alio Intelligence includes the following:

-Out-of-the-box dashboards, including metrics for school principals, human resource staff, payroll staff and finance staff.

-Robust security features dictate what information is observable, based on job and location information. This allows school administrators to monitor information specific to a particular campus, in real-time mode.

-Key metrics are identified from student systems, point-of-sale food service, sub-caller/time clock systems and other external products.

-Information is presented in the form of interactive dashboards, with the ability to dissect and analyze essential information. There are drillable lists and graphs that can be utilized to evaluate specific details of information.

-Information is easily readable with color graphs and alerts that visually guide users to information that is above or below certain district-defined thresholds

-There are also workflow alerts designed to inform users of specific information that requires action.

Report Writer

An end-user ad-hoc report writer is included in alio Intelligence. The report writer includes a data dictionary that presents the data model in an easily identifiable, user-friendly format. This permits end-user access to data without having to know the data structure and how to link related tables.

The data structure also provides multiple representations of the same information to assist in framing how the information is retrieved and analyzed. This aids users in gathering information faster and in the format they desire.

Weidenhammer is pleased to announce that its alio Finance and Human Resource Systems has been named one of the top 100 products by District Administration magazine for the second year in a row.

Using an interactive rating system, District Administration asked its readers to rate their favorite products from its products database (www.districtadministration.com/products) within the categories of hardware, software, Internet, books and materials, and facilities.

The winning products were chosen by evaluating readers’ online ratings, new product suggestions, and comments. Additional input was provided by the District Administration Advisory Panel.

District Administration is a monthly publication covering all of the important topics faced in today’s K12 school systems. With a circulation of more than 73,000, District Administration reaches top decision-makers in virtually every school district across the country. Subscribers are district-level leaders in K12 education, including superintendents, assistant superintendents, curriculum directors, business officers, IT directors and federal funds administrators.

9) Experts in year-end processing, security, scheduling, payroll, portals, and more will present detailed sessions and answer questions.

8) The conference will be held at the San Marcos Golf Resort—check the web site for photos of this beautiful facility, which features a championship golf course, two pools, private balconies and an on-site Starbucks.

7) Hear the stories and learn from the masters as the Wyoming Public Schools team describes how they re-vamped their district by customizing their Weidenhammer products.

6) The five user-specific tracks guarantee that you attend sessions that pertain directly to the aspect of the application that you work with every day.

5) Wednesday night’s schedule is full of festivities - including a conference dinner, a poolside reception, and entertainment.

4) Be inspired by Bill Strickland, community leader and author of Make the Impossible Possible, as he delivers the keynote address.

3) Meet the super friendly Weidenhammer Team Members who are dedicated to providing top-notch support for your district.

2) Learn about the new alio Intelligence tool, which will drastically simplify your work with data, from input to tracking to creating reports and much more.

1) Location, location, location—who doesn’t need a break from the cold in March? You can’t beat sunny Arizona in the spring!

Visit our web site to view all the conference details and register on-line, but do it soon! Rooms are going fast and our lodging group rate of $149 is only guaranteed through January 30th.

The CenSys System is designed to accurately and completely capture relevant, high quality census data within a given school district. The census snapshots of local landscapes provide school administrators with detailed demographic information on children, parents, and households – in real-time format.

Designed to save valuable time and money, Weidenhammer’s CenSys System allows teachers and school administrators to accurately evaluate the demographics of their public or private education at the elementary and secondary level.

It Has a Desktop Look, With the Features of a Web Application

The CenSys application brings with it the features of a web application, but it possesses the appearance, familiarity and comfort of a desktop application. Therefore, querying, reporting, and data collection are effortless and straightforward.

CenSys also allows users to create shortcuts to commonly used screens right on their desktop, allowing quick and easy access to them. In addition, users can also generate their own folders to help organize information in a way that makes it easy for them to locate the specific information they regularly access. This includes the capability to open several windows simultaneously, allowing users to easily compare various sets of data.

Extensive Search Capabilities

With system filters, Weidenhammer’s CenSys System also possesses exceptional search capabilities. Users can search CenSys information by address, first name, last name, as well as by gender. This flexibility permits extensive drill-down capabilities, giving school districts the ability to uncover the information they need at a moment's notice.

