What is CEDARWOOD?
CEDARWOOD
is a comprehensive database solution designed
specifically to address the needs of continuing
education providers. It includes data
management and tools covering:
-
People (Participants, Presenters, and Staff)
-
Organizations You Serve
-
Workshops and Courses
-
Registrations (Including On-Line Registration)
-
Facilities and Equipment
-
Financial Transactions (Supplemental to your existing accounting software.)
CEDARWOOD runs on the FileMaker platform and can be run in a Windows, Mac, or Mixed environment (see back page for requirements).
Enhance Productivity
Improve
Your Use of Staff Time and
Resources
Your
staff is your most valuable resource. CEDARWOOD
provides you with tools to make sure that they
are using their time wisely.
Eliminate
Duplication of Labor
By
using an integrated system, you can eliminate
the time and errors caused by the duplication
of labor. The Calendar module links directly to
the Workshops module. Information about a
participant, a vendor, or a workshop can be
added to new registration or financial records
with two clicks.
Improved
Workflow
By
studying the way that people work, we have
attempted to create intelligent and intuitive
workflow paths. For example, the last step of
entering/verifying a participant’s contact
information is a snapshot of that participant’s
registration history (in reverse chronological
order) with an option to add a new
registration.
Records from one module are intelligently
linked to relevant information in other
modules, replacing the old “write down the
number, switch modules, and perform a search”
model with a single mouse click.
Tools
for Workshop Support Staff
We
have included special tools to improve the flow
of information to your technology, catering,
and facilities staff.
-
Calendar filters have been included to allow to quickly see only those events that require their services.
-
Setup Guides, both weekly and daily, can be generated.
Raise Customer Satisfaction
Increase
Repeat Business and Improve Customer
Relationships
Repeat
business is the lifeblood of continuing
education providers. CEDARWOOD provides you
with the tools you need to meet and exceed your
customers’ expectations and keep them coming
back for more.
Improved
Communication
Customizable
tools are included to help you to communicate
with your customers.
-
Your registration staff is prompted to send confirmation e-mails to participants when they are registered for or withdrawn from a workshop.
-
The system can also be set to generate and track confirmation letters that can be mailed to participants X days prior to a workshop.
-
You can easily generate “we miss you” letters for those participants who have not been seen for a specified length of time.
24-Hour Online Access
Not only will your participants enjoy being able to shop for workshops from the comfort of their homes, but they can also update their contact information and view, print, or save their registration histories.
Improved Customer Service
The Professional Development Alliance is known for its customer service, and we have built support for that service right into our database.
-
Participants can indicate special needs (such as dietary requirements or physical access issues) when they register. This information appears on daily and weekly setup guides.
-
Information entered is available in real time to all of your staff, allowing anyone who answers a call to answer questions quickly and completely.
Streamline Operations
Improve
Your Bottom Line by Saving Money and Increasing
Revenue
Is
your agency responsible for generating revenue
to cover your operating budget? If so, the
right database system can help.
Reduce
Printing Costs
The
Online Registration System (ORS) may reduce
your need to publish a full catalog of your
offerings.
Focused Marketing Efforts
The
tracking systems in CEDARWOOD make it easy for
your staff to keep an eye on workshops that are
below their minimum registrations.
Direct Marketing
Market
a workshop directly to past participants of
similar workshops , either by generating an
e-mail or by generating mailing labels for
those participants or by generating custom
letters.
Track
Trend Data
Make
intelligent decisions about what to offer by
reviewing which workshops have filled in the
past, as well as those that were
canceled.
Above the
Rest
Full
Graphical User
Interface
The
most powerful database in the world is
worthless if your users are unable to
use it. CEDARWOOD has been designed
with a full, friendly user interface
that does not require users to
understand database theory or to do any
coding. The most common actions a user
will want to perform are readily
available on the screen. See our
screenshots
to get a feel for
CEDARWOOD.
Built-In
Calendar
Are
you currently entering your workshops
into a registration system but managing
your facilities in another system (or
on paper?) Since nothing good has ever
come from double data entry, we built a
calendar directly into your
registration system. Manage your rooms,
check for conflicts, and even filter
the calendar to quickly view those
events that require catering,
technology, or other
services.
Flexibility
Just
like a Cedar tree, CEDARWOOD attempts
to find the right balance between
strength and
flexibility.
Fluid
Customizations
While
many systems require that you specify
(and stick with) the values that will
be available in selectable fields (such
as meeting spaces), our programmers
have taken the extra effort to
“soft-code” these lists. This means
that you can customize and add to these
lists whenever the need arises, without
paying for a programmer to do it for
you.
Multiple
Forms of Continuing Education
Credit
Do
you offer more than one type of CEU? Or
another form of credit altogether?
CEDARWOOD allows you to define several
types of credit - each of which can
have a different contact hour
conversion factor. You can even award
different forms of credit to attendees
of the same workshop. Transcripts and
CEU certificates indicate the form of
credit chosen and calculate the
appropriate credit amount.
Credit
for Partial
Attendance
By
indicating the percentage of contact
hours attended by a participant, you
can award partial credit to that
participant (if that form of credit
allows for the issuance of partial
credit.) Transcripts and CEU
certificates automatically calculate
and indicate the correct credit.
Flexible
Scheduling
Many
systems require you to specify a start
date and an end date for the terms in
which your offerings will be held,
restricting those offerings to within
that range. They also assume that all
of your registrations occur before the
first date of that term and that credit
is awarded at the end of the term.
CEDARWOOD was built at its core to
avoid these limitations.
Flexible
Facilities Use
Do
you have rooms that make use of
dividers? CEDARWOOD can intelligently
handle such rooms, warning you if you
attempt to schedule a whole room when a
portion of that room has already been
scheduled (or vice versa).
User
Management
Make
sure that each user of your system has
the correct rights with over 40
privilege settings.
Custom
Letters
While
users may export data to be used in
Microsoft Office or another program for
a mail merge, CEDARWOOD also offers an
option for users to create custom
letters that can be merged and printed
without the need for an
export.