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The Challenge
Like many private schools, when first starting operations in the 1990s, Garfield's data requirements were fairly unique and budgets limited so the school didn't have many options for database solutions. Garfield settled on the FileMaker Pro platform because it was a relatively inexpensive and straightforward way to make custom solutions, and systems could be built and maintained by in-house staff.
FileMaker databases developed internally served the school well for a number of years until 2007 when it started to become clear that the systems were getting increasingly disparate and harder to maintain. With the FileMaker base software recently rewritten to offer a more streamlined back-end, Garfield saw an opportunity to take a fresh approach. Management researched both commercial solutions that would have the majority of the required functionality "built in" as well as custom developed solutions that could be specifically tailored to Garfield's unique needs.
"Our old databases were built piecemeal over the past several years and were never organized or integrated," recalled Garfield Park Academy Business Manager Michele Heinz. "Each area of administration created a database to meet their needs. There were many instances of the same data being entered multiple times into different databases," Heinz added. "This created a lot of extra work, and the opportunity for many errors."
> The Solution |
