Posts Tagged ‘school administration’

Automating Parent Communications

Want to reduce incoming calls for event directions and times? Tandem for Schools provides two great communications benefits for your school/district and your parents.

First, every event listed on your Tandem calendar includes complete event details along with a link to Google maps and driving directions that are just a mouse click away.

Second, you can automate parent communications through email notification. Parents can subscribe and automatically receive any updates, location changes or cancellations. Parents can also use Tandem to synchronize with their Outlook calendar or online calendar.  More technical users can subscribe to an RSS feed.

“From my experience this year, this site is absolutely fantastic.  It should be even easier for me next year as the information rolls over from year to year.” – Jared D

We know from our customers that the better the communications with parents and the community, the higher  the participation with the school. Using Tandem for Schools will provide your staff with more time and your parents with better real-time event information.

Want to learn more?

Tandem – A Great School Calendar for a Tight Budget

We have all been hearing the latest news of financial disasters, tightening budgets, and families that are keep a much closer eye on their spending.  The latest money news hits all of us.  And it hits your school. What the future holds is uncertain.

Will lower home pricess drive lower assessments and thus les money from bond levies, if they pass as people think more about where their money is going?  It’s hard to say, but we have solutions that inform, update, and build your school community, even during the potentially tough times ahead.

Tandem for Schools is a comprehensive calendar tool for schools and districts that offers the following benefits:

  • Very simple event and calendar management with less paper.
  • Easy, and FREE, school master calendar creation with flexible electronic distribution options.
  • Registered users (parents, students, etc.) get updates when events get changed or cancelled, potentially saving wasted trips and gas.
  • Very low cost system that will cost no more than $499 per school.  No per user license costs.
  • Low cost of ownership.  We host Tandem on our servers and maintain all the technicalities.  All you do is get started entering and managing your events.
  • No additional costly and complicated training necessary.

Tandem for Schools will save you:

  • Time
  • Paper
  • Money
  • Gas
  • and Grief!

Check out Tandem for Schools today to see our easy, inexpensive and green solution that will help you make the most our of your school or district budget while strengthening your school community.  Get started with our FREE version, Tandem Basic, with absolutely no cost or obligation by clicking the button:

Or try a FREE, 30-day trial of our complete calendar system by clicking here…

Or fill out this demo request form to have one of our experts walk you through Tandem for Schools with a live web demo.

The Simplest Yearly Calendar Solution Has Arrived

We call it Tandem Basic.  It’s the simplest way to build school and district master calendars.  Gone are the days of multi-step processes.

Tandem Basic allows you to enter all key dates using a web browser in minutes:

  • First and last day of school.
  • Holidays
  • Early Dismissals
  • Staff Days
  • Etc.

Once all key dates are entered, Tandem Basic provides a collection of useful ways to distribute your yearly calendar:

  • Print out attractive PDF’s to use as handouts or post on the web.
  • Post an HTML calendar on your web site with ease
  • Provide RSS feeds for your school community to subscribe to
  • Provide links for users to sync this calendar with Outlook, Google Calendars, and iCal

And if there are changes?  Easy.  Just log in to the calendar and make changes in minutes.  The changes you make are immediately reflected in all electronic versions you have provided.

The best feature of Tandem Basic is that it is completely FREE.  You can get started now with easy yearly calendar creation.  Just click the big green button…

Tandem, Eco-Friendly??

In this day and age of environmental awareness, everyone is talking about small carbon footprints, recycling and sustainability.  Well, we’re no ones to leverage the cause du jour into a crass business purpose, but there are very real ways Tandem can impact the environment positively:

– Tandem may help you reduce significant paperwork in your calendar planning and approval process.  It’s all online, and event approvals using our system don’t require paper sign offs.  This may be of minimal impact in just one school.  But think of the implications if an entire district uses Tandem.

– Tandem may help save gas.  If parents are aware of canceled events via email, they can avoid unnecessary trips.

– Tandem may help reduce paper calendar handouts to students and staff.  Say the choir has a practice schedule filtered through Tandem.  Students can view this online and print a calendar out at their discretion.  And that’s just the choir.  Just think about how the athletic department could reduce their paper output by using Tandem.

These are just some basic ideas.  We want to help schools steward their resources more effectively, both financially and environmentally.  Tandem may just be part of the solution.

Do you have other ideas?  Feel free to post them here.

10 Tips for School Technology Planning

Scholastic.com has a great article about some things to consider when planning for new school technology.  Some key points:

  • Think open – Does the technology tool you are considering implementing play well with the other tools you already have in place?
  • Keep and eye on total cost of ownership – What is the entire picture of costs incurred to get up and running, train and maintain the system?  Oh, and don’t forget the hidden costs not many seem to mention: What is the cost in lost productivity and morale as a result of frustration with the tool?
  • Share the risk – Are you taking on the entire load of the technology, it’s weak spots, potential obsolescence, etc?

Here at Intand, we are passionate about providing great technology tools that empower rather than frustrate.  And we are keen on giving you technology that is a tool that does not distract you from getting your job done, with effectiveness and ease.  Here’s how Tandem for Schools, our web-based, database-driven calendar system can meet the above concerns:

Tandem for Schools integrates easily into your current system, without fuss.  All you need to do is set up the calendar with your facilities, events, etc.

Tandem for Schools costs very little to own. We host it in one of the best data centers on the West Coast, so you don’t have to manage hardware.  It takes little time to get users up to speed and does not require weeks of training.  Licenses are per school, not per user.  When we upgrade the system, you are automatically part of the upgrade.  Easy.  High value for minimal investment.

Tandem for Schools takes on risk for you. You can try before you buy for 30 days.  Support is free.  We maintain the hardware. You don’t have to invest thousands of your scarce school dollars into technology that just may end up going unused.

In this day and age of over-engineered technology tools, Tandem for Schools will take the pain out of your calendaring and event planning processes.

Did you know? It’s easy to change Tandem calendars.

Tandem for Schools makes calendar changes a breeze.  And any changes made will be immediately available to everyone.  Plus, users (parents, etc.) that are registered on the calendar get updates of any changes.

Because the Tandem calendar operates out of a central database, your school staff will save loads of time when schedules do change.

Here are some scenarios where Tandem for Schools will greatly streamline the calendar change process:

– A baseball game gets rained out.  Rather than have to make a bunch of phone calls (and receive a bunch from inquisitive parents), you updated or cancel the event.  Registered parents get an email, and everyone on your staff knows – pretty much now.

– Your school administration is trying to finalize the general school calendar.  You enter it in the system.  But two days later, you receive an updated schedule.  You can update it in less than five minutes.  Tandem instantly reflects the changes.

– Had some snow days?  Change the last school day on your calendar with ease.  Parents, staff, everyone?  Happy and updated.

Remember, all of the above scenarios are simple updates made by one staff person to one centralized calendar.  No more fuss getting your changes made and calendar users updated.

Shameless plug:  Tandem for Schools is easy to use and will take the stress out of calendar management.  Learn more and give it a try at www.intand.com.