The Arkansas Department of Education, through its Arkansas Public School Computer Network (APSCN), has completed the most recent phase of its search for more efficient student and financial software as announced in Director’s Memorandum DIR-01-006. Based on user feedback and other information, we have decided to suspend temporarily the evaluation of alternatives for the financial application and to proceed with a Request for Proposal for a more efficient student software package consistent with the Windows applications familiar to our users.
As indicated in the previous Director’s Memorandum, we initially concentrated on two specific products, SAP/R3 (financial) and PowerSchool (student). It must be noted that we have found no reason to believe that either of these products will not work well in the APSCN environment, but believe an open RFP process only on the student software would be in our best interest at this time.
This decision is based on three primary factors. First and foremost is our user feedback indicating that consideration of the student software enhancements is a higher priority than financial. Second is the fact that APSCN staff will be able to concentrate completely on implementing only one major module at a time which would help guarantee a smoother, more timely transition. Finally, the State of Arkansas (excluding public schools) is in the process of implementing SAP/R3. Delaying our decision on a financial package will better enable us to capitalize on the experience of those overseeing this major transition.
We would like to express our special thanks to the current Pentamation users who have already been involved in helping with past evaluations. We appreciate the investment of your time through email feedback and through the inconvenience of travel and time to demonstrations and site visits.
It is anticipated that the RFP process will be completed within 12 months. As always, school district personnel will be actively involved at each step. Your interest, support and comments are welcomed and appreciated.