It’s a big world but it just got a little smaller now that finalsite has opened up three new offices in Singapore, San Francisco, California and Memphis, Tennessee. These offices are in addition to our headquarters in Hartford and our long-standing London office.

Spreading out across the globe means that we can better serve you and your needs more quickly. Look for enhanced customer support and sales and be sure to pass along the news to any schools in your area that may be interested in learning more about website solutions!

Staffing these offices are two new faces to finalsite as well as a veteran that many of you will already know…

Debbie Eisenach joins finalsite’s Singapore office after working in the technology field as a trainer, project manager, and support staff personnel. Debbie just completed a master’s degree in educational technology and has a Certification in Technology Integration. She has a special interest in portals and Web 2.0 tools and sees the school website as the front door to those technologies. She notes, “It all has to be easy to access, easy to use, and easy to maintain.”

Debbie joined finalsite because she recognized it as a “small company where stuff gets done.” She’s eager not just to reach out to new schools but also to build relationships with current finalsite clients. Knowing that the needs of the international school are unique, Debbie writes, “I am keen on getting the schools in the region talking together to see how they can better use the system and what works and does not work.”

As a parent of children who attend an international school, Debbie has a feel for what parents are looking for from an international school’s website. “I want to know what is going on at the school,” says Debbie. “I want to see what my kid are doing, be able to communicate with their teachers, see what they are doing in the community, see about sports and possibly talk with other parents with similar needs.”

San Francisco staffer Bethany Silvestri is a familiar face to many finalsite schools, having started as a project manager before moving into sales and marketing last year.  Bethany is most at home sharing her passion for and knowledge of finalsite software with both potential and current clients.

What brought Bethany to finalsite? As a veteran world traveler, she loved finalsite’s global quality as well as its great reputation. Writes Bethany, “The prospect of working with people all over the world was exciting. In a given day, I would have the opportunity to “meet” with schools in multiple countries.”

If you’re on the West Coast, be sure to look for Bethany at regional conferences, local Web Tech Events (formerly called On-the-Road Bootcamps), area presentations, and occasional campus visits. Support and deployment will continue to operate as normal through the Hartford office, but client schools, writes Bethany, “will now have the opportunity to consult with finalsite right in their backyard.” She will also work with potential clients as well.


Ask Bethany about the next big web trend and she’ll answer: mobile. “The web is becoming more and more accessible across so many devices,” argues Bethany. “Schools should definitely take into consideration the rate at which technology is influencing consumer behavior and try to keep pace with these changes and the associated expectations. I think partnering with a website vendor that understands schools and technology, such as finalsite, is a big component in planning to achieve this goal.”

Staffing the Memphis office is Lorrie Jackson, who worked for ten years in independent and public schools as a teacher, technology staff member, and administrator before moving to finalsite. She was involved in several website launches at two finalsite schools and most recently served as webmaster as part of her former role as Director of Marketing and Communications at Lausanne Collegiate School (Memphis, TN).

For her, finalsite’s team-oriented and customer-centered approach was a key factor in joining the company. With a background in technology training as well as classroom experience, Lorrie is looking forward to listening to clients and learning more about their website successes and challenges. Just like Debbie and Bethany, Lorrie is available to chat with both current and potential clients. “Being in the same time zone really helps when it’s a quick call about a current website or a few questions on a potential site launch.”

Lorrie sees video as a key element on school websites in the months and years ahead. As a parent of an independent school student, she knows firsthand how important it is for families to see their children on online video on the school website. “Internet users are not only spending more time watching online videos, they are spending more time uploading original videos. Watch for more and more demand for video on school websites in the near future.”

Don’t forget that familiar faces continue to serve you from Hartford and London. Jon Moser, Rob DiMartino, Anthony Tata, and the rest of the Hartford sales and support team are as always ready and willing to help you move your website from good to great. Clive Ungless in London and Brooke Peterson in Brussels, meanwhile, ensure that the needs of our friends worldwide are being met, both in sales and support, so don’t hesitate to reach out to them should you need them.

Now worldwide, finalsite is there for you where you need us most. Contact an office near you today!

Schools around the world are saving time, money, and resources by going paperless when possible. Summer mailings are a good opportunity to do just that. Lawrence Academy, (Groton, MA) and All Saints Academy (Winter Haven, FL) are two schools who not only found a costs-savings but also improved parent satisfaction after moving their summer mailings online in two unique ways.

