News
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Performance Enhancements - Reports - Update |
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Reports on fire! In addition to the information in the release notes, I'd like to provide some more detail on the performance increases of several reports. Keep in mind that what our development team has accomplished is much more than just making the reports available to the user more quickly. They are also no longer locking any data, thus causing contention/performance problems for other reports or processes. They are also being much more friendly to SQL Server so it can attend to other tasks. |
Let's take a look at the numbers...
| Report | Reads before | Reads after | CPU (secs) before | CPU after |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos03a | 165,432 |
28,676 |
15.7 |
.6 |
| Pos03b | 164,309 |
28480 |
14.2 |
.7 |
| Fiscal07a | 420,834 |
251,255 |
20.4 |
4.2 |
In the case of the first two reports, you can see that we are now reading only 1/6th as much data, and we are completing the read operation nearly 30 times faster. The third report is completing five times faster. Other reports that were updated in this release show similar gains. And keep in mind this is during a time when we are also developing new reports, and fixing non performance related issues in others.
These tests were performed on our own test server. What about in the real world? Ventura COE recently went live with version 08.06 on their production system. This means the important Ledger04 report performance enhancements are now available to their users. We have reviewed the statistics for this report before and after, and they show:
Average time to complete - before: 54.7 seconds, after: 3.4 seconds. That's over 16 times faster.
We know all users will appreciate both the performance gains of the reports themselves, not to mention that they are no longer causing locking issues. We thank you for your patience as we work through these issues.
We again wish to thank James Cordova, VCOE's SQL ace, for his valuable assistance troubleshooting SQL issues.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
This release included three new activities, a Save/New button and a re-introduction of the AP Payments activity. And, of course, performance improvements.
This release includes many report performance enhancements. We optimized the Fixed Assets List (FA01), the Depreciation Detail (FA05), Cash Transaction Summary (Fiscal07), Position Staffing by Account (Pos02), Position Staffing by Position (Pos03) STRS History (Retire08), County PERS History (Retire95) and County STRS History (Retire96).
In an effort to obtain meaningful user experience statistics, we have instrumented the Escape Online 5 client to record the actual timings of what users see. This means that we are recording the times for displaying search pages, getting lists, opening and closing forms, and so on.
This is necessary due to the wide range of user experiences that we see or hear about within our customer base. What we are attempting to do is gather data in a scientific style, that will enable us to review the user experience across all our customers, and share this with them. In addition, customers can monitor these statistics themselves since we have provided activities to view the data.
We expect to see a variety of statistics that will be helpful to us and our customers. There may be configuration or network changes that can increase response times as seen by users. There may be particular activities that we need to focus on to increase response times. These statistics will finally give us a way to measure response times of not only our system, but also network speeds.
We have accomplished this with what we believe is no measurable impact on performance. The statistics that we capture “piggy back” onto communications that are already occurring between client and server services. During “idle times,” the client packages statistics and sends them to a service for recording. The recording occurs in a separate database from the Online 5 database.
Customer statistics databases will replicate at intervals to a central database here at Escape. This database contains no data regarding actual customer data (like SSN of course); the only information that isn’t purely statistical in nature is the UserId of the user that requested a given transaction. Regarding the replication from customer networks to ours, Customers have indicated that they do not have any security concerns since this data is purely outbound. Escape is not sending any information to customer databases.
We do have a single on/off switch for these statistics, which is system-wide. The statistics gathering software and database are present in this release, but we are installing it with the stats gathering “turned off.” We will then turn them on customer by customer, to make certain there aren’t any issues.
An individual user can see the user statistics with the Client Statistics choice in the System module. System managers can review statistics with the new System Statistics activity, which includes numerous filter methods. The resulting lists can be exported to Excel for further analysis. We do not have any reports which address the statistics at this time. We will build these after we have gathered a meaningful amount of data.
We recently identified a flaw in the AP Payment batch entry process that caused records to not be created when the batch was saved. We determined that the best solution was to change to the standard approach of saving payments as entered. As a result we have enhanced the Payment activity to allow for payment entry.
