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Emantra Chosen to Host TASS.web School Administration Software


Camberwell Girls Grammar School First To Implement Hosted Version of TASS.web


Emantra, a specialist provider of software-as-a-service and a Microsoft Certified Partner, has announced that The Alpha School System (TASS), a developer of specialist education software, is using Emantra for the infrastructure and hosting capabilities for TASS.web, the web based version of its school administration software. By offering a hosted version of the software through Emantra, TASS expects to tap into the market for a growing number of private schools who no longer wish to physically manage the administration of servers and software in-house. TASS and Emantra are also pleased to announce that Camberwell Girls Grammar School in Melbourne has become the first customer to implement the hosted version of the TASS.web software.

TASS.web provides schools with a comprehensive student and financial administration system. The software has traditionally been deployed on-site in a Microsoft Windows client/server environment, with 180 schools across Australia, South Africa and Hong Kong currently using it. In 2004 TASS embarked on an internal project to redevelop the software for the web in recognition of their belief that browser based software delivery would be the way of the future.
 



According to Ken Reid, Managing Director, TASS, “We strongly believe the floodgates will open over the next five years for software provided as a service. We were approached by Emantra just as we were finalising the development of TASS.web and given we definitely weren’t interested in hosting the software ourselves, we chose to go with Emantra because of their first class hosting facilities and their in-depth technical knowledge and proven experience.”

 


Schools can now choose to operate the TASS.web software on their own server infrastructure or access the software though Emantra’s hosted environment. Significant savings in administration costs can be realised by outsourcing server hardware provision and maintenance. Additionally, smaller schools without the budget for servers or IT staff can now access the software. Emantra provides TASS.web customers with a fully managed service hosted on Microsoft Windows 2003 servers located at its data centre in South Brisbane. The server, application and connectivity are delivered to a 99.5% service level agreement and the service is fully managed including software licensing, 24/7 monitoring, 24/7 support, immediate patching and daily back-up. Schools pay a monthly fixed fee based on student numbers to Emantra for access to the hosted software.

 


Camberwell Girls Grammar School in Melbourne is the first school to implement the TASS.web software through Emantra’s hosted environment. With 750 enrolments, Camberwell Girls Grammar has been a user of the client/server TASS software since 2000 but decided to switch to TASS.web when they were due for a major upgrade of the software. The school was also looking to try and downsize the number of servers it managed internally and the launch of TASS.web provided the right timing to switch to the hosted version in June 2007 and reduce their internal server numbers by two.


  
 

Grant Cole, Business Manager at Camberwell Girls Grammar School, said “We have realised some immediate benefits from using the hosted version of TASS.web, which include seamless software upgrades that can take place without our administrators having to be present. We no longer need to worry about backing-up the software and we have been impressed by the speed at which the hosted application runs. It is the same as if we were running a client/server version in house which makes it completely transparent to our users that it is hosted software.

“Where we expect to realise the biggest benefit is in the area of server maintenance. There is a substantial cost involved in upgrading a server every three years and converting data across to a new server. Utilising TASS.web through Emantra means we no longer have to worry about any server issues – Emantra handles it all. Finally, from a technical perspective we have found the support provided by Emantra to be of a really high level.”

The Emantra cost for hosting the TASS.web software for Camberwell Girls Grammar School is less than $1 per student per month on a pay per month basis.


Technical Details of TASS.web Hosting Environment

- Dedicated Application Servers running ColdFusion, Microsoft IIS Version 6 and SQL Server 2005
- IBM servers, Cisco routers
- 99.5% Service Level Agreement for server, application and connectivity
- 1500/256 ADSL or Private IP Connection
- Fully managed service including software licensing, 24/7 monitoring, 24/7 support, web-based control panel, immediate patching and daily backup


ABOUT EMANTRA

Emantra (www.emantra.com.au) is a privately owned Australian company that was established in Brisbane in 2005 in response to an emerging need for a mainstream business that could deliver enterprise grade software-as-a-service. The company has two core business units - a retail business delivering enterprise software solutions for business messaging and collaboration from vendors such as Microsoft, and a wholesale application delivery business for ISVs.