Lawrence Academy and the New Portal Tabs

Having moved Lawrence Academy’s summer mailing to a public web page last summer, the challenge for the school this year was twofold: put the forms behind a password and keep the layout clean and clutter-free. The new Portal redesign from the summer redesign gave the school the tools they needed. After an hour or two of tinkering in the finalsite sandbox “to get a feel for how the tabs were going to work,” Webmaster Peter Hazzard created a set of tabs for the Parent Portal and used one tab for the Summer Mailing. Secure, simple, easy-to-access.

It’s certainly a team effort, however, to get the forms online including the assistant to the head of school, the administrative assistant to the business office, the director of international student programs, the admissions office and letters from many more offices and departments across campus. Peter’s job is to design the Portal layout then upload the forms onto the website. Many of the forms are interactive (can be completed and submitted online) but the school chose to keep a few requiring signature in downloadable form only.

Going paperless often means baby steps and in Lawrence’s case, that meant sending a snail-mail mailing to all families letting them know where to find the information and forms. Even with the cost of that letter, the overall savings for the project totaled over $1100! Learn more about the new upgrades to Portals at the August 19th finalsite Webinar.

All Saints Academy Goes Online With The School Packet

20 pages. That’s the typical length of All Saints’ School Packet. Last year, the school decided to save paper and money by moving those forms and information online. Both the

lower school and middle school/upper school packets can now be found under their Parents section of the school’s site.

At All Saints, staff involved in this project included personnel from the business office, all three divisional offices, school nurse’s office, athletic department and the headmaster’s office. Last year, set-up time totaled eight to ten hours but this year it only took two hours to update forms online and another two hours to make PDF forms interactive.

All Saints saved approximately $250 to $300 in postage alone. However, as the Director of Communications Jennifer Emanuel states, “That doesn’t account for all the man-hours that would be required to photocopy, fold them, insert into envelopes, level and weight/stamp the packets.”

A checklist at the top of the page reminds parents of all the forms needed to be downloaded. Parents enjoy the ease-of-use, administrators enjoy having fewer phone calls asking questions, and administrative assistants appreciate having more time to work on other projects. The move to paperless was such a success for the school that All Saints has created a similar page for the admission process!

What was the “aha” moment for you? An easy solution from a finalsite expert in the Help Center? A brainstorming session with a colleague from halfway across the world? Words of wisdom from a keynote speaker? Or just some quiet time sitting on a bench and watching the breeze in the trees? Whatever it was, moments like these at finalsite University 2010 refuel and retool users so that they can in turn build a better web presence back home.

This year, over 250 attendees from 27 states and 9 countries attended finalsite University held June 22 through 24, 2010 in Avon, Connecticut. From techies to admissions, communications to athletics, heads of school to support staff, folks wore many hats and shared their experiences with one another.

Held on the beautiful campus of Avon Old Farms School, the conference offered around 70 sessions ranging from the hands-on to the theoretical. Sessions were facilitated by finalsite staff as well as invited guest speakers and AISAP presenters. Keynote speakers Michael Wesch and Katie Koestner opened attendees’ eyes to the potential opportunities and risks provided by the Internet today.

For many, the Help Center was a highlight of the conference. Attendees could drop in and meet one-on-one with developers, designers, support staff and sales personnel and ask any question or share any concern. Not only were folks able to get solutions and answers quickly but they were also able to put faces to names they knew well through support tickets and emails!

Sure, attendees (and staff) at finalsiteU worked hard, but, to be fair, they played hard too. iPads and iPods were raffled off throughout the three-day event. Sumptuous meals, a video competition, Wii playoffs, bowling, and just lounging on the green lawn at Avon Old Farms gave everyone a chance to relax and get to know one another.

Thank you to all who attended this year and to those whose couldn’t make it, we’d love to have you join us next year…who knows what aha moment will transform your web strategy for your school!

View additional photos from finalsite University 2010.

When it comes to social media and online communications, the pressure’s on to jump in feet first. But without a thought-out, mission-appropriate approach, such efforts may not have the foundation to last long. For schools like Rye Country Day School located in Rye, NY, success means taking in one small step at a time.

Back in 2009, RCDS administrators started taking a look into communications best practices and realized that step one towards success was hiring the right personnel. In came Courtney Williamson into the new position of Director of Online Communications where she oversees social media communications for the school and shares oversight of the school’s website.

First on her plate was developing a social media strategy grounded in the school’s culture, one that focuses on student privacy. Instead of creating a stale but safe news-only type of approach in response to the school’s culture, Courtney decided to proceed cautiously. “My plan was and still is to build an online conversation slowly - first by talking to the folks who were already trying to engage us on facebook on their own (an alumnus had 350 members in a school facebook group, for example) and building content there, as well as taking stock of our email and e-newsletter messaging strategies in light of these other conversations. We didn't want to overwhelm our readers!”

