News

 

Harris Computer Systems Acquires SDS Software

Posted: January 24, 2010

Toronto, Ontario – January 25, 2010 - Constellation Software Inc. (“Constellation”) (TSX: CSU) today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Harris Computer Systems (“Harris”), a leading provider of financial, customer and student information management software solutions for utilities, local governments and school districts, purchased SDS Software (“SDS”). 

 

SDS offers a full portfolio of products and services for Canadian school boards including: human resources, payroll, fund accounting, and student activity fund management.  As a result of the transaction, SDS will be consolidated within Harris School Solutions, the Harris operating division focused on administrative solutions for K-12 school districts throughout North America. 

 

Jerry Canada, General Manager of Harris School Solutions commented, “SDS is a significant milestone in the Harris School Solutions growth plan as it expands our presence into the Canadian market. We will look to complement the SDS product portfolio with our own student management solutions and continue to compete for new business throughout Canada.”

 

“The SDS team brings excellent domain expertise in both back office systems and web development. They provide a solid foundation for us to grow in this market,” said Canada.  Harris will continue to develop, service, and support the SDS product line from the current Vancouver, BC office. 

 

“SDS has provided administrative software and services to Canadian school districts for 23 years and the acquisition by Harris is an exciting and logical step in the evolution of our organization”, said Priscilla McDonald, President and CEO of SDS Software.  “As one of the 50 Best Managed Companies in Canada, Harris brings additional resources to our continued commitment to our clients. In Harris we have found the best partner to maintain and enhance the SDS tradition of quality software and exemplary service.”

 

 

About Constellation:

Constellation acquires, manages and builds vertical market software businesses that provide mission critical software solutions. Constellation's common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "CSU". Further information about Constellation may be obtained from the Company's web site at http://www.csisoftware.com

 

  

About Harris:

Harris is a wholly owned subsidiary of Constellation and is a leading provider of financial management and Customer Information Systems (CIS) software solutions. Since 1976, Harris has focused on providing feature-rich and robust turnkey solutions to all levels of local government, public power and water entities as well as school districts throughout North America. Harris' focus is on creating long-term relationships with our customers and ensuring that we meet the changing needs of our customers over time. For further information on Harris Computer Systems, please visit our website at http://www.harriscomputer.com, or call 888-847-7747, for Harris School Solutions visit http://www.harris-schoolsolutions.com.

 

 

About SDS:

SDS is a leading provider of software and services for K-12 education. Each of our products is designed and developed exclusively for Canadian school districts. We help our clients continuously improve the administration and management of their organizations by providing exceptional quality software and customer service.  SDS Software is based in Vancouver, BC and services education clients across Canada. For further information on SDS, please visit our website at http://www.sdssoftware.com, or call 888-737.4900.

 

 

For further information, contact:

 

Constellation Software Inc.

John Billowits, Chief Financial Officer

Tel: (416) 861-2279

info@csisoftware.com

www.csisoftware.com

 

Harris Computer Systems

Jerry Canada Jr., General Manager, Harris School Solutions                                                       

(716) 207-8005

jcanada@harriscomputer.com

www.harriscomputer.com

 

 

 

SDS researching Hyper V support

Posted: November 2, 2009
SDS is very pleased with the performance of Virtual Servers, which have been used by many clients to host their SDS Web Servers.  To this point, SDS is supporting VMWare only, but in response to requests from clients we are now researching the feasibility of supporting a second Virtual Machine platform.
 

Via for Schools deployed

Posted: August 6, 2009
The first release of Via for Schools is now installed in over ten districts, providing graphical web screens to schools for access to their district Accounting information.  Schools love the look of the screens and the reports, and they find the effective date reports and title lookup on general ledger accounts to be big time savers.
 
The next release due in late spring 2010, will provide  "shopping cart" functionality to make school-based ordering simple and intutitive. 
 
"We planned to wait for delivery of the Purchasing functions before deploying Via to our schools.  When we saw the functionality, simplicity and attractive interface we knew our schools would love it, and we are implementing Via Accounting right away!"
Kevin Burge, Trillium Lakelands District School Board

SCO announces VMWare Support

Posted: August 1, 2009
VMWare offers clients the opportunity to save money through reduced hardware purchases, reduced server setup time and significant energy savings.  SDS has been running it web applications in VMWare and Linux since early 2009. 
 
SDS will be supporting Openserver 5.07V for clients who wish to run their SDS applications on a virtual server.  The SDS web products, eFunds, eServe and Via for Schools are all VMWare compliant.
 
 
 
SCO is providing Openserver 5.07V subscriptions at zero cost for the first year of use.
 

SDS adds VMWare as Supported Environment

Posted: August 1, 2009
SDS has announced the support for VMWare Virtual Servers.  Initially this will allow districts to run the eServe, eFunds and Via applications on a VMWare server.  We expect to also provide support for core applications such as Payroll and Financials with the introduction of SCO Openserver 5.07V.
 
"Virtual technology is being adopted by school districts across Canada, and SDS has made the investment in our own VMWare server to allow us to support this exciting innovation!"
Steve Walker, Chief Software Architect
 
"Our clients have proven to us how energy efficient and cost-effective virtual machines can be, and we are pleased to offer VMWare as a supported platform."
Brian Kipp, Vice President
 
"VMWare has helped us keep clients' costs down while rolling out new web products such as eFunds and Via for Schools"
Elaine Poirier, Vice President Client Services