Information bulletin N^o 21 - October 6, 2009

Corporate News

The Réunion nationale celebrates its 30^th anniversary

Come celebrate the 30^th edition of the Réunion nationale and discuss:

• Educational technology
• The school of the future
• Decision support
• Management
• Pedagogy
• Distance education

Various other topics of interest for managers, school administrators, teachers, educators and support personnel will also be addressed. Consult the official program and register now!

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CEO’s satisfaction survey

This year represented several firsts for the CEO's survey, the purpose of which is to measure the satisfaction and identify the expectations of our members:

• LimeSurvey: The flexibility and user-friendliness of this open-source, on-line survey engine was highly appreciated.
• Bilingual interface: The survey was issued in English and French.
• Three surveys: The traditional format was divided into three parts: a general survey, a survey about administrative products and services and a survey about pedagogical products and services. The last two were sent separately, two months after the general survey went out.

Together, these elements contributed to a 20% increase in the response rate as compared to 2007. The survey results were submitted to the Board of Directors this summer. All three survey reports will be released shortly for consultation by the school boards’ directors general.

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Initial results of Société GRICS’ ITIL initiative

As announced on September 24 (read it here, PDF), a pilot project has recently been launched to test new communication templates for the messages sent to clients. IT professionals will notice new e-mails sent by the PAIE-GRH and GPI teams.  

One of the goals of this new format is to promote consistency in our communications and make it easier for users to sort messages from Société GRICS by: Type of information Level of importance or priority Follow-up action. Following this, the new communications standards will be gradually implemented in all product teams. Featured in a Réunion nationale workshop: Different aspects of the ITIL initiative undertaken by Société GRICS will be addressed at the Réunion nationale, workshop 136 (program and registration).

Workshop 136

For questions or comments about this pilot project, contact the ITIL-Communications team by e-mail or by phone at 514-251-3700, ext. 3876.

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Société GRICS' golf tournament: An unforgettable day

This summer, we were pleased to once again host our annual golf tournament on August 14. We would like to thank all our partners and members of our network who took part in this fun-filled day in company of their colleagues.

We look forward to seeing you on the links again on August 20, 2010!

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Updates on Our Products and Services

Lumix-GPI: Société GRICS’ new data warehouse solution

Our new decision support tool now has a name: Lumix-GPI. This solution helps processing the GPI database on information such as absenteeism, attendance or results and contributes in meeting the criteria of bill 88 regarding the implementation of governance measures.  

Five school boards have been testing out this tool since June. Technical performance has been the main focus up to this point but, now that school is back in full swing, experimentation with Lumix’s functional capacities is ramping up. Watch for...: Two presentations on the technical aspects (workshop 213) and functional aspects (workshops 233 and 311) of Lumix-GPI will be held during the Réunion nationale (program and registration). For more information on Lumix-GPI, contact your regional representative.

Workshop 213 Workshop 233 Workshop 311

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On-line instructional videos for PAIE-GRH Société GRICS, in association with the Commission scolaire de la Région-de-Sherbrooke, produced some 50 instructional short-videos in French for the Decentralization and Plus module of the PAIE-GRH system. These videos have been incorporated into the Moodle e-learning platform and are intended for use by regular and substitute staff looking for an occasional refresher on using certain functions (annual tasks, new tasks, etc.). A new project is currently under way with the Commission scolaire de Laval to produce instructional videos for the GPI system. The videos will be made available to the entire network. For more information, please contact your regional representative.

Watch a sample video (in French) at apprendre.grics.qc.ca/paie

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YourSQLDba: An open-source database maintenance tool

The SQL 2005 database management and maintenance solution that earned Maurice Pelchat an award for innovation in the November 2007 edition of SQL Server Magazine (see the article published in Information Bulletin No. 12) is now available in open source. Installed in most of our clients' systems, YourSQLDba currently serves a community of over 160 users in Quebec and around the world.

In June 2009, SQL Server Magazine published an article on YourSQLDba. New functionalities are constantly being added such as exclusive database access during maintenance.

You can download YourSQLDba from www.grics.qc.ca/Yoursqldba with fully bilingual user documentation.  

Featured in a Réunion nationale workshop One of the highly anticipated functionalities of YourSQLDba will make it possible to carry out maintenance on a backup SQL server with a minimum of effort. This aspect will be addressed at the Réunion nationale, along with the new features of SQL Server 2008 (workshop 154, program and registration). Distribution list To be notified of the newest developments related to this tool, be sure to sign up for the YourSQLDba distribution list.

Workshop 154

For more details regarding YourSQLDba, contact our SQL support team by e-mail or by phone at 514-251-3779.

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Customized version of Colibris

This summer, the Zone libre en éducation team finalized three projects to custom-develop open-source software compilations in answer to requests of two high schools and an adult education centre. These organizations have shown interest in distributing their customized Colibris compilation in CD-ROM format to students, teachers and parents at the beginning of the school year.

For more information on customizing Colibris, contact the Zone libre en éducation team by e-mail or by phone at 514-251-3700, ext. 3852.

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Training

Upcoming training dates:

Visit http://formation.grics.qc.ca to find out the latest training dates and register online. You may also contact us at any time to arrange on-site training at your workplace.

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Events and Activities

2009 special event

Conferences for fall 2009

Have a look at the list of conferences in which Société GRICS will be taking part this fall.

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