Getting administrative buy-in for the new social media emphasis was easier than imagined, given that the Board had been involved in the decision to create the Director of Online Communications position and knew its importance. Yet, knowing the school’s position on student privacy was key to keeping the Board’s and Headmaster’s confidence. Rules were put in place about posting photos (no lower or middle school photos on facebook), newsletter access (behind the password on the school’s website only) and oversight of online communications copy (reviewed by “key school leaders”). As Courtney writes, “I let everyone know that I see my job as helping the school translate its already strong sense of itself for the new media channels and not to take over how we talk about the school.”

Slowly but surely, RCDS has made its way into the social media sphere. The school has a facebook page for news, facts and photos. Current parents visit the page now and plans are to promote it to prospective families in the near future.

There’s an alumni page, converted from a facebook group, which Courtney calls the school’s biggest social media success yet. Alumni are very active, commenting, sharing teacher memories and liking posts. They even post without prompting by the school, really making the site their own. In one case, an alumnus shared information about a memorial and a blog about a classmate who had passed away unexpectedly. As Courtney recalls, “In our offices we decided that the gravitas of the situation precluded putting it on facebook, but the alumni put it up on their own and shared information about his memorial and blog. We were glad to see them take ownership.”

The school also co-manages a Linkedin group, encouraging alumni to post job listings. RCDS uploads videos to Vimeo, chosen for its clean interface vs. Youtube’s. In the fall, plans are to tweet major games on a new athletics Twitter feed.

Don’t assume that social media is the only online game for Rye Country Day, however. This summer the school is embarking on a complete redesign of its website through finalsite, with lots of great enhancements in the works, as Courtney explains:

We'll be optimizing it to work with our new social media channels - providing options for website users to join and sign up for emails, as well as optimizing pages for sharing. This will include adding share buttons, of course, and also writing the code that will pull beautiful thumbnails into facebook posts, and will work well with our Flickr feeds, and perhaps doing things like sending users to a survey that asks them for feedback when they log in. We want to be much more interactive and conversational. We'll be adding design options for video, weeding our content and just generally bringing it up to our new standards.

Look also for a professional annual campaign video from RCDS in the months to come. Step by step, online communication success is possible with a plan, administrative buy-in and a little bit of patience.

Ready to jump into social media? Here are some tips from Rye Country Day:

Be really patient. Schools have a lot on their plate dealing with the abuses of social media. It's hard sometimes for the members of school communities to switch to thinking of social media as an asset to the school. It's also sometimes a challenge for teachers to think of social media as a learning tool all on its own. Even educators need time to learn!

Reserve your online real estate. It's a lot easier to move slowly if you've saved the usernames for your school on Youtube, Linkedin, Vimeo, Twitter etc. etc. Even if you're not going to use them, reserve the usernames. Keep track of these usernames and passwords and make sure that several staff have access to them: the webmaster, the IT staff, the Communications staff.

Be aware that we are ALL experimenting with social media. I told my Board that no one - not even the mighty Ivies - know exactly how to talk to people on social media - that we have to try things and be open to change.

Encourage your staff and teachers to set up their own Professional Learning Network - this will help them within their discipline, AND it will help everyone get comfortable with the idea of a whole conversation that is happening online and without boundaries.

Going live with a new website can be a challenge. Throw in numerous time zones, a couple oceans and two continents and one might think the task to be too much.

Not for the finalsite deployment team, specialists in international school website launches. Careful planning, consistent communication and just-in-time training are the tools the team uses to get the job done. Need proof? Just ask Taipei American School (TAS) in Taipei, Taiwan.

Jennifer Hung, webmaster at TAS, knows firsthand about the deployment process her school recently went through with finalsite. She and her colleagues had clear expectations to meet but finalsite was more than ready to rise to the challenge. Here are just a few of Jennifer’s thoughts on the deployment process:

Q: Was it challenging working so far from the finalsite team?
A: "There is a twelve hour difference but I could almost always expect to get the answer the next day. If Kara Stanley (the finalsite Project Manager assigned to TAS) needed more time to provide me with answers, she would always let me know in advance.

I usually got the answers for my question the first time. If I didn't get it, I could keep asking until was clear. Also, if Kara wasn't clear about my questions, she never hesitated to ask me to elaborate on my questions. Many times, we used screenshots or short videos to clarify some of our questions which was a very good approach and very effective"

Q: Tell us about your finalsite Project Manager Kara Stanley.
A: "My Project Manager was very responsive during the development process. She was open to new ideas, investigated our suggestions, and always responded quickly.