To make this method as efficient as possible, we introduced a new “Save/New” button and rearranged the payment form. We wanted to make this available to you as soon as possible, while we continue to refine it, including the ability to edit payment accounts before saving the payment.
When we have completed enhancing the Payments activity, we will remove the Enter Payments activity. Until that software release, you may use either activity to enter payments. In a future release we will convert the Enter Direct Payments and Enter Employee Payments to use the new methodology.
Independent contractor reporting is now available in Escape Online. Using the new Ind. Contractor Vendors activity in the Purchasing group, you can quickly search for and report to the State independent contractors in accordance with the law.
The search allows you to find all Vendors that are flagged as independent contractors that have active requisitions within a date range with an aggregate total of $600 or greater. We have included a script with the release that will flag all vendors that currently are flagged as 1099 and have a federal tax Id that "looks" like an SSN (xxx-xx-xxxx).
From the form, you can directly modify IC vendor fields, including Contract Amount, Contract Dates and others.
A "snapshot" report updates the vendor records listed with the EDD information and automatically creates the file for EDD reporting.
Always looking for ways to save keystrokes, we have introduced the Save/New button. When you click this button, it saves and validates the record you are in and automatically opens a new form, ready for input!
And, if that wasn't enough, we introduced several new reports:
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
Well, as you can tell this has been a very eventful summer. As we are addressing performance enhancements for our existing customers, we’ve also been busy bringing on some new customers.
A pleasant surprise was Alameda County Fiscal Implementation Team's endeavor to bring New Haven, a K-12 district, onto the county Escape Online 5 system. The team’s awesome effort made the July conversion practically flawless. The district was eager and excited during testing and data entry. Our own Kathy Carlson and Jennifer Kenney worked closely with county and district staff to convert, train and implement.
Last week they ran their first payroll and AP check run including New Haven. We’re happy to report that both the AP check run and the payroll went off without a hitch!
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
People evaluating Escape Technology's systems often ask what is included in our annual maintenance payment? They are concerned about changes that are demanded by various agencies including federal, state, county and other.
In this news item, we are going to cover changes required by new file structures provided by CTC (Commission on Teacher Credentialing). They produce files containing credential information for various purposes, the most common is a weekly update of credentials of interest for each county.
Our system imports these credentials and updates existing credential holder records, and we even create new credential holder records as required.
This PDF details a series of changes put forth by CTC.
What CTC just did was include a major new ID field - CALTIDES (to begin getting away from SSN). They also increased the number of renewal description codes from 4 to 10, and did the same for authorizations. And, they introduced fields for Staff Recommendation and Condition Waiver.
Their changes resulted in the following changes to our system:
Here you can see the new CTC ID field, in the credential holder form (blurred for privacy).
All of these changes were made per our annual software maintenance plan; there were no other charges to any customers. These changes are available in the next release (except for reports, we will be including those changes as quickly as possible). As new procedures come along from any source, IRS, PERS, STRS, CTC, GASB etc, we make the changes necessary for our customers to comply.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
As regular followers of Escape News know, Placer COE and districts had previously gone live on the HR (5/07) and Payroll (2/09) modules. All this Spring, conversions, setup and training have been leading up to going live on the Finance module across the entire county. I'm happy to report that live operations did begin on July 1. I'd like to congratulate everyone involved, including the staff at Placer COE and each district, along with our own Kathy Carlson, Project Manager, for this achievement.
Another first! This final phase of going live represents another important milestone for Escape Technology. This is the first implementation of all four modules (Finance/HR/Payroll/County) across an entire county - including all of the districts. While we have several other counties with live customers, this is the first with every single district.
And we have our first quote from an end user, which I'd like to share:
"I love this software! We are fully live and I am so excited to get proficient with it! It will eliminate many of my duplicated tasks, streamline and organize my workload. Looking forward to experimenting with the paperless system. Escape has been responsive to our concerns which is refreshing customer service."
