The Soapbox

 

ConserveDirect Brings ENERGY STAR
Tracking to Schools

By: Jill Judd - February 2nd, 2012

 
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Does your school understand its ENERGY STAR ratings?

How about your level of greenhouse gas emission?

Are you taking the necessary steps to conserve energy and reduce utility expenditures?

In December, SchoolDude.com announced the release of its newest product – ConserveDirect. In partnership with with SchoolDude’s solution for utility tracking and analysis (UtilityDirect), ConserveDirect allows institutions to track ENERGY STAR ratings, greenhouse gas emissions, and plan conservation programs – all in one easy-to-use dashboard.

 

 

Benefits include:

  • Reduced energy costs by implementing and monitoring conservation programs
  • Allows for easy participation in the US Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGYSTAR program
  • Simplified reporting with straightforward reports, enabling clients to customize and publicize information to school and community stakeholders

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Getting More out of ITDirect:
Customized Queries

By: Jed DeGroote - February 1st, 2012

 
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How does your institution meet the challenge of doing more with less? Likely you’ve developed a team that has become pretty adept in coming up with creative solutions to utilize the tool set available to them. In the Client Service Center, we too are pretty good at coming up with creative solutions both internally and for our clients.

A common need for many clients is the ability to modify the output (columns and rows) of our reports. Many times, an Excel Pivot Chart (click here to view an interactive guide) fills the need for a unique output format.

However, for our IT market, the customizable query feature in ITDirect and ITAMDirect can fill that need as well. Queries allow you to choose your search criteria and output fields to create personalized reports to fit your needs.
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Energy Stories, Part I: Getting Started

By: Lee Prevost - January 30th, 2012

 
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In 2010, we conducted a 28-city event series focused on school facility management best practices called “Survivor Tour.” Joined by over 1,000 school facility professionals, we surveyed what their top issues/challenges were.

Consistently, we heard the same thing: one of their biggest challenges was “energy.” 

This got us thinking. If these utility costs are not managed aggressively, they will crowd out other vital parts of the budget including maintenance staffing and education.  Energy costs represent approximately 1/3 of the M&O budget and around 2%-3% of the school district budget.  While on the tour, we heard countless stories like this:

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What Should I do?
Maintenance Hours vs. Work Order Counts

By: Jed DeGroote - January 25th, 2012

 

Our clients ask a lot of great questions. For example, we are frequently asked which items are the most important to track in SchoolDude. The honest answer is that each organization has unique needs. There is no easy right or wrong answer for how you choose to track and report your data. However, there are some general “best practice” concepts we try to make everyone aware of.

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