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- How many times have you been to a meeting where a salesperson from Company XYZ says, "I'll bring that idea back to the programmer"? As an ECS user, you are encouraged to participate in quarterly focus groups that invite you to bring in ideas and suggestions for improvements or new modules- and you're speaking directly with the programmer!
- Provide access for your users that suits your needs. Once an ECS unit, pbla, or lesson plan is added to your district-wide database, it is accessible via your Internet server, your network, (or on a CD for users that don't have network access.)
Other mapping products require you to store all of your district's map, pbla, lesson plan and document content on a remote web server. That means no access if the web is down or performing poorly.
- No need to use the Internet to create and edit documents. The ECS programs that teachers use to create maps, pblas, and lesson plans can be run from your network, from your hard drive, or even from a floppy disk. There's no requirement to connect to the Internet to create a unit, pbla, or lesson plan, as in other products. There are no speed or performance issues for teachers using modems at home, and the ECS software will run on almost any Windows PC.
- You own the data - it's not housed on a remote internet server. Your district purchases the software license, and stores the software, and data files on a local network or Internet server. You won't receive a message like this one from another vendor on August 23, 2002 - "XXX will be unavailable for the next 24 hours." Also, ECS units, pblas, and lesson plans are not stored in a proprietary format, but can be read, emailed, or edited as simple text files. Even more importantly, your district and teachers own the files you create - A look at the fine print in many license agreements state that you own the copyright, but the vendor can sell, distribute, or do almost anything they want with your files stored on their server!
- The cost savings are significant. Your school or district purchases the eCS software license once, and then pays only basic support fees to participate in user group meetings and software updates. One of the disadvantages of an online subscription-type system is that every year you are required to pay the subscription fee to continue using the software. With eCS, you license the software once and then you pay only basic support fees annually (about 20% of the purchase price). Why pilot the program with a limited number of teachers, when you can bring all of your teachers into the system for less cost than a pilot project?
- Training teachers to use ECS to create and access units, pblas, and lesson plans requires a simple 1 hour workshop. The user interface is consistent across all programs, and the programs are designed to support the task of creating and storing curriculum units and lessons. Most other mapping systems will certainly involve more training time - at significant expense.
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