Shelly Saunders
District Business Manager
Ackerman School District
As with other countywide transitions, there is so much change involved that it will take a while for things to "smooth out." We plan to continue to work closely with both the excellent COE staff and the district users to make that happen. Thank you to everyone for your efforts thus far, and we are there for you for the duration!
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
This is my first July at Escape Technology, it's quite a busy time! We have nearly 30 districts going live on one or more modules. Today's report is about Shasta UHSD in Redding, which converted from Escape Classic to Escape Online 5 on July 1. This particular implementation is notable in that it is the very first "stand alone" Escape district to go live on the Finance / HR / Payroll modules of Online 5, i.e. they are not part of an Escape COE implementation.
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Darlene, Vanessa, Jane, Lisa and Jennifer from the Business Office
Heidi (payroll supervisor), Lisa (AP) and CBO Art Schmitt
Julie and David from Payroll
Let's hear from several of the participants..
Gayle Lucas, Escape Technology:
I’ve spent the entire week on site with the Shasta High School staff as they went live on Online 5 and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed working with this group of people. I could see that they were swamped after being down for a few days, but every one of them was enthusiastic about getting into Online 5. This positive energy was pervasive throughout all of the entire district.
I was really impressed with their knowledge and thoroughness. The IT staff has built a rocket network and the business office has been fine tuning their work flow to work more efficiently with the new software.
The only down side of the whole week was the terrible fires and air quality in the area. I was sharing a parking area with evacuees from the surrounding area. Makes you appreciate the more important things in life.
Art Schmitt, CBO:
As of today, we have been on the new Escape Online 5 system for a little over a week. The conversion went quite smooth, we were down for less than one day on July 1. In the morning of July 1, my staff was asking me how soon they could begin in the new system! Since then we have done a payroll run, several ap runs, and are now beginning budget revisions. All of the reports are showing the kinds of numbers we are expecting. We are really moving along. Our Escape representative is Gayle Lucas, the same person that implemented our Classic system five years ago. She did a great job then, but I have to say she did a fantastic job this time. She is a big reason that our users are so happy. Speaking of which, although change is difficult, the users are already finding shortcuts and ways that the new system gets work done more quickly than the Escape Classic system.
Heidi, Payroll/Benefits Supervisor:
I greatly enjoy being able to see much more data on my screen in OL5 than in Classic. I also really enjoy the History tabs where you are able to view who changed what, and when they changed it. Everything about OL5 just makes much more sense to me. The reports are so professional in appearance and easy to read. Exporting to Excel is a click of a button away...literally. Gayle has been absolutely tremendous throughout this process. Her knowledge about this product is unsurpassed.
Another great long time customer has made the transition to Escape Online 5. Congratulations to everyone and thanks for the hard work both at Shasta UHSD and here at Escape.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
Hot on the heels of the announcment below, I'm happy to report that the implemenation is already underway.
Kimberly, Tina and Rosalie -all three are great to work with.
This week, we started core training with the support staff at Sonoma COE. Tina Rodriquez, Rosalie Sulgit-Shay, and Kimberly Williams all made the trip to Roseville for 2 days of training. The project includes phasing in the Sonoma County districts over 4 phases, with the first phase going live in January 09. This group is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. I thoroughly enjoyed working with the “three musketeers,” and look forward to a long and satisfying relationship!
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
At the beginning of the fiscal year, I’m really excited to announce that the Escape Family is growing, with a great COE being the newest member. Sonoma COE and 56 of their districts have selected Escape Online 5 as the replacement for their legacy system. They produced the most extensive RFP we have ever seen, with over 600 feature requirements. At the time of our response in Spring 2006, there were about 65 items in their RFP that we had to answer “future development.” By Spring 2008 when we signed the contract, the list was now down to about 22 items, which we plan to complete during 2008/09.
It has been particularly enjoyable to get to know the Sonoma COE staff. They are a dedicated and talented group, very thoughtful in their deliberations and planning. We have also done several demos with over 100 people from the districts, who as a group are also very enthusiastic. These large implementations are hard work, to be sure, but we know with this group there is going to be some fun as well.
