Registration for the 2011 RenWeb Power Conference ends on Tuesday, May 31! 

Following the conference registration deadline, we will provide registered attendees two weeks to finalize their session reservations.  The session reservation deadline is Monday, June 13.
 
Beginning June 14, we will build the conference schedule based on session requests and enroll registered attendees into their desired sessions.  Where we have space limitations, we will award seats in the order they were reserved by registrants.  When the scheduling process is complete, we will email a personalized schedule to each attendee.  
 
You have just one week left to register for the conference so you can be included in the automated schedule we will build.  After that, a $50 administration fee will be assessed to all late registrants.
 
To learn more about the Power Conference and to get registration information, please click here! 

Get More From Your Inquiries with Online Application's New and Improved Inquiry Queue!  

This Power Up! webinar demonstration will focus on the new and improved Inquiry Queue in Online Application which will go live today - Friday, May 20.  Join this informative, free webinar to have all your questions about how Online Application has changed answered.  The webinar will be 30 minutes in length with time at the end of the demonstration to answer any questions.

To sign up and register for one of these free Power Up! webinars, please click the appropriate link below:

• Tuesday, May 24 - 9:00 - 9:30 am CDT
• Thursday, May 26 - 12:00 - 12:30 pm CDT

If you are unable to make the Power Up! the information is located in Report Manager > Training & Documentation > Online Application Provider Training.  Please review the section over the Inquiry Queue for all the latest updates.

We look forward to demonstrating these new features to your school!

Did you know RenWeb processed more than 6,500 Online Applications during last admissions season's peak period?
Were you too busy during last admissions season to look at RenWeb's Online Application product?

 Now that the application season's peak submission period is ending, this is a great time to launch Online Application.  This will give you an opportunity to learn and use Online Application while you are receiving just a handful of new inquiries and applications, preparing you for your peak season next year.
 
Don't get left behind!  RenWeb schools offering Online Application are enjoying immediate access to data and email distribution lists on parents and students who are in the process of completing applications - allowing early communication and marketing to prospective families.  There's no need to wait for applications to be completed and submitted.  Schools are importing completed applications into RenWeb - eliminating data entry expense while improving quality.  Schools are also utilizing RenWeb's enhanced Admissions Tracking process to better manage their admissions funnel.  

Streamline your admissions process with Online Application and continue to process new applicants throughout the summer months for the 2011/2012 school year. It takes three weeks on average for our Online Application project managers to set up a school and have you set up to receive Online Application payments.

The one-time cost of an Online Application setup by a RenWeb project manager is $295 per school.  There is then a $20 processing fee per submitted application to cover online processing costs.

To sign up for Online Application today, go to Report Manager > Products & Services > Online Application Sign Up > Print and complete the online form.  A RenWeb project manager will then contact you to begin the setup process.

If you haven't participated in an Online Application demonstration yet, you can sign up for one of the upcoming FREE webinars by clicking on one of the links below.

Monday, May 23 - 10:00 am - 11:30 am CDT
Thursday, May 26 - 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm CDT

We look forward to serving your school with this exciting new service that can take your school marketing to the next level!

Here's what a fan at Northlake Christian School in Covington, Louisiana had to say:

We were encouraged by Hunter Systems to convert first to STI and then later upgrade to INOW in January of 2010. A short time after converting, we realized that INOW could not meet our needs. In our school's opinion, INOW is clunky, is often unusable, and has virtually no documentation. As a private school, we need the ability to track students' progress, keep track of demographics and achievement, offer a comprehensive site for parents to keep track of grades, absences and announcements, and especially to customize reports and offer online re-registration.

In a very short time, we realized that INOW was unable to do any of these things. After viewing a short RenWeb demo at another area Christian school, I knew it would be perfect for Northlake Christian School. I called RenWeb in desperation, to see about the possibility of purchasing the product. I was nervous about the financial outlay, as well as the logistics of switching systems AGAIN, in the middle of the year. RenWeb was AMAZING. Everyone from our sales rep to project manager to each tech support representative has gone above and beyond the call of duty to make the transition (our second one in a year!) easier.

I sing the praises of RenWeb every chance I can get. I literally cried after using the program for a week....everything about my job as an administrator was made easier with RenWeb. Teachers LOVE the FacultyWeb gradebook and parents LOVE ParentsWeb and can't stop raving about how easy it is to use. Online re-enrollment has helped our Admissions office tremendously. Even our technology-challenged Principal loves RenWeb...it's just that easy!

As far as I am concerned, there is no need to even look at any other programs besides RenWeb. Rarely in my adult life have I felt so strongly about a product and particularly about a company. RenWeb is a product made by educators, for educators. I can talk for days on all the ways that RenWeb has improved the quality of life at Northlake Christian. -- Courtney Haindel, Secondary Assistant Principal at Northlake Christian School

RenWeb's New iPhone/iPad Apps to Debut at RenWeb Power Conference
Register Today to Reserve a Seat in the iPhone App Session

RenWeb is pleased to announce it will debut both its new Parent Alert iPhone App and new Faculty iPhone App at the 2011 RenWeb Power Conference!

The Parent Alert App will allow administrators to send emergency alerts from school, home or on the road without accessing a computer.  There's no need to worry about the electricity or Internet being out of service - alerts can be sent directly from an iPhone or iPad to the device of choice for parents, students and staff!

The Faculty App will allow teachers to perform their most common duties without having to log into RenWeb on their computer.  That includes adding and editing assignments and grades, taking attendance and placing lunch orders!

