The Beginning
Infinite Campus has been providing customers with advanced student information system functionality, via a hosted service model, since its inception in 1993. The original version of Infinite Campus was launched in 1996 at Centennial School District in Circle Pines, Minnesota which is still using the system today. In fact, Infinite Campus has a 99% retention rate for customers who have purchased and implemented the system.
The founder of Infinite Campus built the system from the ground up using a Web browser as the only “client” ever offered to customers. He understood that the Internet was here to stay and it was an inexpensive way for schools to provide access to student data. Infinite Campus truly was the first, web-based SIS.
In addition to the forward looking design of using a browser interface, Infinite Campus was designed from the beginning to be an enterprise class solution instead of being built as a building or site-based system. This gives Infinite Campus customers the integration they need for collaboration and efficient workflow horizontally across the district as well as the ability to interoperate between districts and with state authorities. The enterprise capabilities of the system also allows for easy scaling up or down depending on changing enrollment situations in the district.
The architecture of Infinite Campus delivers another key benefit for educators. The system uses true business logic built upon a multiple tier architecture. The separation of the business logic from the data and presentation layers ensures system integrity and the security of student data – vital for today’s educators.
The use of the multiple tier architecture also gives Infinite Campus the agility to adapt quickly to changing K-12 education needs so customers are able to take advantage of any new technology advancements. By separating the various pieces of the architecture, Infinite Campus developers can quickly provide product enhancements, entirely new functionality or provide specific customizations. And if there are advancements made in database technologies, presentation interfaces or other unknown future technology advancements, Infinite Campus can quickly adapt to take advantage of these new marketplace innovations and provide them to districts without disrupting production as usual.
State Edition
In 2002, after the passage of the NCLB Act and the need for accurate data, the state of South Dakota’s Department of Education asked Infinite Campus to demonstrate its system. The state had originally intended to purchase a solution for each district. But after understanding their needs, Infinite Campus suggested that the state use Infinite Campus as its statewide system including special education and implement it in each of its districts.
Due to the systems ability to scale, its integration and web-based access, Infinite Campus was able to provide all of the South Dakota districts with a cost effective solution to manage student information. And the entire implementation only took approximately 18 months. With each of the districts using best practices for data entry, the state has a true transactional data warehouse providing the ability to analyze information to detect trends in real-time, make adjustments as needed and plan ahead for the future.
Today, Infinite Campus provides all South Dakota districts with unique student identifiers, eliminated state reporting and has simplified federal reporting. Because of Infinite Campus, South Dakota applied to be a U.S. Department of Education’s growth model state and they use Infinite Campus to provide transcripts to the higher education institutions in the state. With Infinite Campus, South Dakota has been able to do much more than expected when they purchased the system originally in 2002.
Looking Ahead
Looking forward, districts, regional consortia, state departments of education and the federal government are taking a closer look at Infinite Campus. They understand that when they select Infinite Campus, their organization will be adopting a new way of managing education processes. They are choosing a system that will eliminate islands of information, improve data gathering and management while providing the functionality needed so everyone benefits from the shared data to better educate each student. |
