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Get Rollin’ on Your Annual SubFinder
Rollover
By: Todd Colt, Account Specialist
It's time to schedule the annual rollover of your
SubFinder data. Each year we receive questions
regarding the process, so we thought we would
highlight some of the most common.
Q. Why should we rollover our SubFinder system data?
A. It is highly recommended that you rollover your
SubFinder data at the end of each school year to
ensure maximum performance from your system. This
process deletes all inactive data to ensure you
begin the new school year with a clean database.
Q. Can we still access our data once the rollover is
done?
A. Yes! You will still be able to access past years’
data for reporting purposes. After the rollover, CRS
will create a report icon that is linked to the past
year’s data. This will allow you to run reports from
the prior school year.
Q. How do we get started? And how long does it take?
A. To get started, please contact your Account
Specialist as soon as possible to schedule your
rollover with a CRS Technician. The calendar is
filling up fast, so call now to help ensure that
your ideal date will be available.
The rollover will typically take about an hour to
complete. Once it has been scheduled, please be sure
to inform your administrators, employees, and
substitutes; your SubFinder system will be
unavailable during the rollover process.
Want more information?
Here are some helpful tips to consider before your
annual rollover:
¨
You have two options when it comes to job numbers.
The job numbers can continue from the last job
number assigned, or they can be renumbered to start
back at 1 by purging out all past job numbers. If
you want the purge done up to a specific date then
the job numbers will keep going up from the last job
number assigned.
¨
To make the process go as smoothly and quickly as
possible, please make sure you go through and
inactivate only those records that you want to
purge. Records to be purged could include employees,
substitutes, sites, site groups, job positions, job
position groups, and calendars.
¨
If you are using SubPay, please have the start & end
dates of your new school year in mind.
¨
If you are currently utilizing Leave Control, keep
in mind that Leave Control accrual is not part of
the rollover process. We suggest that you run your
annual Leave Control accrual after the rollover is
complete.
¨
If you are currently using a tape backup system, be
sure to purchase new tapes for the upcoming school
year prior to the rollover date. You may also want
to consider replacing your tape backup with an
external hard drive for data backup; it is more
user-friendly, reliable, and cost efficient.
It’s time to get rollin’; schedule your annual
rollover today by calling your Account Specialist at
800.782.3463. After that, leave it up to us! If you
have any additional questions regarding the annual
rollover before scheduling, please contact your
Account Specialist or click
here for the SubFinder
Rollover Checklist for tips on preparing your
database.
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District
Highlight - Lynchburg City Schools
“I don’t know why we waited
so long to make this conversion.”
Phyllis Ozmar
 Phyllis
Ozmar, SubFinder Operator with Lynchburg City
Schools, shares her district’s story about their
March 2008 conversion in from SubFinder Box on Site
(BOS) solution to the ASP solution, and the benefits
they have already experienced.
Lynchburg City Schools is located in Lynchburg,
Virginia, in the center of the state alongside the
Blue Ridge Mountains. The school district offers
educational services to more than 8,482 students
enrolled in preschool through adult classes in two
high schools, three middle schools, and eleven
elementary schools. Alternative elementary, middle
and high school programs, gifted programs, and
programs for the disabled are also available.
Lynchburg City Schools is committed to the mission
of helping children develop their full potential by
providing learning opportunities which recognize
individual needs.
We purchased SubFinder in the spring of 2001. At
that time we ran a pilot program with a couple of
our elementary schools so we would have some idea
how it would work when school started in the fall. I
am sure like most of the other districts, until we
purchased SubFinder it was the responsibility of the
school secretaries or the employees themselves to
secure a substitute. SubFinder has relieved our
secretaries of this responsibility so they can
dedicate themselves to other issues during their
busiest time of the day. Plus, SubFinder has helped
to eliminate some of the duplicate calls to
substitutes.
We had SubFinder as a BOS solution for six years and
decided it was time not only to upgrade our system
and equipment, but also enable our substitutes,
employees, and site administrators to access
SubFinder online. By using the ASP solution it gives
them two options for entering or securing jobs, the
telephone and the Internet. Another plus was that
our technicians would no longer have to support the
hardware that was used by the BOS SubFinder system.
Once we decided to convert to the ASP, we discussed
the steps we would have to take to notify 350
substitutes and 1300 employees, who use SubFinder
daily, of the change. A letter was mailed to our
current substitutes providing them the Lynchburg
SubFinder Internet address and the new phone number.
We have since implemented our monthly training for
the new substitutes to include instructions on how
to access SubFinder via the phone and the Internet.
A notice was also sent to all of our employees
informing them of the new SubFinder phone number. In
the near future further information will be provided
to our employees when they receive their actual
training on the Internet portion of SubFinder.
We had the two day training that is provided with the ASP
package and wanted to thank CRS Trainer Sue Pangborn
for a wonderful experience. This training allowed our principals, site
administrators, and instructional technology
specialists (who will train our employees) an
opportunity to spend time interacting with the
system. At this point it has only been a week, but
feedback from substitutes and site administrators is
that they love being able to access the system
without having to rely on the central office to
assist with the day-to-day operations and job
changes that occur.
During the transition process, CRS has been at our
beck and call. They have guided us through each step
of the transition, answered all of our questions,
and eased our minds in taking this giant step for
our division into this new era of service.
Now that we have the ASP system I don’t know why we
waited so long to make this conversion. I think it
will be a huge benefit to all those who use it in
our district. THANKS to CRS for holding our hands!
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Make the Switch
It’s time for your organization to make the switch
to the SubFinder ASP, just as Lynchburg City Schools
did. Many of you understand the difference between
SubFinder as a BOS system and as an ASP system, but
still have questions about how this transition is
executed. Here is a brief run-down of the BOS to ASP
conversion.
¨ Once the
ASP system is purchased, a Planning Meeting will
be scheduled with an Implementation Specialist.
¨ During the
Planning Meeting, the Implementation Specialist
and those involved from your organization will
discuss each party’s responsibilities and any
changes that will be noticed by the various end
users.
¨ Now the
fun begins! A technician, from your organization
or from CRS, will export all the data within
your BOS SubFinder system. A CRS ASP specialist
will then upgrade the data and configure your
SubFinder ASP system. This process does take one
to two days, depending on the size of your data
files, and the SubFinder system will be down
during this transition process.
¨ Once this
is completed, your organization will be notified
to begin using the new URL and phone number
provided during the Planning Meeting. All the
old SubFinder equipment and phone lines can be
taken down.
If you are interested in learning more about
SubFinder as an ASP solution, please contact the CRS
Sales Specialist, Katy McCloskey, at 800.782.3463
Ext. 6171 or at
Katy.McCloskey@crs-ivr.com.
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Learn About the New SubFinder in
Style
Register for the 2008 SubFinder Annual User Group
Conference
 before
Friday June 13, 2008 to be entered in a drawing for
a complimentary four night stay in a suite at the
luxurious Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, NV.
This conference will include intense user training
on the redesigned SubFinder. You can’t miss this
unique opportunity! For additional information or to
register please visit the CRS
website.
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for blooming flowers, thunderstorms, warm days and
cool nights, bar-b-que’s, and of course, employees
and students start to get the summer bug. It is
official, spring has sprung!