff on the new server platform.

When Stage Two is complete – ViStA will be completely browser based, with a more attractive Graphical User Interface. Users may choose, on a case by case basis, to use the ‘traditional’ screens for data entry/inquiry, or the new GUI screens. New features will only be available via the newer browser screens. Target date for completion is mid-2006.

Licensing Options & Migration Costs

Not all software licenses are created equal. Nor should they be. The type of license a district purchases depends on the size of the school system, availability of funds, funding sources, etc. Under the Perpetual License, CPI clients with a current support license will receive the revamped ViStA product for a small $5000 migration fee. An HP-UX server, run-time Autobahn www.speedware.com and the Eloquence database engine www.hp-eloquence.com have to be purchased as well, and you will need to invest in about 5 days of training. The overall investment is significantly less than purchasing and implementing new software. The two licensing options CPI find most beneficial to our clients are:

√ Perpetual. A perpetual license allows the licensee to run the software in perpetuity. All of our existing ViStA clients own a perpetual license to the ViStA software. A perpetual license might cost more the first year than other license types, since you are, after all, purchasing something. Subsequent years, however, will be significantly lower because you simply pay annual support since you already own the license. Typically, first year annual support for a CPI module is 20 to 30 percent of the software license cost. Clients store the application software and data on their own servers and must have at least some technical staff to support the servers, the software and the end users. Perpetual licensing is also beneficial when looking at capital funding. A client who goes off support is still licensed to use the software, and may opt to go back on support later by paying a percentage of the back support. Here again, this may cost significantly less than purchasing new software.

√ Application Solutions Provider (ASP). Districts that do not want to maintain their own servers may choose an ASP arrangement. These are becoming increasingly popular, especially for very small districts. CPI is investigating offering ASP services once we migrate off of the HPe3000. In an ASP environment, servers are housed in the facilities of the Solutions Provider and contracts guarantee a certain percentage of ‘up’ time and performance level. Over several years, an ASP may cost more than a perpetual license, but this may be offset by a savings on hardware, software and personnel. It is important to consider where your data is with an ASP. Is it on foreign soil? Is your district comfortable with that? You also need a clear understanding of the communications setup. Is it through a dedicated high speed line that keeps traffic confidential, or is it going out unencrypted over open internet? The CPI ASP model will provide secure, encrypted traffic to servers in either Houston, TX or San Mateo, CA.

CPI Application and Technical Workshops for 2005-2006

Location	Date	Day	Description
Houston, TX	September 12, 2005	Monday	ViStA Parent Connection & Student Connection – Administrator & End User
San Mateo, CA	October 27-28, 2005	Mon-Tues	HP e3000 System Operations/Management two-day seminar @ $500/person)
San Mateo, CA	November 3, 2005	Thursday	Introduction to Linux
Houston, TX	February 13, 2006	Monday	Speedware Autobahn for Programmers
Houston, TX	February 14, 2006	Tuesday	PHP for Programmers
San Mateo, CA	February 22-23, 2006	Wed.-Thu.	Hands-on Linux for System Administrators(two-day, hands-on seminar, limited to 12 work-stations – one trainee per computer $600, two trainees per computer $1,000)
Houston, TX	March 1, 2006	Wednesday	Speedware 4GL/Autobahn for HP-UX Eloquence Database -- HP-UX Administrators
Houston, TX	March 2, 2006	Thursday	Installing and maintaining ViStA Applications – HP-UX Administrator
Houston, TX	May 1, 2006	Monday	ViStA Integrated Gradebook - Administrator & End User
Houston, TX	May 2, 2006	Tuesday	ODBC with Eloquence Databases – HPUX Administrators & Programmers

General Information for Training Workshops

Time: classes meet from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Location: All Houston seminars are held at the CPI offices at 12651 Briar Forest Dr., Ste 246, Houston, TX 77077. For a map and directions please visit our web site at www.cpischool.com/CPIMap.pdf. The HPe3000 System Operations and Management Class and Introduction to Linux class are held at the QSS main office, located at 2121 S. El Camino Real, Suite D200, San Mateo, CA 94403. For directions please visit www.qss.com.

Cost: Tuition for all one-day workshops is $250 per person. If 10 or more paying customers attend a workshop, CPI will only invoice $200 per person for that workshop. The 2 day Systems Operations/ Management seminar is $500 per person. If 10 or more attend, QSS will invoice a discounted rate of $400 per person. The Hands-On Linux class is $600 for one person or $1,000 for 2 people sharing a computer. Registration is limited to 12 computer workstations.

Registration: Announcements, including seminar descriptions and registration forms, will be emailed to each CPI client approximately 8 weeks prior to each workshop.

(CPI & QSS reserve the right to cancel any of the above workshops if fewer than five people have registered two weeks prior to the scheduled workshop date. Our web site is updated regularly to reflect any cancellations or changes in scheduling.)

Contact Information: For more information about any of these seminars, or if you would like to host a seminar at your site (additional fee involved), please contact Anne Howard ahoward@cpischool.com or 281/558-1270, ext. 128., for Houston based classes or Tina Hsiao for San Mateo classes tina@qss.com or 650/372-0200 ext. 600.

Questions or Comments?

If you would like more information on any of the topics addressed in this Newsletter, please contact us! For workshop registration and module pricing please contact Anne Howard at ahoward@cpischool.com or 281/558-1270, ext. 128. If you would like help with pricing for third party software required (Autobahn and Eloquence), please contact Lisa Dabel at lisa@qss.com or 650/372-0200 ext 636. For general product information and workshop schedules please visit our web site www.cpischool.com. If you know others at your organization who would like to receive this e-news from CPI, please forward their email address to lisa@qss.com.

Carter-Pertaine, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Quintessential School Systems.