DataHouse Consulting

Special Needs Students Get Improved Services with Software-Plus-Services Solution

Based in Honolulu, Hawaii, Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner DataHouse Consulting has been in the IT business for more than 30 years. Recently, DataHouse implemented a new student program management solution for Hawaii’s Department of Education (DOE). The Web-based application is delivered through the software-plus-services model that combines software accessed by users over the Internet with on-premise desktop productivity software. DataHouse hosts and supports the Electronic Comprehensive Student Support System (eCSSS), the Microsoft .NET-connected online application that DOE uses to track interventions and support for its students. Employees use Microsoft Office Excel® spreadsheet software or Adobe Acrobat to manage reports. DataHouse expects to grow its business with the software-plus-services approach because businesses appreciate choosing how they access and use software.

 

Situation

DataHouse Consulting is a Microsoft® Gold Certified partner located in Honolulu, Hawaii. The company began operations in 1975. DataHouse offers core IT services such as software development, analysis, project management, system implementation, and integration, training, and support.

Joining the Partner Program

Over the past few years, more and more DataHouse customers began standardizing on a Microsoft®-based infrastructure. Consequently, DataHouse began thinking about working more closely with Microsoft to develop and host applications based on Microsoft technologies. “Joining the partner program enhanced our credibility,” says Clyde Shiigi, President and CEO of DataHouse Consulting. “We also benefitted from technical support when we began developing applications to run on Microsoft technologies.”

This solution is important for the community. The software-plus-services model gave the DOE more choice in accessing and using our application to deliver support services for all students in need. Clyde Shiigi President and CEO, DataHouse Consulting

In 2004, DataHouse answered a Request for Proposal from the Office of Information Services in the Department of Education (DOE) for the State of Hawaii. The DOE in Hawaii is the tenth largest school district in the United States. It has approximately 180,000 students in 290 schools where 13,000 teachers work. Covering such a large geographical area that comprises a varied socioeconomic landscape presents significant challenges for the DOE, including the provision of services for the 51 percent of its student population that have special needs.

“This is a big challenge for us that is close to our hearts,” says Rodney Moriyama, Assistant Superintendent of the Department of Education, State of Hawaii. “Special needs students run the gamut from being economically disadvantaged, to requiring ESL services, to having behavioral or learning disabilities.”

Incompatible Systems

The DOE had three student support and program management systems that it had developed in response to a federal law mandating that services provided to students were appropriate and timely. The systems were built to run on IBM Lotus Domino server software at the department’s headquarters. However, due to erroneous or inconsistent data entry, the three systems contained discrepant data. Also, the solution had reached the limits of its Domino-based architecture, storing close to 350,000 records.

The federal government also requires sophisticated reporting to document school systems’ programs for special needs students. The DOE IT staff developed various tracking programs to help its inflexible systems adapt to changing federal reporting requirements. The DOE knew these workarounds were not tenable for the long term, and that it needed to consolidate its systems and migrate its aging platform to a scalable, Microsoft-based IT infrastructure.

“We wanted one comprehensive, customizable solution that would integrate all the features of our old systems allowing us to easily manage our programs, track our students, and report on our progress,” says Moriyama. “That way, we could get on with our job of educating.”

 

Solution

DataHouse Consulting proposed a custom .NET-connected application built to run on Microsoft SQL Server® 2005 database software and the Windows Server® 2003 operating system delivered using the software-plus-services model. Software-plus-services refers to hosted software delivered over the Internet that interacts with a customer’s on-premise server or client software hosted application. This model would offer the DOE the flexibility and scalability of Internet services together with a rich user experience and worry-free maintenance.

Figure 1. eCSSS is a Web-based student program management application that helps school systems.

The application DataHouse developed for the Department of Education for the state of Hawaii is called the Electronic Comprehensive Student Support System, or eCSSS. It is a Web-based application that runs on Internet Information Services 6.0, the Web server role built into Windows Server 2003. The eCSSS application combines the DOE’s existing student systems and has the potential to track all students receiving support services from referral through evaluation and testing, development of an Individual Education Program (IEP), and ongoing monitoring of each student’s progress. “We wanted a single student-centered solution to support our goal centered on the concept of the ‘Single Story of a Student’,” says Moriyama. “DataHouse rose to the challenge with eCSSS.”