We encourage all interested participants to register for the Power Conference today to reserve a seat in this session before classes fill. 
 
To register for the Power Conference and reserve a session seat, please click here.

 

School Friends & Family Can Use Donate Online's Easy, Online Secure Payment to Remember Loves Ones This Memorial Day
 

Donate Online provides a secure donation link that schools can attach to any web page that will allow often hard-to-reach family and friends to make online donations via credit cards with a few clicks. Powered by the secure and reliable processing engine of FACTS/NBS, the industry leader in K-12 online payment processing, Donate Online speeds deposits of donations into school bank accounts within three business days.

Using Donate Online, schools can simply add a Secure Donation Link to an existing Fundraising area on their website to begin accepting online credit card payments for memorial and tribute gifts.

Donate Online also makes it easy for schools to take their fundraising to the next level by creating complete Memorial Gift areas for their websites, using simple web pages provided by RenWeb. These comprehensive webpages can include an overview of the school's memorial program, descriptions and photos for the school's various campaigns, and a secure donation button for submitting honorarioum gifts. (See Memorial Gift page example.)

Now every school can simplify Memorial Day or honorarium donations for school friends and families, while empowering schools to acquire new donors who often do not respond to traditional postal mail solicitations.

If you would like to learn more about http://www.renweb.com/Wheel/Powerful/Integrated-Web-Partners/Donate-Online.aspxwww.renweb.com/Wheel/Powerful/Integrated-Web-Partners/Donate-Online.aspx, please register for one of our free webinar demonstrations.

• Tuesday, May 17, 2011, 1-2:00pm CT, Register Here
• May 26, 2011, 10-11:00am CT, Register Here

QuickBooks Interface to Debut at RenWeb Power Conference
Register Today to Reserve a Seat in QuickBooks Session

RenWeb is pleased to announce it will debut its new QuickBooks Interface at the 2011 RenWeb Power Conference.

Benefits of the RenWeb's QuickBooks Interface include:

• Eliminates dual entry of student billing and payment information
• Sends RenWeb charge and payment details to QuickBooks for posting
• Sends QuickBooks information back to RenWeb for printing family statements and displaying balances in ParentsWeb
• Enables parents to make online payments via Pay Now that post in both QuickBooks and RenWeb to once again update family balances
• Eliminates the need to reconcile account receivables balances between QuickBooks and RenWeb, saving time and energy during the QuickBooks monthly close process.

We encourage all interested participants to register for the Power Conference today to reserve a seat in this session before classes fill. 
 
To register or learn more information about the Power Conference, please click here.

This week we spoke with Doug Tucker, a Software Engineer with RenWeb.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your family?
I’m what some would call a “dyed-in-the-wool” Texan. Born and raised in Dallas, graduated from Skyline High School and Southern Methodist University. I’ve traced my Tucker ancestors to this area as far back as the Republic of Texas! 
 
What kinds of things do you like to do in your free time?
I’m an avid bowler, a tournament Bridge player (no, it’s not just a card game for old people), and a big fan of all things Science Fiction (what engineer isn’t?). Most of my spare time goes to serving my congregation where I am an ordained minister.
 
What do you do at RenWeb?
My main focus is maintaining security and stability for the systems that house our customers’ data. This task is a good fit for my mix of hardware and software expertise (a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering with 20+ years of software development experience).   
 
Can you speak about some of the security and safety mechanisms in place for the RenWeb databases? 
This is a bit technical, but I’ll do my best to explain.  RenWeb, along with our hosting partner Edge Web Hosting (www.edgewebhosting.net), has created a best-in-class architecture and environment for housing school data.  That starts with a carrier-grade data center located in Baltimore, MD, boasting 24x7 physical security, redundant connectivity to the national Internet backbone, and redundant power/HVAC/fire-suppression systems, etc.  In short, the data center provides everything needed to keep the physical hardware that houses our data safe and secure.
 
Layered on top of that sound physical footing rests our data security systems.  This includes SSL data transport encryption, an industry-grade firewall, plus several types of anti-virus software, which guard our systems from attack. 
 
Capping this security system is live, 24x7 monitoring by security personnel stationed within the secure data center facility itself – real people watching over our systems constantly. 
 
Do you oversee database backups?
Yes.  All our client databases, hosted on MS SQL Server systems, receive a nightly database backup.  These nightly “snapshots” encompass not only our school’s historical data but also the recent, day-to-day changes, and they are retained for a minimum of 30 days.  In addition, not one but two copies of these backups are maintained.  One copy resides within our Baltimore data center, while a duplicate copy is maintained off-site.  By “off-site” we mean a storage location more than an hour’s distance from Baltimore, mitigating risk from natural disaster. 
 
Paranoid?  Perhaps a smidge, but in the data security world, paranoia is regarded as a job requirement.
 
How is customer privacy maintained?
The primary “safety mechanism” protecting RenWeb databases is our company’s philosophy on data privacy (see our privacy policy), which might be paraphrased as “We won’t share your data with ANYONE without (a) your prior approval, or (b) a court order.”  Our privacy policy exceeds industry norms, and meets the stringent standards required to obtain third-party certification by TRUSTe (www.truste.com) both for our commitment to ethical data handling and for our adherence to standards required to operate within the US-EU Safe Harbor framework establish by the US Department of Commerce in conjunction with the European Union.
 
What is your favorite thing about working at RenWeb?
My favorite thing about working at RenWeb is working for and working with good people who live by their principles.  RenWeb stands as proof that integrity is good for business.

If you are interested in learning more, feel free to email us at socialmedia@renweb.com.