There were some unanticipated issues when we prepared the parent/student and alumni datasheet for the finalsite team, but Kara always had patience and guided me through to adjust the timeline so that I could still launch the website on time."

Q: Tell us about working with Basecamp (finalsite’s project management software for website deployment).
A: "It is very intuitive. You don’t need a training to get started…. I really like the Basecamp system. It centralized all the communications I had with finalsite so I would never worry that I couldn't find a particular message. I could always come back to find some instructions and tips afterwards.

Besides Kara, Basecamp also guided me through the deployment process. Basecamp is always accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

With Basecamp, I was very clear about the milestones (deadlines for individual tasks in a site’s deployment). Based on the milestones, I was able to develop detailed project timelines and written tasks that I would need to complete my end."

Q: And what about the final product? What do you think of the website itself?
A: "The Portals, Faculty/Staff Directory, Multimedia Manager, News Manager, Calendar Manager, and finalsite Survey tool are great. I already made some enhancement suggestions to your team during the development process to make the site even better.

The training videos provided step by step instructions and were very helpful in providing knowledge about the Finalsite Content Management System."

For a school, the path to improvement starts with the head of school, principal or superintendent. She or he can set priorities, bring a new vision to the table and mandate change. Technology is just one of many areas where such leadership is crucial.

finalsite University (also called finalsiteU) will be held June 21 through 24 and is a perfect opportunity for heads of school to equip themselves to lead with technology. This year these leaders as well as board of trustee members can attend for free.

Recently, finalsiteShare sat down with finalsite President and Founder Jon Moser to discuss the role heads of school play in school technology. Questions and responses are below:

Q: Why should a head of school be interested attending finalsiteU?
A: "Almost every activity at a school today involves technology to some extent. When there’s an issue to discuss, inevitably technology plays a role, so vision from the top-down always work better. If the head of school at least has a basic understanding of technology, he or she can help drive a better plan."

"Next, let’s talk admissions. Technology is becoming part of the conversation and decision-making process when parents and student select a school. Prospective families really want to see a school that’s connected so the more the leadership knows about it the better off the school is."

"Last, the conference has been designed with needs of heads of school in mind. Sessions are geared to guide decision-making and many are not overly technical. From a leadership standpoint it’s great to know to know what is going on in the technology field and this is a great way to understand all the areas."

Q: What is the value of having a strategy for web communications for your school?A: "A perfect example is the company Apple. Apple cares about the product, the image of the product, clear messaging, keeping the whole team on board with what they’re doing, having a mission and  a direction and maintaining a desire to be the best. So, independent schools can look at that simple model as one to emulate at their schools."

Q: Why should a head or trustee be interested in a school website presence?
A: "Like Apple, a school wants to have a good image. The website is a representation of the leadership of the school. Consider the well-designed, robust, and well-maintained website. Information is up-to-date and change with time. A head can push his or her message very clearly. And current parents can find information about their children quickly and easily. All of that adds to a good image of the school with more kids applying and more people willing to donate to the school."

"I like to talk about user-empathy – a student going to the site seeing herself or himself represented in a photo or description online. This makes media so important on a website. Schools want prospective students to say, “Ah, that’s me and I want to go to that school.” Meanwhile, prospective parents see the site and see that’s it’s a feeder school to Ivy League schools and say, 'Oh I want my kid to go to Harvard or I want my kid to go to Yale.' That’s why messaging is vital as well."

Q: What are future trends in web software and services that heads of school may be particularly interested in learning about?
A: "Social media I think is a critical issue today because of the risks and rewards associated with it. How do you handle situations? Are your policies in place? What about sites like RateMyTeacher.com? What if instead of fearing these sites, for example, you use them for your own messaging? On Valentine’s Day the Head of school could ask the students to give a teacher a good rating. That’s just one example of making a danger into a positive."

"Next, let’s talk about technology: iPad apps, mobile devices and more. We have to rethink how our websites are put together. Parents want to get things all over the world. We all have to think media-centric. Schools need to have people with cameras and video cameras. Consider LiveStreaming (or Ustreaming) events. Make the web part of the way your message is brought forth."

Q: What's the biggest take-away a head of school or trustee will have by attending finalsiteU?
A: "If you are not a technologist, finalsiteU will help you understand the whole picture of what other schools are doing, not just tidbits of information. You can collaborate with other heads of school about technology situations."

