DynaCal User News & Tips

Server Maintenance - Friday November 26 at 10:00 p.m. EST

On Friday, November 26, 2010 at 10:00 p.m. EST DynaCal will be performing maintenance on its system.  DynaCal will be inaccessible for the duration of the procedure - estimated to last one hour.

New Release Coming Soon!

DynaCal is pleased to announce a New Release, coming June 20! Look for these great new features and enhancements…

For our Facility Manager Edition users…

Work Orders – A beta version of the new Work Order function is here at last!  Create Work Orders, assign them to maintenance staff, report time and materials used, automatically send updates by email, and more!  We look forward to hearing your feedback on this new feature!

2-Way Syncing with Schedule Star – With this release we’ve closed the loop and made it possible to sync your facilities 2-way between DynaCal and Schedule Star.  Enter facility reservations in DynaCal and they show up as School events in Schedule Star.  Enter athletic events in Schedule Star that use facilities and they show up as reservations in DynaCal.  This great new feature gives you and the athletic director complete visibility into facility schedules and virtually eliminates double booking and scheduling conflicts! 

For our Calendar + Plus and Facility Manager Edition users…

Reservations View –For Organizations using Resources, this tab gives users the ability to quickly see all Resource Reservations, listed by Resource, rather than Event Name. Want to quickly see what’s happening in the Auditorium this week? Find it with a single click on the Reservations tab! View, add, print, export, sync, and generate Resource Reports directly from the new Reservations tab.

For all DynaCal Editions…

Communications View – View and manage all your News & Announcements, Cancellations & Delays, and Assignments on their own tab, separate from Activities and Events.

The Word is Out!

Thanks to all of you who visited us at the Indiana Association of School Business Officials show last week! It’s always great to talk with you, hear your feedback on what’s working, and get your input on upcoming features. Of course, we also enjoyed connecting with a few future DynaCal users too!  The word is out….DynaCal is the way to Get a Grip on Your Schedule!
And here’s something else to get the word out about…..Work Orders are coming soon!  There have been many requests for this feature, ranging from polite to passionate (you know who you are!) and now your patience is about to be rewarded. In the next few weeks we’ll be rolling out a beta version of our new Work Order function, which will allow you to create and manage Work Orders district-wide. We look forward to getting your feedback on it!

DynaCal moves to "Editions"

DynaCal has been diligently building new calendaring and scheduling features for nearly 7 years now, and with rare exception, we've made all of them available to all of our customers! During that time it's become clear that some of our users only need our basic calendaring features, others need calendaring features plus some basic resource scheduling features, and some of you need our most advanced features related to facility scheduling. So we've made some changes in how we market and "package" our features for you.

We've created 3 "Editions" of DynaCal that we think best suits the way our school and church customers use it.  The new Editions are:

Calendar Lite Edition - designed for organizations who want our powerful calendaring functionality, but don't need resource scheduling features.

Calendar + Plus Edition - designed for organizations that want some basic resource scheduling features along with the public calendaring features.

Facility Manager Edition - designed for organizations that are looking for advanced facility and resource scheduling features.

If you're an existing customers, you have already been assigned an "Edition" based on the features you currently use.

With the creation of these Editions, we've also modified our pricing to fall in line with the level of use and support required for each Edition.  We are implementing these price changes immediately for new customers, and on your 2009 renewal date for existing customers.  For some of you this will mean a price decrease (yes, a decrease!), for some of our most advanced users it will mean a small price increase, but for most of our customers it will mean no price changes at all.

To find out what features are included in each Edition, compare Editions, and review our new pricing levels, visit the "Solutions" page on our website at www.dynacal.com/solutions.html or call us toll free at 866.984.3962.  We'll be glad to answer any questions you have!

My DynaCal Passes 3,000 Users!

It's no surprise that My DynaCal is one of our most popular features! Designed to work for you, My DynaCal allows users to create personalized calendar views of the events, activities, news and assignments they're most interested in; subscribe to RSS feeds of their personalized My DynaCal calendar; and subscribe from a personal calendar like Google or Outlook. Last spring, My DynaCal was enhanced to include optional Email and Text alerts when events are cancelled, postponed or rescheduled and when Communications (like News & Announcements and Assignments) are posted. We also added My DynaCal access to our Mobile site, enabling My DynaCal users to view their personalized calendars on the go! 3,000 people are already using My DynaCal to get the information they want, when they want it, how they want it. Why not join them, and put My DynaCal to work for you today?

New Features on the Way! Approval Workflow for Scheduling Facilities and Resources

We're pleased to announce a new set of features coming your way this weekend!

Our existing Resource Scheduling functionality is being enhanced with the addition of an Approval Workflow that can be set up for any Resource you are scheduling in DynaCal. 

