Aurora is one of the largest and fastest growing cities in the state of Illinois with a population of more than 142,000. It is located in Kane County 40 miles west of Chicago on the Fox River and I-88 Tollway. East Aurora School District 131 is made up of 17 school communities with 11,000 students and 1,300 staff.
Keeping track of staff changes and communicating between the different schools in the district is essential. Before implementing the new solution, the district had previously given hard copies of its staff directory to every one of its 1,300 employees. It became increasingly difficult to update this directory and by the time the hard copy was produced, it was usually out-of-date before they were even delivered.
Gary Tollaksen, director of instructional technology for the district looked at a wide range of solutions that were available. "We researched a variety of options before finally selecting WorkgroupShare. Other contact management programs we tried always failed."
Gary Tollaksen and the technology team at East Aurora School District 131
WorkgroupShare enables staff to search and find contact details and also access co-employee calendars which has improved the organization and efficiency of the schools. WorkgroupMail also provides a district-wide email solution. "Technical faults have been almost non-existent in the district and on the odd occasion when it has been required to get in touch with Softalk, assuring help was on hand conveniently and quickly," added Tollaksen.
"For Aurora East School District 131 the security of the system is paramount so I'm reassured to say that we have had no security issues at all with this product."
Tollaksen summed up the district's experience of WorkgroupShare by saying, "We are very pleased with this product. The staff that use WorkgroupShare are especially pleased. The ability to update our contacts real time is the major plus for us. We love the product and the new version should only be better."
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