When eCSSS launched in March 2007, DOE staff accessed the program using their browser. DataHouse offered the DOE a single source and point of accountability for services such as application upgrades, hardware, networking, application monitoring, maintenance, and 24-hour-a-day help-desk support. But this isn’t simply a hosting scenario: the application was designed to work with specific server and client software at the DOE. It uses the DOE’s existing Domino authentication structure to authentic users, and staff can import data from the hosted application into Microsoft Office Excel® spreadsheet software for further analysis. Also, DataHouse built a reporting framework that extends the functionality of SQL Server Reporting Services so that staff, teachers, vice principals, and principals in the DOE can choose parameters to filter data for specific reports.

“The new services delivery model gives the DOE choices about how its staff can access and manipulate information to comply with key reporting requirements for the federal government,” says Jeff Masumoto, eCSSS Project Manager at DataHouse Consulting. “The reporting is processed on the servers at our facility, and staff can choose to use just the browser-based reporting experience built into eCSSS or they can export it and print it out in Excel XLS File format and HTML formats. We offer direct access to SQL Server Reporting Services where they can use Report Manager and Report Builder for more complex reports.”

 

Benefits

Since the launch of eCSSS, the Department of Education for the State of Hawaii has experienced a paradigm shift in its efficacy in managing and reporting on programs for students with special needs. Because DataHouse Consulting continues to work closely with the DOE to refine and support eCSSS, the company is seeing the benefits of both the application and the software-plus-services delivery model. Using this delivery model with other customers, DataHouse expects to expand its market share, generate additional monthly revenue, and improve customer service.

Expanding Market Share with Tailored Solutions

“For DataHouse, the DOE engagement proves the value of choice for customers, which is the hallmark of the software-plus-services approach. Customers can choose how to access or deploy an application, how to integrate that application with existing software, and how to subscribe to the right level of services to meet their needs.  “Working with the DOE confirms the potential of software-plus-services as a way for us to expand our customer base in different markets,” says Shiigi. “This delivery model provides an unbeatable scenario we can tailor for our clients: worry-free Web-based access to hosted software that works with on-premise software for added functionality for no extra cost. This is applicable to other industries such as the financial industry or government.”

Adding New Sources of Revenue

DataHouse can also use the software-plus-services approach to diversify the types of revenue it collects through options such as recurring monthly subscriptions and service and support fees. Additional revenue opportunities come from taking advantage of online offerings from Microsoft targeted to businesses looking to move to Internet computing, which could be incorporated into custom solutions or be licensed to customers. These online services include Microsoft Office SharePoint® Online, Microsoft Exchange Online, and Microsoft Office Live Meeting. “We see the new online services that Microsoft is providing as additional layers in the services stack that we can offer customers,” says Shiigi.

Improving Customer Service

Since deploying eCSSS, the DOE has experienced many benefits that exemplify the positive experience customers can expect from subscribing to a combination of hosted and on-premise services. 

“This latest engagement with DataHouse Consulting reaffirms why we are a long-term client,” says Moriyama. “eCSSS is becoming a more user-friendly, customizable solution with declining upkeep on our part. We no longer waste departmental resources on maintaining an outdated system. We plan on adding more of our programs to help efficiently manage our gifted students, or our teenage mothers, for example.”

“Now we can focus on our mandate, which is providing the best education to all children in the State of Hawaii,” adds Leona Chock, a recently retired Project Manager at the Department of Education, State of Hawaii. “After consolidating our three systems into one solution, we no longer worry about data inconsistencies, and we can more accurately track students’ progress to move in quickly with intervention in the early grades.”

For the staff at DataHouse Consulting, this feedback is the most rewarding. “The majority of us have family members who are part of the public education system, as teachers, staff, or students,” says Shiigi. “This solution is important for the community. The software-plus-services model gave the DOE more choice in accessing and using our application to deliver support services for all students in need.”
 
Software + Services
Software-plus-services is an industry shift driven by the fast-growing recognition that combining Internet services with client and server software can deliver exciting new opportunities. Microsoft is dedicated to helping individuals and businesses take advantage of these opportunities. By bringing together the best of both software and services, we maximize capabilities, choice, and flexibility for our customers. The broad software-plus-services approach unites multiple industry phenomena including software as a service, service-oriented development, and the Web 2.0 user experience under a common umbrella.

For more information about software-plus-services, go to:
www.microsoft.com/softwareplusservices

partner.microsoft.com/global/productssolutions/productssoftwareplusservices

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com

For more information about DataHouse Consulting products and services, call 808 942-8108 or visit the Web site at:
www.datahouse.com

For more information about Department of Education, State of Hawaii products and services, call (808) 586-3307 or visit the Web site at:
doe.k12.hi.us