A Service, Not a Product
Veracross is unlike anything on the school market today. Let's compare the "old way" of how most systems work to the "Veracross way."
The old way
Most educational packages require a large up-front license fee to buy a standard software package. Then a low monthly charge is added for software maintenance. Setup, data conversion, and ongoing services are additional costs. This approach may sound reasonable, but it has served the industry very poorly.
Here is what often happens. The school board will approve limited funds for a package which the school hopes will meet their needs. After a painful installation and startup requiring a tremendous amount of time and energy from administrators and teachers, most schools find they need additional software customization, training, and ongoing service support. However, these services cost extra, so the school quickly runs out of funding and stops paying to support the product. This causes the system to miss needed upgrades; so work-arounds are implemented. Over time, regular staff turnover causes a decline in system utilization as new staff find it easier to create new work-arounds rather than learn the system. Soon the system is in disrepair and serving only a limited amount of functionality. Many of the paper and manual systems are maintained and the benefits of an integrated computer system are lost.
The Veracross way
With Veracross, Breuer & Co. partners with your school to develop a system that meets your specific needs. Veracross is a service more than it is a product. We tailor the Veracross system so that it is simple and easy for you to manage your school processes and policies. Simple home pages for each functional area provide customized reports to meet the school's exact needs. Policies are automated in the system and automatically flag teachers and staff when action is needed. The intuitive parent interface allows your school to engage directly with parents like never before. This brings the school community together in a powerful way.
Ongoing service means that Breuer & Co. is just a phone call away. At any time, we can add new reports, data fields, or functionality to suit your school's needs. This level of service keeps the system up-to-date and working efficiently. It also prevents staff members from struggling with system problems. The high level of Veracross service guarantees that the system will work effectively now and forever. This means your school will achieve the maximum possible benefits in reducing administration costs and complexity.
Veracross is built on an industrial platform that allows for cost-effective customization. So you need not worry about the costs of a tailored system. A typical Veracross installation involves a low up-front fee and modest monthly payments. Low fees mean you limit your financial risk, yet continue to keep premium service in place for maintenance, custom changes and upgrades.
Veracross vs. "Best of Breed"
Very few, if any, off-the-shelf packages are able to meet the needs of the entire organization. Therefore, the "Best-of-Breed" approach is often taken, resulting in the acquisition of multiple software packages for different purposes, such as Admissions, Development, Medical, Grading, etc. Only after such acquisitions do organizations realize that the cost of integrating these systems can far exceed the initial acquisition cost, often by several multiples. Thus, most organizations end up with a hodge-podge of systems, with very little integration, and therefore, much of the promised efficiencies and cost-savings are never realized.
With Veracross, the system is tailored to meet your needs. So by definition, it works well for you, the user. This not only limits risk, but provides a simpler solutions that is easy to learn and implement. Ongoing service means changes are made to suit your school's needs. And because Veracross is an integrated solution, you always benefits from the efficiencies of one system.
Industrial Quality
Veracross is built on the same industrial-strength software platform that Breuer & Co. uses for corporate systems. This means Veracross is fast, reliable, and secure. Many of the functions and features in Veracross were first developed for corporate marketing and financial systems. Since Breuer & Co. systems share the same industrial basis, you can be confident in the ongoing performance and maintenance of Veracross systems.
How Veracross Began
Breuer & Co. has been building Corporate Financial Systems and Partner Relationship Management (PRM) systems for 25 years. These systems allow large corporations to manage their financial and marketing relationships with their clients. This entails tracking an enormous amount of data and activity. Breuer & Co. found that these requirements for industry were very similar to the requirements for school systems. After talking with several educational professionals, it became clear that no one was offering an industrial-quality solution for the educational market that truly managed all aspects of school information management. So Breuer & Co. first developed Veracross for several local schools. With interest levels extremely high, Breuer & Co. launched Veracross to the general market, and the rest is history...