The new Approval Workflow lets you set up one or more DynaCal Users as Approvers for a facility.  When the facility is scheduled the reservation will be routed through to each person for approval.  The Reservation will stay in a "Pending" status until approved.  This feature includes email notices to the Approvers, and even the ability to approve or deny the Reservation Request directly from the email! 

This highly-requested feature will save you lots of time - eliminating phone calls, emails and meetings to coordinate and approve facility and resource use requests.  CLICK HERE FOR A SHORT FLASH DEMONSTRATION OF THIS NEW FEATURE!

If your organization is not currently using DynaCal's advanced Resource Scheduling features, give us a call today for a live demo and more information!  866.984.3962

We have quite a list of new features in the works that are designed to help you schedule your rooms, facilities and other resources more effectively.  Stay tuned for more in the coming months!

Choosing Systems: Best of Breed vs. All-in-One

As you look for systems to fill your website content management, calendaring, facility scheduling, news, and communication needs, you will undoubtedly be faced with a tough decision... buying multiple systems to fit specific needs you have, or buying one system that has some shortcomings in meeting those needs.

Content Management Systems (CMS) are now adding some basic calendaring functionality.  Blog software is evolving to include opt-in email capabilities. Instant alert phone systems are adding web portals for communications.  Many web-based systems are evolving to include new functionality to sell to a broader spectrum of customers.  These developments leave you with a decision to have more systems that fit your needs, or less systems that are weak in key areas.

Here's 3 pointers to help you make the best choice for your organization.

1. Don't get the cart ahead of the horse.  Make a list of your specific goals and desired outcomes first, and then find the system(s) that best help you achieve them, rather than looking for a system that "looks like it would work."
2. Be realistic and practical about the actual "cost" of using multiple systems.  Most organizations significantly overestimate the cost and inconvenience of using different systems for different functions.
3. Ask potential vendors about integration possibilities with other systems.  Most vendors, especially web-based system vendors, are more than happy to work together to give you good integration options where needed.

The bottom line is this: if the features and functions you're looking for are important enough to be on your list, don't drop them for the sake of having "one system".  You spend too much time and energy in a system search to end up with a weak solution that doesn't accomplish what you set out to do!

A New and Improved "My DynaCal" is coming!

We've been working hard at more communication features to help your organization get connected and stay connected with your parents, staff, community, or whoever it is you need to connect with!

Our newest release, a major upgrade to our existing "My DynaCal" function, is expected to be in place by Monday morning, April 28th. 

The new My DynaCal function adds 3 new features that you've been asking for! 

1. Users will new create an account by providing an email address and a password.  This will allow them to view their personalized calendars from any computer - instead of just the one they created their personalized calendars on.
2. Users will be able to request Email and Text Alerts for their personalized calendars!  Big time saver for you!  When you cancel, postpone or reschedule events in DynaCal, My DynaCal users will be automatically notified by email and / or text message!  Also, any postings you make to a Communication Category (like Cancellations, Assignments, or Announcements) will be automatically sent to My DynaCal users by email and / or text message.  (By the way...Communication Categories are one of the most under-utilized features of DynaCal!  If you're not using them now, your missing out on a great way to improve your communication! Call us today for more information - we'll even set them up for you!)
3. Finally, we've added My DynaCal access to our Mobile site.  So now My DynaCal users can visit your DynaCal calendar on their mobile phones and view their My DynaCal personalized calendars!  (Between this and the Email / Text Alerts, there's no more excuses for missing your events! :-)

Check it out for yourself, or if you would like to see a brief flash overview, Click here. 

Thanks for your feedback and support!  Happy Calendaring!

Printing Updates Tonight - 3/12/08

We've made some minor, but important, changes to the print function in Event Maintenance based on your requests.

When printing from Event Maintenance, you will now be presented with an options box, just like the public view, that will allow you to select the information you want to show on your printed calendar.

The calendar will print in the same format as you are viewing (List or Calendar).  If you would like the event details to show up on your printing, simply check the "Show Details" check box before clicking print.

If you're looking for other ways to print your DynaCal information, you can still use our Export function and export your data, then import into Calendar Creator, Outlook, or other desktop program and print from there.

DynaCal Power User Group

We've just created a new discussion group called the "DynaCal Power Users" group.  The purpose of this group is to openly share detailed ideas and thoughts about our current and future development agenda.  Our goal is to have our most passionate DynaCal users sign-up and actively participate in an ongoing discussion about our future plans for development.  Arlan Yoder, DynaCal's president, will be actively engaging users in dialog about the features and functionality you're interested in.  This will not be a place to let us know about program bugs or minor requests - please call us (866.984.3962) or email us with those right away at support@dynacal.com.  If you're interested in participating, you can sign up using the form below (requires a Google account).

Subscribe to DynaCal Power Users

Email:

Visit this group