TEA Winner: Flexible Solutions Empower Equitable Services
- Industry: Service District
- Location: Hillsboro, Oregon
- Employees: 730
- Population: 98,000
- Tyler Client Since: 2012
- Tyler Products Used: School ERP Pro, Content Manager
- Website : nwresd.org
Challenges
It’s no secret that school finance and human resources processes and standards are complex. It’s a niche that people dedicate their careers to, and it can seem opaque even to expert-level professionals in other industries. Especially for small districts, tight budgets may make it difficult to access personnel resources — from employees with expertise in navigating the intricacies of school finance, to software designed to meet the needs of K-12. But for 20 districts in Oregon, the Northwest Regional Education Service District (NWRESD) is able to fill that gap by providing business services, human resources, technology, and special education support.
Serving both rural and urban districts in the region, NWRESD needed to address the different, fluctuating business service requirements of every site. “Every school district, school, and classroom has its own culture. And when you multiply that by 20, holding a level of consistency with a single ERP system helps us make sure we don’t make mistakes and we’re following guidelines,” said Assistant Director of Finance Holly Langan. But Langan and her team wanted to do more than just provide the basics: they committed themselves to providing equitable resources for their districts and accommodations for their own staff.
Solution
To help them deliver high-quality service and support to each district they serve, NWRESD uses Tyler Technologies’ cloud-enabled School ERP Pro solution. This ERP system gives NWRESD the option to provide districts with everything from comprehensive business services to standalone processes. “I really appreciate the scalability of our support through an ESD and using this modular system. A district could be doing everything in the Accounts Payable module, but we’re running their Payroll module. This modular and paperless approach enables those small districts to cover what they can while we’re giving them that complex, more experienced school finance support,” Langan said.
Through cloud technology, School ERP Pro also enables remote support for small, rural districts and helps NWRESD to reach their goal of delivering their services equitably. Langan noted that her team’s expertise is complemented by their ERP solution, saying, “What I appreciate specifically about School ERP Pro is that it’s built for school districts. Unlike other solutions that try to adapt a non-educational business software, it’s set up for educational financial reporting and human resources processes that are very different from the needs of private companies.”
When you’re in this paperless environment, it enables equity and access in a variety of ways. It means we’re better for the customers we support, whether it’s the staff, students, teachers, or our vendors.
Holly Langan
Assistant Director of Finance, Northwest Regional Education Service District, Oregon
Results
As a resource for multiple school districts, NWRESD needs to be prepared to provide expert service for any situation a district may face. By leveraging their School ERP Pro system, NWRESD can seamlessly adjust the services they provide as district needs change and are able to create efficiencies in their own staffing. “Having our districts in one system means that we can be more efficient in our allocation of staffing resources and move workload around,” Langan said. The flexibility of this paperless system has allowed them to deliver continuity in their services, no matter what. “In any kind of emergency or unexpected situation, whether it was the pandemic, a health accommodation, or even a need for a working parent to stay home with their sick child, we have more flexibility to allow for work-life balance and to better accommodate people in these situations.”
Langan also noted the importance of integration between processes to serve their districts without interruption. “Because School ERP Pro allows for collaboration between human resources, payroll, and finance in a seamless way, someone can submit a Personnel Action Request and then the system just sends it to the right people. With systems that don’t have that collaboration built in, approvals get stuck.” And even when their staffing changes, processes and approvals continue to flow. Langan said, “Having a paperless system enables us to be collaborative and flexible in a rapidly changing work environment in terms of vacancies, retirement, and everything in between. We can really easily reassign approval queues or reconfigure someone’s access in the system. If resources change or someone is out of office, it’s easy to cover that gap and keep processes moving.”
The flexibility of School ERP Pro helps NWRESD support their districts’ educational goals while adhering to regulations and reporting requirements. “Honoring their requests and enabling them to have customizations that work for their particular district and culture, such as approval workflows, helps us to find ways to be their financial system resource without hindering the work they’re doing for their students,” Langan said.