Educational Service Center Deploys GT Software’s Ivory Data Access

Upgrading Student Reporting System Brings Additional Business

ATLANTA, June 10, 2008 – GT Software (www.GTSoftware.com), a leading provider of rapid SOA development solutions that leverage mainframe resources, today announced deployment of its Ivory Data Access solution by Region 20 of Texas’ Educational Service Centers. A quasi-government business, ESCs provide services in the areas of administration, business support, certification and recruitment, curriculum, instruction and assessment, health and safety, professional development, specialized services and technology across the state.

Among the many administrative requirements is the reporting of grades and attendance, a seemingly obvious function that nonetheless can distract teachers’ attention from their main mission of preparing students for their proper roles in adult society.

The student information is maintained on a CA Datacom database management system on ESC’s IBM z9 series mainframe in San Antonio. Thousands of users enter information period-by-period, resulting in a tremendous amount of information flow with frequent peaks and valleys.

The mainframe database system has served a valuable function over the years, providing essential information to the front-end student system and other educational applications. With the increasing workload and updating becoming a challenge, maintaining user loyalty mandated a better approach to data access. Keeping all the mainframe data centrally available to all users was a requirement, and the decision was made to extend data access from widely dispersed PCs within the districts using the Grade Book application on teachers’ desktops.

After a thorough search, Region 20 contacted GT Software, providers of the Ivory Service Architect solution that web-enables legacy systems while maintaining the investment in mainframe resources. Ivory Service Architect consists of Ivory Studio, a graphical modeling environment; Ivory Server, a high performance SOAP processor with runtime service orchestration; Ivory Data Access; and Ivory Server for Batch.

“Ivory Data Access installed easily and did not require any re-training of personnel, an important aspect for Region 20, which was able to take full responsibility for the implementation,” said John McCauley, associate director for IT. “Automating these processes and extending them to anytime access is making administrative processes easier and more straightforward, contributing to teachers’ available time for responsibilities that are critical to the daily performance of their jobs,” said McCauley. “The success in Region 20 has resulted in a turnaround, and now increasing numbers of customers want to be added to the Grade Book application.”

Region 20 is running Ivory Data Access on the mainframe in CICS. Teachers can log in via the Internet any time, any day, to perform important reporting functions. Region 20 is also fiscal agent for the Texas Computer Cooperative (TCC), which develops the software.

“There is no higher calling than education,” said Rob Morris, chief strategy officer at GT Software. “Allowing teachers to update information at any time, even during their school day, makes them more productive and effective in their calling. It is very rewarding to be a part of this success, and we look forward to helping the Educational Service Centers spread this improvement across Texas and beyond.”