Monday, June 27, 2016

Indiana Wesleyan University Finds SaaS Integration to Colleague Seamless and Beautiful!

Indiana Wesleyan University, a CollegeNET Series25® customer for the past 10 years, made the move to 25Live® a few years back, and then moved everything to the SaaS platform last year.

Lori Haisley, Events and Scheduling Coordinator at Indiana Wesleyan, comments:
"This is my first full semester vCal load since our migration from DBCS to SaaS, and it was BEAUTIFUL and seamless ...this has been the best vCal Colleague/25Live(r25) transfer semester in the five years I have been working with this system! KUDOS!"
Learn more about Series25 SaaS here.  

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Why Switch to SaaS? Read what these Customers have to Say…

We recently overheard this conversation on the CollegeNET customer listserv, and thought it provided useful insights for anyone considering moving their campus scheduling to CollegeNET SaaS.
Central Washington University asks:
"We are currently using 25Live as a DBCS school and are considering moving to SaaS. Has anyone upgraded from being a DBCS environment to SaaS? I would love to know any pros and cons of doing this upgrade.”
     - Amy Alder, Academic Scheduling Supervisor, Central Washington University
Response #1 from UMASS, Boston:
“Hi Amy, A primary reason to choose SaaS is it gives the vendor a controlled environment allowing it to really hone in on the best technology. For CollegeNET in particular, SaaS right now offers you the new asynchronous SIS interface that runs circles around the one DBCS customers have.  Plus, additional releases are yours at no cost -- either monetary or time or staff.  All the upgrade tasks go away. We went from "DBCS" to SaaS in the R25 world and found it to be a world of difference.”
     – Robert Caron, Senior Business Systems Analyst, University of Massachusetts
Response #2 from Northwestern University:
“Hi Amy- I'll chime in. I believe all of us old timers made the transition from DBCS to SaaS at some point. I'm very strongly in favor of SaaS. Since 25Live is a web based product, it makes more sense for it to be handled that way. I've found that DBCS schools often aren't upgrading at a pace remotely close to what SaaS if offering. It isn't their fault. I remember being DBCS and I understand you're at the mercy of your school's IT department and the million other products they're trying to maintain. However, for a software like 25Live, that can put you behind the curve. For example, sometimes on the listserv I see schools complain about 25Live being slow. Then they say they're on version 23.  Version 23 was released in May 2013. Could you imagine using a browser like Chrome or Firefox if it hadn't been updated since 2013? For a web software, SaaS just makes better sense.”  
     – Dustin Levell, Business Systems Analyst, Northwestern University
Response #3 from Millikin University:
“I concur with Dustin; we went from R25 DBCS to 25Live SAAS, and for the most part, it's been a good decision. There have been some small hiccups along the way, but it's quite nice to be able to delegate issues from upgrades along to the support folks, rather than having to do a ton of research on our own and passing details back ;)

“There have been some things that we can't do now since we don't have direct database access, but that's forced...er...enabled and encouraged...me to break out my webservices API developer hat to build that integration, and I must say that they do have a very nice full-featured API available. The whole prod vs test setup is awesome as well - when we need a clone, we just shoot off an email, and usually within 30 minutes, test == production. No more bugging my DBA coworker one desk over for a time slot to do a db clone on top of the 50,000 other things on his plate.

“It's also nice to be able to tell the "advanced functional" users that when they have problems, just email ‘asktrainers.’ That way we don't have to act as intermediaries in between the CNet staff and our staff - they can talk things out in the language they understand, rather than me trying to act as a translator or relay host. And when I'm in one of my 50,000 meetings, or deep in another project, it doesn't slow them down because I'm not available to put a ticket in.

“And, I don't put off upgrades for fear of what will break anymore. They handle it, and I don't have to deal with it :)” 

     – Chris Myers, Systems Analyst, Millikin University
Response #4 from University of Central Missouri:
“University of Central Missouri made the transition to SaaS two years ago, so I have experience with both. We have realized a direct monetary savings as the server which formerly hosted our R25 3.4 instance was re-purposed and our IT staff has been able to invest their time on other projects. I would absolutely encourage you to strongly consider SaaS.”
     – Daniel Ayers, Event Technology Manager, University of Central Missouri
Learn more about CollegeNET SaaS services here

Monday, June 6, 2016

University of Virginia Gives the new 25Live Mobile Scheduling Rave Reviews

University of Virginia was one of the first schools to test the new 25Live® Mobile event scheduling tool, and it passed with flying colors.  The new Mobile tool makes the space request process simple and easy,” says John Moore, UVA Systems Administrator.  “A requester can quickly pull up a list of rooms for a specific date and time and immediately see their reservation options. And they can use the pop-up help messages to immediately resolve any scheduling conflicts they may encounter.”

John predicts students will especially appreciate being able to reserve event space from their phones, and he’s looking forward to making the product available for them to use starting this summer.

The new 25Live Mobile feature includes:
  • Responsive Design
             -Automatically fits to any size screen on a variety of browsers and devices
             -Accesses your customized images and colors from the main 25Live application
  • Faster Location, Event and Resource Searches
  • Easy to View Event, Location and Resource Details
  • Simpler Event Creation – Complete all Fields on one Convenient Screen
  • Quick Task Viewing and Completion on the Go

25Live Mobile is available as a free upgrade to 25Live customers.  Get more information about the web-based 25Live class and event scheduling system here