Ontario technology supporting Ontario school board success

School boards are diverse and complex organizations that rely on strong Human Resources (HR) and Information Technology (IT) infrastructure to support innovation and creativity in the classroom. As the technology that drives school boards continues to evolve, the teams from Keous and ECNO are building products and service supports that are empowering boards make use of the latest administrative technology.

“We know that IT teams within the school boards, want to focus on supporting classroom learning, and not worry about back end administration,” commented Frank Ferlaino,
Client Services Manager from Keous Solutions. “Our team knows and is committed to Ontario education. We are driven to help boards build efficient and reliable administrative systems.” 

The ECNO and Keous partnership may be one of the longest and most impactful in the Ontario education system. Focused on designing and supporting HR and Finance products that serve school boards of all sizes, their collective reach and impact is growing. In fact, every week, 26 Ontario boards pay over 88,500 staff and manage over $6.1 billion in annual budgets using ECNO products supported by Keous IT support.

The Keous commitment to expanding its ability to support Ontario school boards is also growing. Under new senior leadership, Keous is expanding their teams, and knowledge, with experts in the HR and Finance fields. Working with the ECNO technical advisory committees’, Keous is continually refining and bettering the K212 products and growing the implementation and ongoing support they can offer. 

These are just a few of the implementation success stories that Keous has been honoured to be a part of over the past 6 months.
Moving Into The Cloud

When Algoma District School Board was looking to upgrade its HR and Payroll software, they turned to the team at Keous Solutions to help move their systems onto a modern and cloud based platform. ADSB has been a client of ECNO products such as Finance, Payroll and SAS for over 20 years. Their recent upgrade to K212 Kloud was a huge success.

“The support from the Keous team has been unbelievable,” commented Joe Santa Maria, Superintendent of Business for Algoma DSB. “They have been with us through this entire process, focused on our needs and working closely with our IT team. Our transition to the ECNO K212 cloud-based product under the leadership of the Keous staff could not have gone smoother. “

“When we first started talking about the migration process we were focused on ensuring a seamless implementation and finding greater efficiencies once we were up and running”, reflected Algoma Director of Education Lucia Reece. “The team from Keous demonstrated great leadership, knowledge and technical capacity and we look forward to the efficiencies and time savings the software will allow for, as we move forward in expanding the use of the modules through our implementation.”

Algoma is already seeing the benefits of the Keous supported K212 hosted solution. From an HR standpoint, staff are appreciating the improved reporting capabilities, the ease of use of the new system and eventually a training hub that is allowing the board to connect with its 2,100 staff. On the finance side, the board has full integration with its payroll process and now has systems in place for online approval of expenses.

“Our implementation team can’t say enough about Keous,” commented Joe. “Their guidance and leadership made this project a positive and successful experience and we look forward to their continued support as all our schools are now live and utilizing the new system. We believe the hosted solution adds value for us in terms of IT resource efficiencies since our IT staff are no longer required to upgrade the software when updates are released. This allows them to focus on other priorities.”
K212 v5 is Live

The Greater Essex County DSB is the first board to transition to v5.0 of the K212 HR-Payroll and their patience and leadership during the transition is paying off in greater operational efficiencies.

While initial releases of v5 were not as robust, the GECDSB knew that working with the team from Keous would help create a version of the platform that had the features it needed.

"We have gone live with v5.0." said Tayob Farooq, Manager of Information Technology Services at GECDSB. "Keous has done an amazing job helping us making this transition. It has been a team effort."

v5 brings many new features that will support HR and IT teams alike. The new employee (web based) self serve portal is one of the biggest features. In addition to a new and more integrated feel, the new version has enhanced security and can support English and French. This version also has new code refactoring which improves stability and flexibility.
Waterloo DSB implements K212 Finance software

Waterloo Region District School Board has been working with Keous and ECNO for several years as a partner and customer, and most recently, on implementation of the K212 Finance software. With the recent launch of the K212 Finance package, Waterloo DSB has found a new energy and clarity on the project, software and Keous’ roles and responsibilities in the partnership.

“The new leadership and approach at Keous has really improved our overall experiences,” commented Matthew Gerard which has migrated to K212 Finance. “The core product and foundations of K212 are working really well. We have a strong relationship with the support team from Keous and know they have shown the commitment and skills to help us continue to roll out the next phase of features.”

“The team at Keous that worked with our team on the implementation and support, were an absolute pleasure to work with,” said Gerard. “Keous has definitely turned the corner when it comes to responsive, helpful and prompt customer support.”

The team at Waterloo Region DSB is enjoying the features of K212. Finance staff across the board are finding the reporting and active directory tools to be incredibly helpful in their job functions. Waterloo Region DSB is excited to see the evolution of the product in the future as the new Keous works on continuing to improve the software releases. Matt is confident that with the renewed leadership at Keous, the products, services and support will continue to be enhanced for the customers’ needs.
Stay tuned for more information, new features and updates from ECNO & Keous. Visit ECNO online here or Keous online here for all of the news and updates.