Third-party Press Release
Upgrade to Premier Independent School Admission Solution Launched at 2006 NAIS Conference
PORTAL 3.0 features built-in smart-merge email, enhanced reporting, integrated web applications, and enhanced security
“PORTAL 3.0 is the tool that admission directors choose when they
get to choose,” said Kevin McAllister, president and CEO of
inRESONANCE, Inc. “PORTAL’s easy to understand searching and
integrated reporting puts their finger on the pulse of their
admission season. The built-in productivity tools save the staff
hundreds of man-hours per season compared to the competition, but
it is PORTAL’s ease of use that makes it the preferred choice for
admission directors and officers.”
The solution manages the entire admission cycle from inquiry to
decision, as well as enrollment and re-enrollment. PORTAL 3.0
tracks and reports on inquiries, applications, recommendations and
transcripts, file reading, decisions, interviews, tours, visits,
sources and feeder schools. The solution’s relational structure
easily accommodates multiple families per child and multiple
children per family. This means that users can flexibly generate
contracts, mailing labels and name tags.
The optional PORTAL Web Services provide integrated web
capabilities, including online inquiries, applications and decision
notification. Families can log-in to a secure website to learn the
status of their application and even receive their decision online
if desired. Inquiries taken online can be filtered and reviewed and
then be electronically transferred into the system, saving hours of
retyping.
A key feature in PORTAL 3.0 is that an admission professional’s
productivity is achieved without leaving the solution. Emails,
letters, labels and reports are all merged and generated directly,
without needing to export to Excel, Word or Crystal Reports. Many
of the tedious reports that an office compiles separately in Excel
each month are available instantly with PORTAL.
PORTAL 3.0 is an open solution, so reports and views can be
customized. Because it is based on FileMaker Pro 8, PORTAL 3.0
provides easy querying without requiring that professionals know
SQL. PORTAL 3.0 is also cross-platform, supporting mixed computing
environments and seamless data sharing between Windows and
Macintosh users.
New Features in PORTAL 3.0
• Easy and Powerful Email Broadcast
Integration
Using PORTAL’s smart email capabilities, users can quickly send
broadcast emails to any group of constituents — without exporting
to an email program. Typical merges might include reception
invites, interview reminders and missing item notices. The emails
can contain HTML forms. These emails can dynamically refer directly
to data in the database such as interview dates, child and parent
names and reception locations.
• Enhanced analysis and reporting for better
decision-making
PORTAL lets professionals view their data directly and report on it
— without having to export to another application. Rapid analysis
and reporting without the need for a data administrator means
faster, more accurate decision-making.
• Enhanced security
Enhanced security features include connectivity to Open Directory
and Active Directory, as well as more granular control of screens
and fields. Data can be encrypted on the network.
• Faster database query and response
The improved database engine driving the PORTAL 3.0 application is
significantly faster, even over a WAN. Without learning SQL,
non-technical professionals can create and run their own queries
and eliminate having to wait for reports from a database
administrator.
• Export data in nearly any format
Because data in PORTAL 3.0 can be exported to nearly any major
office application or other enterprise database, professionals can
easily transfer data to non-PORTAL users. PORTAL 3.0 even comes
with both PDF Maker and Excel Maker capabilities, so professionals
can convert data into PDF and Excel documents to share with people
who do not have access to PORTAL. This means that PORTAL is
appropriate for schools that use other systems in other
offices.
• Enhanced data entry features
The migration to FileMaker Pro 8 brings type-ahead,
auto-spellchecking, drop-down calendars, and help menu pop-ups to
make data entry even easier.
As with all inRESONANCE solutions, PORTAL 3.0 users can also take
advantage of consulting and training services provided by
inRESONANCE, as well as tapping into the company’s experience
working directly with independent schools across the country and
around the world.
Customers Praise PORTAL 3.0
“Every admissions office is unique, so it's a major benefit that
PORTAL can be customized for our situation—and customized by a
non-programmer,” says Leo Marshall, Director of Admission &
Financial Aid for The Webb Schools, Claremont, CA. “On a day-to-day
basis, PORTAL provides easy-to-learn and easy-to-use data analysis
capabilities, which lets our staff track admission trends and,
thus, advise our Board on important strategic decisions.”
“PORTAL lets our office of four people generate the productivity of
ten,” said Tom Sheppard, Director of Admission, Stevenson School,
Pebble Beach, CA. “PORTAL’s scripting ability allows us to generate
large volumes of personalized letters or emails instantly. And the
notifications feature allows families to track the status of their
application on line, which saves many phone calls and outdated
reminder letters on our part. Most importantly, PORTAL puts us in
control of the data. When we think of something new that we want
the database to do to enhance our operation, we do it
ourselves.”
"PORTAL provides a number of time-saving features that increases
admission office productivity," said Everett Logan, Director of
Institutional Marketing with Northfield Mount Hermon School,
Northfield, MA. "The ability to make custom reports saves countless
hours of time compiling data, and the ability to create
personalized, mail-merged group e-mails directly from the database
is invaluable to us for keeping families updated. What I can do
automatically in a few minutes with Portal is superior to what
would take hours to do manually with all other solutions."
"Since converting from a solution provided by a larger vendor, our
experience with PORTAL has been outstanding," said Jon Sheehan,
Technology Director, Pomfret School, Pomfret, CT. "The admission
office is so far ahead of their daily operations that at times,
they think that something must be wrong. They are weeks ahead of
where they have been in the past. The first round of admission
decisions for day students could not have been more
efficient."
Multi-Platform Solution
Because PORTAL 3.0 runs identically on both Macintosh and Windows
computers, departments or individuals do not have to change their
hardware. Users on either computer platform can now share data
seamlessly with each other without any conversion or
transfer.
Based on FileMaker Pro 8
The PORTAL 3.0 solution is based on the award-winning FileMaker®
Pro 8, the #1 selling easy-to-use database platform. FileMaker Pro
8 recently won “Product of the Year” awards from both PC Magazine
and Macworld magazine. FileMaker is a favorite among K-12 schools
and universities. More than 10,000 schools worldwide use FileMaker
Pro, including the largest 250 U.S. school districts. FileMaker is
also used 49 of the top 50 U.S. undergraduate universities and 121
of the top 126 doctoral universities, according to latest rankings
by U.S. News & World Report.
Availability
PORTAL 3.0 will be available March 1. For more information about
the solution, or to schedule an online demo, contact Peter Baron at
peter@inresonance.com or inRESONANCE at 413-587-0236.
About inRESONANCE, Inc.
inRESONANCE (iR), based in Northampton, MA, provides technology
solutions, services and web development to schools and non-profits.
iR focuses on developing a long term strategic partnership with
clients, providing strategic IT consulting in conjunction with
solutions and training. iR provides complete CMS-based websites as
well as FileMaker Pro-based databases with integrated web
applications. The company has deep roots in education, with a
combination of more than 40 years of experience in schools. For
more information, go to http://www.inresonance.com
###
Customer Contact:
Peter Baron
VP of Sales
peter@inresonance.com
413-587-0236
Media Contact:
David Templeton
DBT Communications
templeton@snet.net
203-483-7373
©2006 inRESONANCE, Inc. All rights reserved. inRESONANCE and PORTAL
are trademarks of inRESONANCE, Inc. FileMaker and FileMaker Pro are
trademarks of FileMaker, Inc.