Aiding the search process, the CenSys System maintains a query designer and assists users in creating a query.

With the query designer, users have access to an extensive listing of pre-defined field names that make query creation simple, fast and efficient. Queries can then be exported to any Microsoft™ Excel or Word file, or put into PDF or CSV format.

After the queries are created, reporting parameters can be modified on the fly, making it simple for administrators to report and compile information based on the different sets of reporting criteria.

Security Features

With an extreme importance placed on maintaining the integrity of the data, Weidenhammer’s CenSys System offers robust security features throughout the program. This includes supporting security group functionality, which allows proper security measures to permeate throughout specific data areas without having to take security measures on an individual basis.

Also within the CenSys System, security can be established at the Form Level, Table Level and Field Level. Within each view, appropriate administrators have the capability to revoke views or select sections of fields, while preserving visibility to appropriate team members.

Weidenhammer is pleased to announce the initial release of our dbConnect Solution. dbConnect is a new middleware solution that will enable PowerSchool clients to use several of the Weidenhammer add-on software solutions. The current release of dbConnect gives PowerSchool clients the ability to utilize our custom Health Atom solution.

Weidenhammer is in the process of integrating our Fees add-on into the dbConnect Solution, allowing Fees to work with PowerSchool. The release for this enhancement is scheduled for late February. As the year progresses, our plans include integrating the Attendance Letters, Electronic Report Card (ERC), Discipline Letters, and PocketSchool Solutions.

For more information, please click here.

The article includes tips and pointers for districts to make the most out of their software provider contracts, including how to conduct thorough research during the RFP process, keep tabs on available upgrades and instructional classes, and discuss future goals as operations change.

The article, titled "Negotiating a Win-Win Software Vendor Relationship," is featured in the November issue of the magazine, which is read by over 6,000 business managers across the country. Click this link to view and read the pdf version of the article.

John is no stranger to published work—he wrote two pieces in 2008 for Government Procurement magazine.

Over 25 team members volunteered to contribute their time and energy in shifts on November 21st and 24th. The team packed boxes of food on Friday that were given to families identified by the Salvation Army. Other local companies prepared food boxes for families that they "adopted," and Weidenhammer volunteers delivered those boxes on Monday, November 24.

In addition to the contribution of time, Weidenhammer donated $3,000 to the Salvation Army to purchase grocery store gift cards for families. The grand total of families that received assistance thanks to the Salvation Army in Reading this past Thanksgiving was 1,074.

The Weidenhammer volunteers also benefitted from their hard work—some team members brought their children and other family members to help out. Event coordinator Nadine Weidenhammer said the following about the Salvation Army service event: "It was an incredible experience, providing for the team of volunteers much 'food for thought' as well as a good time."

Thanks to all of the participants for their dedication to the community. This holiday service opportunity was part of a series of charity events in honor of Weidenhammer’s 30th anniversary.

Powerschool Webinar Schedule

Below is a list of upcoming PowerSchool webinars for state reporting.

January 30 – CT

January 30 - MI

February 20 - IL

March 3 - VA

March 10 - IN

For more information, please click here.

Weidenhammer once again participated in ASBO on November 7-10 in Denver, Colorado. ASBO (Association of School Business Officials International) is a professional organization of 6,000 school business management professionals. This event is one of the largest education industry conventions, and draws representatives from a variety of vendors and school districts.

Weidenhammer enjoyed a steady stream of traffic at their booth, where we promoted the alio suite of products. Frank Heins, John Green, and John Laugen represented Weidenhammer at the event.

Weidenhammer Participates in Educational Technology Leadership Conference

Weidenhammer also participated in the 14th Annual Educational Technology Leadership Conference on December 10-11, 2008. This conference was geared mostly towards Technology Departments, with attendees being primarily directors of technology, assistant directors of technology and support personnel.

Attending from Weidenhammer were Frank Heins and Kevin Brobst. In addition to showcasing Weidenhammer products and services, Brobst also enlightened attendees with a presentation titled, "Financial Data-Driven Decision Making for Schools."

