South Windsor is a fast-growing community of 26,000 in the central northern section of the state, northeast of Hartford. Just over 5,000 K-12 students attend eight schools in South Windsor. As the cost of education has risen, greater transparency and better town-wide understanding of South Windsor’s Board of Education budget process have become critical for continued efficient operation and community support.
South Windsor Board of Education’s Finance department had asked its IT staff to produce budget reports with MUNIS data for the previous two years, current-year revised budget and actual, as well as next-year projected numbers with several different grouping schemes. Essential was the ability to see clearly fund totals by Object, Character Code, Function, Major Programs and Location, and to drill down easily to the detail behind the numbers.
Beyond needing “next year” budget reports, Finance wanted easy-to-use Budget-to-Actual reports for the current fiscal year that could be run for each business unit, with varying levels of detail. Seeking to maximize its investment in Business Objects Enterprise (BOE), Finance also wanted to provide end users the ability to run reports without also granting them access to the report application itself.
Given its myriad responsibilities throughout the organization, IT couldn’t commit to creating all the new reports Finance required in the requested timeframe. Luckily, IT’s new assignment coincided with receiving Ed Bryan’s email announcing his new company, CRS. Tom Gibson, South Windsor Board of Education’s IT director, who’d worked successfully with Ed previously, contacted Ed and explained the project scope.
Confident that Ed could deliver the requested reports, IT contracted with CRS in 2006. The first task was to assist in the creation of ten budget reports for the budget process. Some of these reports are used during budget entry and preliminary presentation to the board of education. Others are used in the final budget book. Four current-year budget reports were also produced.
CRS then helped set up folders with security access settings in BOE that allow certain users access to reports from outside the applications. CRS published all requested reports to BOE, and remained on call for modification requests.
Currently, CRS helps South Windsor maintain these reports and create separate versions that work in the first few months of each fiscal year while the prior year is still open. Additionally, CRS produces income statements, an employee accrual calendar, employee rosters, salary and contract letters, position control lists, and data extracts for their school messenger system.
The Board of Education’s transition to Tyler MUNIS software was facilitated by having CRS on board. According to South Windsor’s IT Director, “Ed really understands MUNIS and he understood our business practices and reporting needs, so he was able to produce a lot of the reports we needed to get through our first year.
“What I like about working with CRS is that I can give them the specifications for a report we need and then come back in a few hours and work with a prototype and finish out the details all in one day. They’re easy to work with and flexible in delivering quality solutions within a deadline. They make us look good.”
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