Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board Achieves Operational Excellence

How Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board regained confidence in their data integrity with dimension validation.

We believe it’s important to stay current because change is constant; we want to be up to date. We are a school board, so our teachers and students are always on the cutting edge of technology, so we certainly want to be on the same level as them. We want to have the best out there, and to us, that’s Sparkrock.

Mary-Ellen Ducharme
Manager of Finance
Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board

About HPCDSB

The Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board (HPCDSB) has nurtured the development of students and families since 1847 and is fervently committed to high standards for achievement in teaching and learning. They are very proud of the quality of instruction within all schools and their commitment to inclusive learning spaces that provide differentiated opportunities for growth and development.

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The Challenge:
Held Back by Outdated Systems

Before implementing the upgraded finance and HR/payroll solution, Huron-Perth faced several challenges that hindered their efficiency and data integrity. One major limitation was the absence of dimension validation during the posting process in their outdated system.

Before making the switch, they had to perform numerous reallocation journal entries when it came time to generate reports for their schedules. This tedious and time-consuming task involved going back into their records to identify and correct misplaced postings. These manual efforts drained valuable time and energy that could have been dedicated to other critical tasks.

The lack of validation functionality also created uncertainty around the accuracy of their records. Without the ability to validate accounts before loading, there was a constant concern about data integrity and the reliability of the information pulled into their Ministry reports. This limitation significantly impacted their confidence in the reported data and the subsequent decision-making process.

Sparkrock guided us and left no questions unanswered. They were there all the time, and they really held our hands.
Lisa Regier
Accounts Payable
Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board

The Solution: Guided
by Expertise, Built for Impact

HPCDSB first became a Sparkrock customer in 2007, implementing the Finance & HR/Payroll solutions. Sparkrock supported Huron-Perth through the transition by constantly reassuring them with meetings and phone calls that they were on track with their implementation. Because the school board was nine versions behind, they were very nervous about the transition, particularly about their data accurately transferring.

Sparkrock also sent Application Consultants on-site to help their team navigate the new software and the particular intricacies it holds for school boards. During the upgrade, the Sparkrock Customer Success team made numerous recommendations.

Mary-Ellen Ducharme, Manager of Finance, notes that “if your client success team recommends something, they know the product inside and out, listen to them because we found that 6 months down the road we wished we had acted upon the recommendations at the start.”

In the end, HPCDSB made the recommended changes and has experienced a smooth-running solution. Later, HPCDSB underwent a substantial upgrade to bring their solution into the cloud.

The solution is great because any time that can be saved between me and my team means that we have more time to provide support out in the schools to our portal users, to our department heads, and to our office assistants.
Mary-Ellen Ducharme
Manager of Finance
Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board
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The Outcome:
Smarter Support for All

With their upgraded finance and HR/payroll solution, Huron-Perth can now do dimension validation when posting, which has been an incredible time-saver. Using dimension combination validation allows them to check accounts before loading. If one is missing, they can quickly upload it and maintain their data integrity when they have to do reporting for Schedule 10.

Because their previous version was so old, they didn’t have the option to do validation before posting, so when it came time to do reporting for their schedules, they would have to do numerous reallocating journal entries. 

It took a lot of time and energy to go back into their records and determine where things should have been posted correctly in the first place. Now using dimension combination validation right in their GL before posting, they can rest assured that they have accurate records the first time around and trust the integrity of the data being pulled into their Ministry reports.

We evaluated the leading competitors in the K-12 school board business application market, but what impressed us most about the Sparkrock product was its flexibility. With Sparkrock we have the flexibility we need to respond to changing Ministry of Education reporting requirements. In addition, we feel confident that with the dedication of Sparkrock to the education market we’re purchasing a product that will continue to be well supported in years to come.
Kevin Kale
Manager of Business Services
Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board

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