The Employee: Brad McClure (Dallas / Fort Worth Office)

The Client: Texans Can Academies

The Texans Can Academies’ educational objective is an exceptionally powerful one,  and its success with economically disadvantaged kids is well documented. With locations in DFW, Austin, San Antonio and Houston, they provide a unique, innovate approach to education through an accelerated, distinctive and empathetic curriculum.

Their core mission? “To graduate thinkers.”

“We focus on kids at the low end of the socioeconomic spectrum. They’ve either dropped out, or are close to it and for whatever reason, can’t succeed in a traditional school. They all have obstacles in their life that have prevented them from succeeding,” IT Services Director Richard Pena said.

Texans Can focuses on a strong hands-on, interpersonal approach to their students. Smaller classes. A high counselor/student ratio. They also utilize outside resources to provide medical care, clothing, food, job opportunities for other family members… anything that can help clear hurdles for the students to find success.

But, like any other entity in the educational marketplace, they have business technology needs, too.

What Was the Client's Need?

In two particular applications, technology is a key player in delivering necessary resources to students. First, with their credit recovery program, students who are behind in their credits can utilize a computer lab to accelerate the process of getting caught up. By doing so, administration can assess where students are academically and ultimately get them back into a classroom. Secondly, a business and computer information systems lab provides basic computer skills for the students.

Like any other school, technology allows for tracking and recording of grades, student management systems, finance and bookkeeping and human resources. Diaz’ team is responsible for the infrasturuce, security, reporting  and overall workflow for the Academy.

The Texans Can Academies was recently seeking specific ways, within their office environment, to control costs wherever possible, and recapture those costs to put them back into the classroom. With a small IT staff, Pena’s team is stretched thin.

How did the Team Approach the Challenge?

Brad McClure maintained a close eye on the needs for Texans Can, who has been a Datamax customer since 2009. With the copiers and printers at the school coming up for renewal recently, he also recommended UniFLOW software as a  reporting mechanism to track costs and reduce spending across the school’s workflow environment.

What Made them a Raving Fan?

“With uniFLOW, everything is so simplified,” Pena said. “Initially, we thought of this software as a reporting tool. Once we started the implementation, we found out how much it lowers administrative needs moving forward. For example, now we’ve got one print driver to update, my staff is not constantly having to update those. I’m able to provide reporting on a granular level to allow principals to see how we can lower costs; we can truly understand how we are utilizing our printing, allowing people to make smarter decisions printing-wise, etc.”

“We are saving a ton on administration. I get to utilize my resources on not just keeping things running, but enhancing things on our campus.”

“Kudos to Brad. He really took the initiative throughout this process. He got creative in the way he put everything together… he didn’t just put a quote together. He really said ‘what can I do to help these guys into (uniFLOW) without breaking the bank.

“It was a no-brainer when I went to the CFO. She was like, ‘where do I sign?’"