Ascendance Release Notes - February 2013/Release 92_4

NOTE: In July 2013 Point Release 92_4.1 was issued to address Cloud Enhancements and update My BackPack branding. See the My BackPack Point Release and the Cloud Initiative for more information.

Release 92_4 is a wide-ranging release that introduces some significant changes, as well as minor enhancements. Senior Systems held two webinars to introduce some of these new features. A recording of the webinar is now available!

This release includes significant program changes to improve and enhance security, including program changes made as part of Senior Systems’ PCI compliance initiative. We have also improved security around the My BackPack account management processes. See the 92_4 Security Release Bulletin for details.

We've completed the My BackPack Redesign, begun with the previous release, by introducing some totally new features, including a redesigned Student Calendar, with week-at-a-glance features. We also redesigned the Daily Assignments screen and made usability improvements to the Profile page, particularly in edit mode. Moving to the redesigned My BackPack may be scheduled through the Senior Systems Custom Branding Services Group. See the 92_4 All Applications Release Bulletin for a more detailed list of features.

We made several significant changes to Summer School in an effort to improve usability and customer experience, including a change to the parent login screen, additional accept/reject change options on the profile approval screen, and the ability to see more details about both addresses on the ‘select matching addresses’ screen. We also improved the way course late fees are applied. See the 92_4 Academics Release Bulletin for details about these changes and other enhancements made throughout the Ascendance academic applications.

In the Business Office, this release introduces additional enhancements to Campus Store. To answer concerns about both accuracy and performance, we are implementing a “stopping point” for On Hand Quantity calculations. All OHQ calculations will be based on the stopping point, created by the End of Year process, rather than requiring the system to calculate potentially years of transaction history each time a sale is made. This will greatly improve system performance. We have made several other significant changes in support of this change, all of which will be explained in detail in the 92_4 Business Office Release Bulletin, along with other minor enhancements made throughout the Business Office.

The Ascendance Mobile App, released last Summer, has given customers a new method to interact with the mobile community. With over 1700 downloads so far, the app is popular with parents and faculty alike. 92_4 introduces a new 'Links' screen, fully customizable by the school, as a way to further direct mobile traffic. See the 92_4 All Applications Release Bulletin for details about this enhancement. Contact Senior Systems Sales (Sales@senior-systems.com or 888-480-0102) for more information about purchasing the app, and see the Senior Systems Mobile Page or the Ascendance Mobile Admin Guide for more details about using the mobile app to connect with your mobile community!

For our Ascendance Cloud (formerly "Hosted Services") customers, we have made several enhancements to the Cloud environment, including ongoing efforts related to PCI compliance and infrastructure upgrades. There are some new features for the Cloud Profile tool, including SSO for all Cloud users (including multi-schema schools) and the new ability to receive account-related notifications via text message. The Cloud Admin tool has also been enhanced, including improved account creation and management options and account security enhancements. See the 92_4 Ascendance Cloud Release Bulletin for more details.

In Admissions, this release adds the ability to use up to 50 custom fields in Inquiry/Applicant Maintenance. These new fields are available in the Enrollment Contract HTML Editor. See the 92_4 Admissions Release Bulletin for more details.

For Alumni/Development, there are several enhancements and fixes, such as expansion of comments fields on several screens, and some new report options. In Events Management, some changes were made to add more useful totals to the Attendee List and to improve performance for loading attendee data.

Various other changes and enhancements have been implemented throughout the Ascendance applications, as we constantly work to improve the user experience. All of these features are described in more detail in the PDF Release Bulletins and other resources linked in the left navigation bar, including screenshots and how-to's.