District School Board of Niagara Gets Rid of 50 Filing Cabinets and Gains Visibility

How DSBN moved on from their legacy systems and found freedom from paperwork and manual processes.

The system was so user-friendly and easy to follow that even doing the migration didn't require much training. We did our training in January 2024, just after the holidays, and it only took one hour before the teams were up and running. We've since received emails from secretaries and office staff about how intuitive everything is now.

Nicky Westlake
Controller of Finance
District School Board of Niagara
I have full visibility into the board's finances. I can quickly find any information I need and arrange it on screen however I need to see it.
Nicky Westlake
Controller of Finance
District School Board of Niagara

About DSBN

The District School Board of Niagara (DSBN) is committed to student success above all else. Founded on the motto "Achieving Success Together," the district focuses on equipping students with the knowledge and skills they need for success in the modern workplace. The board is also active in the wider Niagara community, establishing partnerships with organizations like the United Way, the Tecumseh Centre for Aboriginal Education, and the Regional Government. 

Spanning all twelve municipalities of the Niagara region, DSBN is responsible for roughly 43,000 K-12 students across 77 elementary schools and 17 secondary schools. Governed by a board of 11 elected trustees, the district employs nearly 2,600 teachers and over 1,300 support staff.

 

With the magnitude of reporting coming from the Ministry of Education, we found ourselves spending more and more time on paperwork. We were frequently asked to provide reports with just a few weeks' notice. We needed a system that could do this rapidly — our existing solution was held back by paperwork and rigid processes.
Nicky Westlake
Controller of Finance
District School Board of Niagara
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The Challenge: Mountains
of Paperwork — at a Moment's Notice

Originally, DSBN managed its financial processes with a legacy system first installed in 1988. The platform did exactly what they needed it to do for nearly thirty years. However, by 2018, the district recognized that the solution was beginning to show its age. 

"With the magnitude of reporting coming from the Ministry of Education, we found ourselves spending more and more time on paperwork," explains DSBN Controller of Finance, Nicky Westlake. "We were frequently asked to provide reports with just a few weeks' notice. We needed a system that could do this rapidly — our existing solution was held back by paperwork and rigid processes." 

This problem was only further exacerbated by the district's rapid expansion, adding even more paperwork to the pile. 

"Our growth, enrollment, and employee growth was huge," continues Nicky. 

"On the business side, we had to find a way to do more with less. We also had to ensure our financial processes and systems were largely invisible to staff." 

After briefly evaluating their options, the board decided to go paperless. The need for agility and scalability weren't the only factors guiding this decision. Westlake and her colleagues also wanted better reporting capabilities and an easier way to search their records.

But most notably, they wanted to support remote work, allowing them to go out, assist schools, and train staff. They also wanted less reliance on deliveries from schools to their main office, as it was a very slow and lengthy process. With all this in mind, a vision quickly emerged: Consolidating everything into one solution.

In 2018, DSBN made that vision a reality. 

We'd been in the same legacy system for 30 years before 2018, and now, just four years later, we were being told to upgrade again. We were hesitant. It was a big undertaking, and our teams were comfortable. But we realized there's really no good time for a transition like this, so we ripped the band-aid off and went all-in.

Nicky Westlake
Controller of Finance
District School Board of Niagara
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The Solution:
Going Paperless with Sparkrock

Initially, DSBN transitioned from their legacy solution onto an older version of Sparkrock. It was a massive and welcome change, even if some of their old processes couldn't be done in the new system immediately. Then, just four years later, the district had to make another switch — this time to Sparkrock. 

They were hesitant at first to make the change. 

"We'd been in the same legacy system for 30 years before 2018, and now, just four years later, we were being told to upgrade again," says Nicky. "We were hesitant. It was a big undertaking, and our teams were comfortable. But we realized there's really no good time for a transition like this, so we ripped the band-aid off and went all-in." 

DSBN now uses Sparkrock's cloud-based solution for all their financial processes. Nicky was incredibly pleased with the new platform's ease of use, noting that they could train people with only a one-page handout. The migration process was also very smooth, taking about a month from start to finish. 

"The system was so user-friendly and easy to follow that even doing the migration didn't require much training," she continues. "We did our training in January 2024, just after the holidays, and it only took one hour before the teams were up and running. We've since received emails from secretaries and office staff about how intuitive everything is now."

By going paperless with Sparkrock, DSBM was able to remove fifty filing cabinets from their office space.

The Outcome: More
Space, More Time, More Confidence

All of DSBN's financial services and financial processes are now paperless. This has considerably reduced paper costs, while also allowing the district to go from daily couriers to two couriers per week. DSBN has also reclaimed some of their office space by removing fifty file cabinets. 

There's another advantage to going paperless, too—everything is now stored in one place, easily searchable and accessible to anyone with the right permissions. 

DSBN needed to export data and put it into a template to create reports. Now, everything is automated, not only reducing the district's administrative workload but also allowing them to provide better service to end-users, with status updates down to individual processes and tasks.

DSBN was one of the first boards to implement Employee Expense Reimbursement and Purchasing Cards through Sparkrock. The district has set up all 4000 of their employees within the system and given them a simple ten-step process to manage their own reimbursements. Expenses are kept simple and straightforward so as to be easier to work with, and employees only get access to the account they need to run an expense through, such as mileage claims.

Before implementation, reimbursements took up to two weeks. Now, most are processed within a week, with some completed in as little as 24 hours—a (minimum!) 50% improvement.
 

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Sparkrock also came with a lot of new reporting capabilities. Before, DSBN needed to export data and put it into a template to create reports. Now, everything is automated, not only reducing the district's administrative workload but also allowing them to provide better service to end-users, with status updates down to individual processes and tasks.

DSBN can now integrate Power BI with Sparkrock for even more reporting capabilities, and their IT department is exploring the new possibility of leveraging AI to better report on their data.

School boards used to stay mostly the same, with slow change cycles. That doesn't happen anymore. Things change so quickly and frequently that you need to be able to adapt at all times.
Nicky Westlake
Controller of Finance
District School Board of Niagara

Read Other Success Stories

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    Central Okanagan Public School District

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    The integration between Sparkrock and Waterloo Catholic’s other IT systems helped ensure that financial information was easy to access any time.
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  • Happy-School

    District School Board Ontario North East

    DSB1 avoided a lengthy RFP process by leveraging the Ontario Education Collaborative Marketplace and saw great results faster.
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