Why Buying Specialized HR Software Makes Sense

A recent HR software debacle at Wichita Falls ISD demonstrates that applications that try to do too much can be less useful than a series of well designed niche solution. The school’s CFO (Tim Turner) faced some tough questions recently from school board members about their $1 million investment in software from Prologic Technologies. The suite they bought includes such features as grade tracking, core HR, and paycheck issuance. That’s a pretty diverse range of functions to include in one software package.


Three years into the implementation, the WFISD’s CFO is very displeased with how much time he has to spend every week administering the software. He’s especially tired of dealing with glitches that cause misprints on paychecks. Turner admits that these problems usually crop up when there are errors or omissions in the information entered on the HR side. Since how teachers (especially substitutes) are paid can vary depending on many factors, getting the data right is challenging. The system apparently doesn’t include built in rules to help ensure that information is entered correctly.

Software Doesn’t Offer Full Functionality

One issue that the software vendor definitely should have addressed by now is the fact that Turner can’t generate the reports he really needs. This limits visibility into budget management – a huge concern for pretty much every school district in the country. The WFISD suspended payments to Prologic months ago because of ongoing dissatisfaction with the software’s performance. They want to give the vendor one last chance to get the bugs fixed. If that doesn’t happen, they plan to cancel their contract and review the original bids they received from other vendors in 2006 to find an alternative solution.

Why Looking at Outdated Quotes Isn’t Likely to Help

Given how fast the software landscape evolves, that might not be the best approach. To really get what they need, the board should take a fresh look at their specifications and expectations and clarify their requirements. The valuable lesson WFISD can learn from this experience is that they need to work with a vendor who understands the special challenges of the education industry and can create a tailored solution.

They may not be best served by a single provider either. Instead, they may want to have each function serviced by a separate SaaS vendor (with appropriate interfaces between applications). This could entail a couple of benefits. First, they won’t get so enmeshed with one vendor that they are stuck spending years putting up with less than satisfactory customer service. Second, they can select Best of Breed applications that limit human mistakes. As we’ve demonstrated with our Universal Onboarding software, eliminating errors and omissions is just a matter of making this a priority in the design stage.