Home    >    Press    >    2003 Press Releases

Pearson Education Technologies Delivers Concert™ Human Resources

Cutting-Edge Software Package Designed to Meet Needs of K-12 Education Business Offices

Mesa, AZ - January 16, 2003 - Pearson Education Technologies (formerly NCS Learn) today announced delivery of the third and final module of the Concert™ Business software solution: Concert™ Human Resources (HR). Concert™ Business is a comprehensive, Web-based suite of integrated applications designed specifically for the K-12 business office. The first two modules, Concert Finance and Concert Procurement, were released in spring and fall 2002, respectively.

Each module in the Concert Business HR suite is designed to increase the efficiency of operations that may otherwise be handled in a manual fashion or through disparate applications where information is not shared. Concert Human Resources provides school districts the tools they need to save time in producing, gathering, and reporting information; to stay on top of regulatory compliance; increase employee satisfaction; and increase operation effectiveness overall.

A key feature of Concert HR is the self-service capability for managers, employees, and applicants to take ownership of personnel and professional development information with round-the-clock, guided access to this data. For example, managers can open job requisitions online instead of on paper, view applicant information, or access employee data. Employees can set up direct deposit, check time-off balances, change withholding status, and create “what-if” scenarios to see the effects of these changes on their paychecks.

"Concert HR is designed to help districts manage their human resources processes more easily and efficiently than ever before. It can help districts reduce their administrative load by automating personnel-related processes, increase responsiveness, and decrease reporting errors," said Kelly Goodrich, vice president of marketing at Pearson Education Technologies. "Working together with Concert Finance and Concert Procurement, Concert HR will help districts improve their business office processes and achieve new levels of efficiency, accuracy, and success."

Concert Human Resources Applications

Concert HR applications include Benefits Administration, Personnel Administration, Payroll, Employee Expense, Human Resources, Event Management, and Self Service applications for employees, managers, and applicants.

The Benefits Administration application offers schools and districts flexible tracking of employee, retiree, and COBRA participant benefits. It allows users to structure benefit plans, set plan entry rule requirements, define coverage and plan contribution types, track participation, and audit benefit data.

• The Personnel Administration application provides a method to effectively manage the costs and processes related to personnel. It allows users to create job or position requisitions, track applicants, fill positions and maintain employee information. They can also perform wage analysis, EEO reporting, and administer health and safety information and worker’s compensation.
• The Payroll application is a comprehensive system for generating and maintaining all payroll-related information, including payment writing, labor distribution, quarterly reporting, and W-2 processing. It enables users to enter and maintain time records; calculate employee pay and deductions; create paychecks and direct deposits; track employee absences; and create government and standard reports.
• The Employee Expense application provides the ability for employees to process expense reimbursement requests, which feed into the Concert Finance application.
• The Human Resources application allows users to define the school district structure, employees, and jobs used in the other applications of Concert HR.
• The Event Management application offers flexible and precise tracking of accrued time in benefit plans.
• The Employee Self Service application allows employees to inquire on their own HR data (e.g. benefits enrollments, payroll history, and time accrual balances), and update items such as direct deposit accounts and emergency contacts.

About Concert Business

Concert Business comprises three application suites: Concert Finance, Concert Procurement, and Concert Human Resources. With its easy-to-use browser interface, full-time remote access, and automated processes, Concert Business helps K-12 districts improve business process management and operations, resulting in decreased administrative tasks and greater productivity. In addition, Concert Business offers easy data gathering with the distinctive Drill Around® feature. Drill Around allows users to navigate directly to detailed information with a click of the mouse or to move through Concert Business in any direction to access data in any application of the Finance, Procurement, or Human Resources modules.

Concert Business applications are scalable for deployment in large and small school districts, without compromising security, reliability, or performance. Concert Business uses Extensible Markup Language (XML), the universal format for data on the Web.

Services and Support

Pearson Education Technologies offers a full range of services and support for Concert Business, including implementation services, application training, data conversion and installation assistance, and technical support.

System Requirements

Concert Business is available on the Microsoft® Windows® 2000 platform. System requirements are Microsoft Windows 2000 and either a Microsoft SQL Server™ or Oracle® 8.1.7 database. The Web interface is supported by Microsoft Internet Explorer™ 5.5 browser.

About Pearson Education Technologies 

With more than 40 years of experience in developing, delivering, and supporting curriculum, assessment, and enterprise data management products, Pearson Education Technologies is the leader in offering comprehensive solutions for preK-12 education. Reaching more than 10 million students annually, our products include the SASIxp™ student information system, SuccessMaker® Enterprise and NovaNET® comprehensive courseware systems, and Concert™ Instruction & Assessment, the online education community. Pearson Education Technologies is part of Pearson Education (NYSE: PSO), the world's leading integrated education company.

For more information about Pearson Education Technologies, call 1.877.EdTech1.

Drill Around is a registered trademark of Lawson Software, Inc. Microsoft®, Windows®, Microsoft SQL Server™, and Microsoft Internet Explorer™ are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Oracle® is a registered trademark of Oracle Corp. All others are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCS Pearson, Inc.