Charlotte Fidler is a Client Support Representative, working with alio financial products. She has worked at Weidenhammer since 2000, and a good portion of her time is spent traveling to client sites for implementation and training. In addition, she also performs webinar training, handles support calls and assists with alio documentation. Prior to her current role, Charlotte supported the CIMS financial product through phone support and onsite training. She also served on the HMS "rewrite" team for several years. One highlight of her onsite client training included a trip to Guam.

Charlotte, who obtained her AAS from Reading Area Community College in 2000, currently resides in Sinking Spring, PA with her husband, three adult sons, and her miniature pincher, Titan. A true "soccermom," Charlotte still enjoys attending her sons' soccer games and various other sporting events. In her spare time, she enjoys directing the church choir, serving as chaplain in her Eastern Star chapter, and tutoring students in math, SATs, and ACTs. Charlotte relaxes by crocheting, reading and listening to music.

Sandy Green

Sandy is a business Analyst for the CIMS team in Mesa. Most recently, she has taken on the responsibility of QA and telephone support for the alio Applicant and Employee portals. Sandy has over ten years of experience working on school fund accounting software, primarily in support and testing roles. She spent six years working for Windsor Management Group as manager of their testing department. Prior to working at Windsor, she worked with the CIMS Finance products at NCS Pearson.

When not working, Sandy enjoys relaxing in the pool with her family. Other interests include scuba diving, traveling, and golfing.

Kevin Walbert

Kevin is a developer for PowerSchool state reporting in Wyomissing. He is in charge of development in five states and also trains new developers in PowerSchool coding.

Kevin graduated from Kutztown with a B.S. in Computer Science and started employment with Weidenhammer in spring of 2007. When he is not working, Kevin enjoys exercising, working on cars, baseball, hanging out with friends, and traveling. He is also a die hard Philadelphia sports fan which has its ups and downs...mostly downs.

Matt Warren

Matt began with Weidenhammer in May of 2006 as an application specialist. He started off supporting Centerpoint as well as our Electronic Report Card application. In 2007, he was certified on PowerSchool and began supporting and training it right away. Matt became a PowerSchool implementation manager in 2008 and that is the position he currently holds.

Matt received his bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University with a major in Telecommunications and Information Management. He married his wife, Heather, in 2008 and they currently reside in Portage, MI. In his spare time, Matt enjoys tennis, drag racing, and playing Rock Band

Nick VanLent

Nick joined Midwest Educational Group in March of 2002 as a Support Analyst and became part of the Weidenhammer team when they merged in December 2004. He has provided support for SASI, Centerpoint, Custom Applications, ParentCONNECTxp and IGPro. Nick has also developed custom reports for school districts using Crystal Reports, JReports, Formula One, and Jasper Reports. He is currently on the installation team for PowerSchool and is working on his PowerSchool certification to become an implementation manager.

Nick married his wife, Michelle, in May of 2002; they bought a house in December of 2003; and they currently have a beautiful 18 month old daughter, Brianna, and two cats. He enjoys outdoor activities such as snowboarding, rollerblading, basketball, etc., and video games. Nick also has an extensive collection of Goofy stuff (figurines, toys, stuffed "dolls", etc) which takes up a good portion of his computer room at home. Most recently, Michelle and Nick have been addicted to playing Guitar Hero and Rockband.

Andy Falconetti

Andy has been a Client Support Representative with Weidenhammer since 1997. In addition to alio support, he also serves as the main contact and liaison for NowDocs processing.

Prior to Weidenhammer, Andy worked for Cigna Insurance in their data processing facility. He has a BA in Humanities from the University of Colorado and currently resides in Denver. In his spare time, he enjoys camping and traveling with his wife and son as well as playing music and collecting an embarrassing number of guitars, books, CDs and LPs.

Here are the tentative release dates for upcoming alio applications and updates.

• alio Release 9.2a
• February 20, 2009
• alio Release 9.2b
• April 24, 2009
• alio Release 10.0
• July 31, 2009

The following table lists the SASI updates, organized by state. Please contact us at k12.support@hammer.net if you have any questions about the status of SRC reporting functionality in any other state.

State	Update
Michigan	MARS clients should watch for a release the beginning of February. The release will include required modifications for spring, and the new MSDS Early Childhood XML extract. Version 3.5.0 will be posted on our software download site located at http://www.hammer.net/download/mi/mars/