HIT:WINNEBAGO SPECTRUM

[Josephine Dervan <rderva@injersey.com>]

Dear LM_Netters,

A few weeks ago I inquired about Spectrum problems in anticipation of an
installation workshop. The respondents were mostly people considering
upgrading to Spectrum from CIRC/CAT. They asked that I post a Hit with
what I had learned, so I am.

We are a 6 school district and had purchased the CIRC/CAT program to run
on PowerMacs. Our district installed PC LANS this past Fall and so we
needed a new program. We were persuaded to upgrade to the new Spectrum
system.
Our experiences with Winnebago had been bad (corrupt demo disks,
insufficient training from reps, bad data disks, etc). This time they
seemed to have been on target.
We sent out our MAC data disks and patron lists to be converted. Two
people from Winnebago(one for demonstrations and one for installation)
came out from MN. on Wed. We had 2 days of workshops by Linda
Eppelheimer who gives workshops around the US. She was GREAT. Varina,
the support person, was at our schools installing Spectrums on the
DEDICATED SERVERS. That went smoothly. Day 3 and 4 was spent by Linda
and Varina coming to each school and showing us how to customize the
program for our individual schools.

Problems did arise but were handled quickly and efficiently. There seem
to be many changes from CIR/CAT. We also learned that at least 2
upgrades are in the works. We were told that these are shipped
automatically to all those who renew their support contract. It was
recommended that we plan to attend the annual workshops held locally.

So now we are off and running. Wish us luck!

Jo Dervan
LMS
Strathmore Elementary School
Aberdeen, NJ 07747
rderva@injersey.com

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