As a result of the federal "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001," K-12 institutions are struggling under unprecedented requirements to demonstrate continuous improvement at the state, district, school, grade and sub-group levels. School districts and states must now do a much better job of reporting results to the public, enabling parents to make fact-based decisions about their choice of schools. An integrated infrastructure based on modern technologies is critical to moving schools forward and demonstrating that progress to the public.

K-12 institutions are not alone in their need for advanced technologies. Their counterparts in Higher Education have that requirement, and more, to manage. Universities typically have hundreds of departmental and operational systems, Web sites and intranets. These systems have evolved independently over the years. Integrating these disparate solutions at the database, system and/or portal level is a key challenge for every university.

Why B2B Technologies?
In 2001, B2B Technologies was tapped to build the first on-line School Report Card for the State of Georgia. One year later, Microsoft selected B2B to be an All Star Partner in Education for its Southeast Region.

Today, one third of B2B's overall business is devoted to delivering solution sets that address the most critical needs of its K-12 and Higher Education customers.

B2B Technologies' education expertise spans:

• Portals - Providing a single point of entry across multiple applications, enabling teachers, students and teams to collaborate on projects and courses.
• Content Management - Keeping public Web sites' information current and relevant by tapping into a portfolio of easy-to-use content management tools.
• SIF Assessment - Determining the readiness of your school district's instructional and administrative systems for enterprise application integration, and development of a roadmap for getting there.
• SIF Implementation - Deploying centralized Zone Integration Server software, integrating two or more applications in the K-12 organization.
• Business Intelligence - Amassing a school district's academic, operational and financial data in a data warehouse where advanced mining tools can reveal the insights needed to make forward-focused decisions.

Expertise tailored to Education

Whenever K-12 and Higher Education institutions need technology advice and assistance, they consult B2B Technologies. Recently, B2B has completed projects for Georgia's Office of Student Achievement, Georgia State University's Executive MBA Program, the Bradley County (Tennessee) School District and Paideia School.

To learn the details of how B2B Technologies has helped K-12 and Higher Education institutions better serve their constituencies, review the following education-specific case studies:

• Georgia's Office of Education Accountability: How a gubernatorial mandate for academic accountability led to on-line and downloadable performance reports on every school system in the state.
• Georgia State University Executive MBA Program: Why only a secure portal could deliver the rich collaboration faculty and student teams needed.