SunGard K-12 Education Releases Features for BusinessPLUS that Improve Productivity and Accountability and Support Districts in Recruiting Teachers and Managing Vendors
Bethlehem, Pa. (PRWEB) October 23, 2013 -- SunGard K-12 Education, a leading K-12 administrative software and technology services company, has released new functionality for its BusinessPLUS financial and human resources management software. BusinessPLUS 7.9.8 features an improved user interface, which makes daily tasks easier, and puts simple reporting tools at the fingertips of all end users, helping ease the burden on district IT staff. In addition, BusinessPLUS customers can choose new add-on modules that will help them recruit highly qualified teachers and staff, manage funds from student clubs and activities, and communicate with vendors.
According to Todd Smith, product manager for SunGard K-12 Education’s financial products, these advances can help BusinessPLUS customers improve their productivity. “Faced with increasing demands and decreasing resources, district administrators are looking for tools that can improve their efficiency,” says Smith. “Our new BusinessPLUS features can help districts save time, reduce errors, improve results, and implement stronger controls.”
This release provides end users with the ability to export data from most BusinessPLUS screens directly to Microsoft® Excel. As a result of this new functionality, school administrators can create simple reports by pulling data for easy manipulation and analysis. Like many BusinessPLUS enhancements, this feature is free for all current customers.
“We’re very excited about this feature, which we developed at the request of our customers,” says Smith. “During our Beta testing, we received overwhelmingly positive response about this new tool that makes possible simple report writing without the need for programming support. Industry-leading solutions like this feature and others found in BusinessPLUS 7.9.8 can help districts drive down their costs.”
SunGard K-12 Education also has released three new BusinessPLUS add-on modules—Recruitment, Vendor Online, and Student Activities.
BusinessPLUS Recruitment is a 21st-century talent acquisition tool that can help school districts increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their hiring process by automating key tasks, reducing data entry, and increasing the reach of job postings. As districts seek the most qualified applicants, BusinessPLUS Recruitment helps them efficiently manage the process—from the moment the position is requested through employee on-boarding. This tool decentralizes the legwork to hiring managers, yet maintains the quality of the recruiting effort and job applicants. And, by extending position control into the process, BusinessPLUS Recruitment can help ensure compliance with district budget controls and state and federal regulations.
With funds for clubs, activities, and classes being an easy target for fraud and a major source of audit findings, districts have been asking for a way to institute greater accountability for cash that their schools must manage locally. With the new Student Activities module, BusinessPLUS customers can move cash management and accounting for these funds into district control. This software provides straight-forward processing with much-needed flexibility. Districts can create individual accounts for various school groups with different approval/enforcement policies. Student activity managers make their entries through a data entry screen, so they don’t need to know accounting to update their account. The software also allows for manually or centrally processed checks, for the creation of events within accounts to appropriately earmark funds, and for the tracking of fund-raiser sales and returns. In addition, BusinessPLUS Student Activities provides different levels of access for back office staff and student activity managers and allows funds to be moved between student groups and events.
BusinessPLUS Vendor Online is a self-service portal that supports more efficient communication with district vendors. Through the portal, companies can register to provide services and products and upload their W9s. Approved vendors can use this tool to submit invoices, which will automatically enter into the district’s workflow for approval and processing. Vendors also can download their 1099 or access current or past purchase orders, invoices, and payments. This module also can be linked to BusinessPLUS Bid Online, so vendors can request to be notified when RFPs are issued by the district, can make an encrypted submittal, and can view past submittals.
About BusinessPLUS
Part of SunGard K-12 Education’s PLUS 360 suite, BusinessPLUS can be tailored to a school district’s unique needs and processes. Accounting, procurement, human resources, and payroll functions can be easily managed through customizable workflows and notifications. A dashboard provides insights into budgetary performance, employee statistics, substantial purchases, and much more. BusinessPLUS also offers web-based self-service options for employees, vendors, and job applicants that help districts operate more efficiently and do more with less.
About SunGard K-12 Education
SunGard K-12 Education offers software solutions designed to help teachers, administrators, and parents support student achievement. The PLUS 360 products are a single integrated suite of software solutions for the management of student information, assessment and curriculum, special education, and financial and human resources. The suite—which provides district staff with anytime, anywhere access to important district information—can be deployed to work together to help meet educational goals and requirements or implemented as stand-alone systems. For more information, visit SunGard K-12 Education at sungard.com/K12.
About SunGard
SunGard is one of the world’s leading software and technology services companies. SunGard serves approximately 25,000 customers in more than 70 countries and has approximately 17,000 employees. SunGard provides software and processing solutions for financial services, education, and the public sector. SunGard also provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services, and business continuity management software. With annual revenue of more than $4.0 billion, SunGard is one of the largest privately held IT software and services companies. For more information, please visit http://www.sungard.com.
Trademark Information: SunGard, the SunGard logo, BusinessPLUS, and PLUS 360 are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.
Microsoft and Excel are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
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© SunGard 2013. All rights reserved.
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Lori Burke, SunGard K-12 Education, http://sungard.com/K12, +1 (610) 849-7274, [email protected]
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