Let’s hear from Daniel Bienkowski, Director, Information Technology, Sonoma COE:
Initially Escape was not one of the top finalists from our Financial System RFP, but as we witnessed their accelerated product development and process improvement pattern over the past year, they became our first choice for the new financial system in our county. The system itself seemed clean, intuitive and more closely matched our county’s financial system requirements than other products we had seen. Upon deeper review we became impressed with the entire staff’s knowledge of their product and the company’s willingness to expand their project management office to better meet the expanding needs of their company and clients. We are looking forward to working with the Escape team to bring their system to our county.
So I’m very proud that the system all of us at Escape have produced has been selected in a fair and rigorous RFP process, by excellent staff. And I want to acknowledge each of our other COE customers in helping us get where we are. Surely without their continuing contributions, input and patience I wouldn’t be in the position to deliver this news. The lessons learned in our other two large implementations at Ventura and Placer COE’s have been very helpful in the implementation planning for the Sonoma COE project. As always, the support of our customers is very much appreciated by all of us.
Thumbs up! One of our demos early this year at Sonoma COE.
This is about 2/3rds of the room, we would need an even wider angle lens to get all the attendees!
| Welcome Sonoma County Office of Education and Districts! |  |
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
Over the last few months, we have written several articles about our efforts to improve the performance of Escape Online 5. Bob Towery tells it like it is in this series, describing what we have done and what we are planning to do in the near future. Ramona Marshall gives you updates from a business perspective. Stephanie Fury provides the detail from the QA side.
For your convenience, we placed abstracts of each article on a Performance Watch page. Check it out!
Happy new fiscal year. With year end and arrears payroll processing, we set this release to focus on making your life easier.
As we promised, you will see performance enhancements with every release. This release includes five changes that specifically address performance.
This release is our biggest ever! Amazingly, there are 120 CRs for this release: one heck of a busy month. As Bob Towery has been discussing in his series of news articles on performance enhancement, Escape Technology is dedicated to improving performance. So, we are happy to report that dozen of the CRs were related to improved performance.
This release included 62 changes! The new UI, list totals, multi-year budgeting and performance improvements are just a few of the enhancements.
This release included 87 changes! The highlights include expanded vendor search, tons of new reports, leave transaction improvements and more comment options.
This release included 109 changes! The highlights include color coded purchase orders, approvals, faster position loading and more searches!
A new month? A new release. Check out one-time payments and the new budget features.
Education has played and continues to play an important role in my life. I feel that education is the key to the success of each one of us personally and our great country.
I look forward to providing great customer service to you!
It is my great pleasure to join the Escape team serving public education community. In my past 14 years, I have served as an engineer of software development and developed software and reports which are widely used throughout California school districts. I was the principal software developer at School Services of California, so I probably know many of you and you have used software that I wrote. I have also served as a board member in a non-profit Chinese school with more than 300 students for two years.
I feel fortunate to have found both here at Escape Technology: an opportunity to return to customer service, and a company and a group of individuals deeply dedicated to customer-focused quality.
Get ready for some exciting new customer announcements over the next few days, beginning with the Tehama County Department of Education.
Today we again have the pleasure of welcoming a new customer to the Escape family: Modoc County Office of Education.
Today we add Trinity COE, to the already announced Tehama CDE and Modoc COE.
Escape Technology is announcing the appointment of Ramona Marshall as our new COO.
It is that time of year again! And, Escape Online is ready. With version 1.07.10, released yesterday, Escape Online helps customers review, process and print W2s.
Now the Organization this activity is addressing is much more prominent, and All Organization access looks totally different.
September is the month for our annual report, and so we published this at the beginning of the month. We sent it out to quite a few people, but then realized we should announce it here as well.
We have just released major functionality and speed improvements for Escape Online. With three live customers, two county-wide implementations and several district implementations in the works, this was quite a feat.
At the beginning of the month, we implemented Pasadena City College.
Being first with a brand new system, in an area as complex as a California school district payroll, is a tall order. We are fortunate to be working with a wonderful group!
We are training over 120 site users on Escape Online 5 at Citrus College. They are excited about entering and approving their requisitions online.
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