September 21, 2011

Managing Change - Penguin Style

September 21, 2011/ bob towery

Our customers are having to manage a lot of change at the moment. Not just those currently implementing Escape, but all districts are dealing with a new fiscal reality, new requirements from other governmental agencies and so on. A couple of fellow CEO's recently recommended a book on change management (picture links to the book on Amazon):

It's Change Management 101, written as a fable. Very well done. It's kind of a disarming way to view your team and the challenges it faces. Like "The One Minute Manager," it is a quick read, maybe 2 hours at most. I enjoyed it and recommend it.

Escape Technology

The Escape Story

Our company began in 1985 as a custom application software developer. In 1988, we selected education as the market around which we would build the company. Our mission was to develop state-of-the-art software applications for the business departments of educational organizations.

200 Implementations

During the period of 1988 through 1991, we implemented nearly 200 Escape modules in districts throughout California. Districts of all sizes–from the large San Francisco U.S.D. to some very small districts–became more productive and efficient with Escape systems.

We Understand

We succeeded because Escape applications really understood what users did on a day-to-day basis, and were responsive and easy-to-use. We were the first vendor to implement client/server type applications, utilizing PCs as intelligent desktop clients.

Integrated Systems

During this same period, we entered the planning phase for our next step – the development of integrated financial, personnel and payroll systems.

Bringing in the HR Factor

In 1994, several districts began using Escape-Personnel/Position Control. In July of 1995, the first live payroll check generated using Escape-Payroll was printed. This completed another important chapter in our plan. We now had a completely integrated suite of business applications for education.

Pay Day

Then, in 1998, Escape took only a record-breaking two months to put Sacramento City U.S.D.—the state’s sixth largest school district—live on the Payroll system!

Escape Online

In 1999, we began working with two COEs: Ventura and Alameda. They implemented our legacy system at their districts, but without a COE module. We automated cross-district requirements, but they were really just a collection of stand-alone implementations. Our legacy system was not a Windows program and thus it was determined that a completely new effort would be required.

Extensive development proceeded. Based on our track record with the legacy system and demos of the new system—Escape Online 5—several other COEs began working with us, culminating with live operations in selected districts within Alameda COE in 2007, a COE-wide implementation at Placer COE in early 2008, and selected districts within Ventura COE in 2008 as well.

COE Ready

With a single database, scheduling and distribution features, Escape Online 5 brings power and flexibility to COE processes, oversight and reporting. Multi-district operations, setup and support has never been easier.

Small and Large Organizations

We are proud to have our integrated systems operational in school districts, county offices of education and community colleges.

But, just as important as having very large customers, we have many notable successes with smaller organizations as well. Our XCOE offering provides the hardware, software and IT staff to run Escape Online 5 for counties with less than 15,000 ADA.

Smooth Operations

Seeing our growth skyrocket, in 2008 we brought on Ramona Marshall as our Chief Operating Officer. She brought Project Office to our operations and implementation strategies.

These skills brought an organized and efficient approach to the upgrading of our current customers and the implementation of new customers.

With a single connecting point for project resources, coordinating project activity across the enterprise enabled project teams to function more effectively.

LIVE Operations

With Project Office leading the way, we have more than a dozen counties and hundreds of districts live on Escape Online 5.

Escape Online 5 is a proven winner in a production environment, used on a daily basis.

But we aren’t done yet! We are continually accepting suggestions from customers, prospects and our very own Customer Care staff.

See the difference for yourself!