"Our main presenter is talking about social media in the classroom then the second day the next presenter shares the dangers of the social media in the classroom. But then we try to tie it all together with practical tips. For example, when you are buying software make sure you’re product is web-based and has an API and make sure the company is going to be around. At finalsiteU it’s not going to be too technical. Sessions are geared to all users."

Q: Any final thoughts?
"John F. Kennedy was asked what was his favorite song and he said, “I think ‘Hail to the Chief’ has a nice ring to it.’” If you are a head of school and you have an opportunity to lead in technology, seize the opportunity. You are the leader and people will follow if you give good direction. You don’t have to be an expert in all the details but if you paint a good picture and have a good formula, the success of your school like Apple has had will come to life. It’s very clear that schools who have good mission statements tied to communications mission, an image of the website that is very polished and tools that are easy to use, all of those elements brings great success. Good luck and I hope to see you at finalsiteU."

Every now and then, it's nice to be noticed for doing things right. Recently, Parature, a customer service software provider, highlighted finalsite at its national conference as a company that puts support first. Familiar to most users as the KnowledgeBase and ticketing system for support issues, Parature gives finalsite schools the ability to view the status of open tickets and histories of past ones. finalsite staff use the software to quickly route service requests to appropriate team members which has helped to cut response time to critical issues to less than ten minutes.

Doug Young, Director of Support Services, was invited to present on several support topics at Parature's annual conference. While there, he attended a session led by Parature's vice president of product management. As she described the future growth of the company, she remarked that Paratures focus was now on creating products that met the needs of companies where support is a valued component. As she spoke, a screenshot of finalsite's website was displayed on the screens.

Why single out finalsite? Young thinks it's because finalsite's not just another company when it comes to support. "I think they like how we are using the tools with a focus on providing a higher quality support experience, rather than purely focusing on efficiency and trying to do the minimum possible with the fewest personnel as possible, as so many companies are apt to do."

While the accolades are wonderful, what really counts is the experiences of folks like you, our clients. Support team members like Young know this and are constantly searching for ways to improve customer service above and beyond today's exceptional standards. That's putting support first and that's at the heart of finalsite.

Today we are surrounded by rapid changes in technology and communications, yet at the core, how we share our stories and that we seek to share stories at all remain constant. That’s the view of David Willows, International School of Brussels’ Director of External Relations (Brussels, Belgium), who was recently the co-editor of the book, Effective Marketing, Communications and Development in Intrnational Schools, part of the Effective International School Series.

With chapters contributed by experts from around the world, the book captures, in Willows’ words, “the practical wisdom of those who had been in the business for a while – if you like a manual for beginners, as well as a roadmap for future directions, challenges and trends.” For him, it was a response to the increasing need of schools to respond strategically to marketing and communication pressures, something that’s just occurred over the last ten years or so.

The book is written by international educators for international educators with the understanding that the industry has distinct needs and challenges. As Willows writes, 
 "In many ways, I would say that international schools are often playing catch up with other schools and organizations that are constantly setting new standards in this field.  At the same time, I believe that international schools will sometimes experience unique kinds of issues that, if you like, ‘pre-empt’ future challenges.  Most obviously, perhaps, providing communication channels that effectively serve a truly international audience, with different expectations and language issues, is part of our day-to-day work.  We are also typically dealing with extremely high turn of families – anything between 30 and 50% each year.  With this degree of change, we have to keep finding ways of introducing large amounts of new information to arriving families."

One of the threads that unites each contribution to the book is an emphasis on telling the story of a school. But while storytelling itself is timeless, the tools which we use to tell these tales have evolved. Take for example the web. For Willows, the digital world opens doorways into new ways to share our story. As he notes, “No longer limited to printed words on a page, we have access to rich and varied media that provide new dimensions to the stories we are seeking to tell.  This opens up for us huge new opportunities. However, there are also new challenges; such as the importance of ensuring that the stories we tell remain coherent across a variety of media platforms.” 

Websites in particular play an important role in storytelling. Willows argues that our website both represents the school we currently are and the school we aspire to become. Yet he issues a caution to schools here, “The practical reality that many of us involved in education face right now is ensuring that our websites and social media platforms all provide a coherent picture of the schools in which we work.  We may have lost a bit of control, but we simply cannot afford to lose the plot!”

And what of future trends in marketing and communications? Willows suggests that competition between schools in particular markets will increase and “the schools that come through this period as winners will be those that manage to leverage these new media opportunities to tell their story in effective and engaging ways.” In addition, current families will demand more from schools: more information, more media, more opportunities for online conversations.  In the end, notes Willows, “They will choose the school that they trust and they will trust that school that captures their imagination, provides clear evidence of success and tells a story that invites them to be part of its next chapter.”