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For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit: casestudiesCustomer: Educational Computing Network of Ontario (ECNO) Customer Website: Customer Size: 2 employeesCountry or Region: CanadaIndustry: NonprofitPartner: KeousPartner Website: Customer ProfileThe Educational Computing Network of Ontario (ECNO), Canada, is a nonprofit IT cooperative that promotes best practices and provides cost-effective IT solutions to school boards across the province.Software and ServicesMicrosoft OfficeMicrosoft Office SharePoint Server 2007ServicesMicrosoft Technology CentersTechnologiesMicrosoft .NET Framework 3.5Windows SharePoint ServicesMicrosoft Technology CenterCustomer Solution Case StudyNonprofit Saves Time and Reduces Costs with Smarter Technology Options“Talking with MTC architects who have expertise in so many areas really helped us understand the possibilities and feel comfortable that we were making wise technology decisions.”Rick Hughes, Chair of the ECNO Technical Advisory Committee and Manager of Client and Technical Services for the District School Board of Niagara, OntarioThe Educational Computing Network of Ontario (ECNO) wanted to modernize the human resources/payroll portal that 24 school districts use to serve more than 90,000 employees. With solution partner Keous, ECNO attended an engagement at a Microsoft Technology Center (MTC), where it learned about SharePoint Products and Technologies. ECNO and Keous saved significant time and money on the project because of the head start that they got at the MTC.Business NeedsThe Educational Computing Network of Ontario (ECNO) has helped school boards save millions of dollars by offering them new and innovative strategies for reducing the cost of administration and redirecting those resources into the classroom. The organization strives to simplify operations for school districts throughout Ontario by sharing technology and other solutions among districts. One of the applications offered by ECNO delivered human resources (HR) and payroll management for school boards. It also provided a Java-based web portal for employee access. Twenty-four school districts used the solution, but it was aging, and neither the application nor the portal provided the performance that ECNO wanted. The organization and its solution partner Keous rewrote the HR/payroll application using the Framework. ECNO then sought to modernize the portal’s functionality with self-service capabilities, single sign-on authentication, and the ability to easily change passwords each school year, and a better user interface.ECNO wanted to find a way to make those improvements without writing a lot of new code. ECNO and Keous considered using Java again or switching to DotNetNuke to enhance the portal. “We knew that DotNetNuke could give us the functionality that we wanted, but we weren’t entirely comfortable basing the portal on open source technology because of available support,” says Ed Smith, Vice President of Keous.The organization’s technology path changed when its Microsoft representative recommended that ECNO explore the possibility of using SharePoint Products and Technologies as the basis for its updated portal. “We weren’t very familiar with those products, and we needed to build a solution that our member districts could use without a huge investment in underlying technology or training,” says Rick Hughes, Chair of the ECNO Technical Advisory Committee and Manager of Client and Technical Services for the District School Board of Niagara, Ontario.SolutionThe Microsoft representative suggested that ECNO and Keous attend an Architecture Design Session at the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) in New York City. “We were a bit skeptical going in, but we thought that we should give Microsoft the opportunity to make a case,” recalls Hughes.The MTC engagement began with general technology information but quickly delved into the specific challenges that ECNO faced and the technologies that the organization could use to meet them. “We’d sent a list of prioritized questions ahead of time, and the MTC architects addressed those questions right away,” says Smith.Over the course of three days at the MTC, ECNO and Keous learned that they could create a portal solution for member districts to use either with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 or Windows SharePoint Services, and that they could do it by reusing code from the existing portal. “We saw how to solve many of our technical issues and tie all of our HR services together,” says Hughes.Adds Darren Valladares, Project Manager for Keous, “It helped to see how we could use standard web parts, avoid a lot of rewriting, and suit the needs both of school boards that had already invested in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and those that hadn’t.”Best of all, ECNO and Keous came away from the engagement confident that they could meet their requirements for the portal, which included the integration of Java code and the efficient handling of security authentication. “At the MTC, we developed design ideas that we carried through for the portal, along with a framework that we can use for the future,” says Valladares. ECNO launched its portal solution in January 2010.BenefitsECNO and Keous benefited from their MTC experience, gaining greater confidence in their ability to successfully move forward with the portal using Microsoft technologies. Plus, they saved time and cut development costs. Reduced time-to-market. ECNO and Keous saved a significant amount of time during their development process because of the knowledge that they gained at the MTC and the minimized risk surrounding their solution decisions. “We didn’t have to spend a lot of time conducting our own research, building prototypes, and possibly heading down the wrong path,” says Smith. “Learning how to incorporate the Java code and still meet our security requirements meant that we could avoid the 12 to 18 months it would have taken to rewrite that code.”Lower development costs. ECNO and Keous left the MTC with the knowledge that moving forward with an improved portal did not require a complete code rewrite. “With what we learned at the MTC, we were able to reuse a lot of code and develop on an affordable platform, which reduced our development costs. We pass those savings on to our member districts, making this a more cost-effective solution for them,” says Hughes. Thoughtful advice. ECNO was pleased to discover that MTC architects based their recommendations on the specific needs of the organization. “The MTC architects gave us a thorough evaluation of our options, not a sales pitch,” says Hughes. “They asked the right questions to ensure that they understood our needs.”Breadth of knowledge. ECNO and Keous found that the MTC engagement included technical experts in an array of areas to help them explore various technologies. “Talking with MTC architects who have expertise in so many areas really helped us understand the possibilities and feel comfortable that we were making wise technology decisions,” says Hughes.Adds Valladares, “I don’t think there was a single question that our MTC architects couldn’t answer. Their level of resourcefulness—down to the deepest detail—was excellent.” ................
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