Jefferson County Schools recognizes the value of a content management solution. It also knows that leveraging this toolset requires solid support from the technology provider.

“A company can have a wonderful product, but unless they really want to assist the customer in using the product effectively to solve the district’s challenges, it won’t be a good experience,” said Rob Perks, television/Web analyst at Jefferson County Schools in West Virginia. “If one of my colleagues was considering purchasing a CMS, my advice would be to choose a company that is customer-oriented versus product-oriented.”

Jefferson County Schools recently made a decision to replace its existing CMS with Schoolwires Centricity2™. The district reviewed several solutions on the market after it experienced a decline in the quality of service from its previous vendor.

“The company we were with made some significant changes. After that, we felt like they no longer really knew us and that they did not have our best interests at heart. When I called in for technical support, I was grilled for 10 minutes about whether or not I was a customer and what I needed help for,” recalled Perks. “When we started looking at other companies, we asked ourselves, ‘are they willing to really work with us to help us meet our goals?’”

Schoolwires has the personal touch

When measured against this gold standard, Schoolwires stood above the rest.

“Our decision came down to a philosophy of trust and the personalization of service we believe we will receive from Schoolwires,” said Perks.

The quality of service was demonstrated throughout the sales process. The Schoolwires sales representative took the time to meet face-to-face with members of the district and to understand the challenges they are facing and the needs they want to address.

“He gave us personal care. We didn’t feel like just another number. He showed great follow through and kept his promises. The other people we have worked with at Schoolwires since then have been really great, too” said Perks.

Broad product offering supports district goals

Of course, product performance also is important. The functionality within Centricity2 will help the district meet its goals of providing personalized information and resources targeted to different user groups. Also, the solution has many interactive tools to help students and teachers collaborate online and extend the learning process beyond classroom hours.

Users can easily access all the rich resources with just one sign-on. This enables teachers and other authorized users to add multiple online resources and third-party services to their websites without requiring users to remember multiple passwords to access them. The district is scheduled to go live with Centricity2 in July 2012.

In addition to Centricity2, the district purchased Synergy™ and Nimbus™ from Schoolwires. Synergy is Web-based file sharing that’s secure and easy to use. Using the solution, students, teachers and other users can create, edit, organize, store and share digital files and presentations. Users can simultaneously access and edit documents and see the documents change in real time.

“The Synergy solution really excited us,” said Perks. “The capability for groups to share and work on documents is a great tool for collaboration.”

The collaborative learning experience will be strengthened by Nimbus, a safe social learning environment that offers easy-to-use instructional and social networking tools. The solution supports the flipped classroom model of instruction that is being embraced by some of the district’s teachers.

“We went to Schoolwires’ headquarters recently for training and the staff there was very warm, helpful and welcoming. We feel confident that Schoolwires is interested in establishing a long-term relationship with our district,” said Perks.

Contact us to learn more about the many ways Schoolwires is transforming the education experience.

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Contact us to learn more about the many ways Schoolwires is transforming the education experience.