Is Your Data Safe?

It always comes to mind at this time of year, when I'm doing lots of rollovers, that many customers have their BUSTOPS data saved on the C drive of their computer.  So I wanted to take this opportunity to remind everyone that you should periodically check with your School District's IT Department to make sure your BUSTOPS data is being backed up on a regular basis. 

If the data is on a server, you need to make sure it is being backed up by the IT Department through their daily or weekly backup procedures.

If your BUSTOPS data is on the C drive of a computer in your office, you need to make sure you are backing it up on a regular basis yourself. You can work with your IT Department to create a procedure to backup by copying the data to a server drive, a zip drive, or DVD, depending on their preference.  During the school year, a weekly backup is likely sufficient, however, when you are planning next year's routes, a daily backup would be best.

Regardless of where the data is saved, if it is lost and no current backup is available, it can be a lot of work to recreate the information.

Should you or your IT people wish to discuss this, please give us a call.

Hope everyone is enjoying this warmer weather!

Time to Spring into Action

It's been a long, cold winter for us, this year and it's hard to believe the end of the 2013-2014 school year is fast approaching.  And - it's time to start thinking about planning your routes for next year!

What types of changes are going to occur in your School District for the next school year?

• do  you need to eliminate a route(s)?
• are you closing buildings?
• will you be opening a building?
• are you considering re-configuring the grades in different buildings?

Bustops can be used to help plan routes for each of these scenarios.

Once you've booked your GoToMeeting appointment to upgrade your students' grades and then the rollover is done, you will need to:

• reassign students who switch schools to new stops for their new school
• import or enter your new kindergartners and assign them to stops
• optimize or adjust routes depending on your School Districts plans
• print letters, postcards or post new routes for parents
• print route sheets, student lists and maps for drivers and schools

Remember, we are here to help you as much as you need to get the information setup in Bustops for next year.  And, the more changes you need to make, the earlier you should get started.

Happy Spring!