District Enhances Services With Data
Organization Profile
- Number of Employees: 1,500
- Population: 250,000+
- Number of Students: 11,300+
- Tyler Client Since: 2001
- Tyler Products: Infinite Visions®
The Glendale Elementary School District (GESD), comprised of 17 schools serving more than 11,300 students in grades K-8, has used Tyler Technologies’ Infinite Visions® solution since 2001 to manage payroll and financial needs. However, like many districts across the country, GESD uses other third-party systems to support its student and workforce management needs.
While the district’s software systems were meeting their business needs, they soon began seeing gaps in their data, resulting in potential security issues and an increased need to streamline information across their district.
“In human resources, our data lived in a silo. We really didn’t know how our work was impacting other departments,” said HR systems specialist Teresa Wong. “We found out our systems weren’t jiving at all — our absence management system, our student information system — we had out-of-sync data everywhere. It didn’t make sense.”
Partnership Is a Priority
To get to the bottom of its data challenge and enhance staff communication, IT and HR staff began an evaluation of internal processes.
“Before we really started the partnership and saw what the potential could be, it was a mess. Teachers would contact the help desk, the help desk would contact HR. There was no process,” said software and data architect Nicholas Magann. “Our systems were getting out of sync and causing security issues.”
Within a few years, the district evolved their processes and capitalized on the existing technology available in Infinite Visions software to provide needed information across each of their departments and improve efficiency.
“Why not use an import tool to pull data from our system of record into the other systems?” Wong asked. “That’s what we’ve been focused on, making Infinite Visions our true system of record.”
Today, GESD exports personnel and financial data from Infinite Visions into several other platforms across departments, maximizing the use of their systems.
“We put all the people who need network access into Infinite Visions. We are aware of who has accounts, why they have accounts, and when those accounts will be terminated,” Magann said. “We no longer have three to four systems with separate data. We’re unifying everything in Infinite Visions, then pushing that to all the other systems.”
Our district needed a product that could handle the business function of running a school district. Tyler provided a system that could house all financials and personnel data, making it a true system of record for us.
Teresa Wong
HR Systems Specialist, Glendale Elementary School District, Arizona
Process Makes Perfect
The partnership between HR and IT hasn’t stopped. These teams meet regularly to ensure they’re getting the most from the data housed in Infinite Visions.
“We are trying to maximize our resources by using what we have, making it as efficient as possible,” said accounting budget supervisor Courtney Pina. “Our processes are always evolving. We’re always asking ourselves what we can do with the information we have already.”
The data being shared empowers the district to take a proactive stance on security measures, onboarding, and communication between schools.
“With the teacher shortage, we hire vendors to fill these gaps,” Wong said. “We enter vendors into Infinite Visions, so we can notify our schools that they have been processed and are authorized to be on campus.”
System of Record
“GESD is a $100 million organization that is reliant upon a comprehensive solution that effectively manages our essential operations. It is imperative for GESD to operate as a cohesive organization,” said superintendent Cindy Segotta-Jones.
Through the years, GESD developed several automated processes utilizing their data from Infinite Visions, such as an automated management system, staffing pages for each school site, an advanced reporting service, and automated onboarding emails — almost eliminating each department’s processing times.
In the end, Wong says the system has made all the difference: “Tyler provided a system that could house all financials and personnel data, and through our partnership with IT, we’ve been able to make it a true system of record for the entire district.”