2019 STAR Awards Winners
We are pleased to announce this year’s stars!
Achievement
Sevier County School System’s Food Services Department has been a member of the Horizon Family since 2005. In that time, they have implemented Fastlane/VBOSS, OneSource and now Solana. Through it all, Donna Delozier and her team have been an “outstanding to work with,” according to Horizon System Engineer Jessica McCulley. They quickly overcame challenges and are enjoying the benefits of cloud-based technology. Project Coordinator Jessica Holcombe says, “they are an amazing team and are loyal members of the Horizon Family.”
Partnership
Forsyth County Schools, based in Cumming, GA, has multiple departments that work closely with the Horizon Team. And at every level, they have been excellent communicators that see improvements each year. Forsyth County Schools implemented OneSource Point of Sale, Back of House and MyPaymentsPlus for meals in 2014, MyPaymentsPlus Fees and Activities in 2015, and Solana online applications in 2018. In 2018, Technology Specialist Joe Sanders visited Horizon headquarters to meet with the Horizon Team and provide feedback on the solution and its implementation, providing extremely valuable feedback, as well as what could be improved. “Joe is very involved and cares about the improvements made to all of our products,” noted Horizon System Engineer Jessica McCulley. And at the school level, West Forsyth High School Bookkeeper Mary Friday was instrumental in increasing MyPaymentsPlus participation. “Mary has been amazing at partnering with us in our marketing efforts and mentoring her fellow colleagues on the usage, best practices and benefits of MyPaymentsPlus, said Horizon eCommerce Marketing Manager Amanda Correa. “Her enthusiasm is contagious, and she is such a perfect example of passion and partnership.”
Tech Trendsetter
North Kansas City Schools has been extremely involved and proactive in expanding the use of MyPaymentsPlus for not only meals, but for Fees & Activities as well. Their IT Department was heavily involved in the implementation process, which ensured a smooth transition importing fees into the system and increasing MyPaymentsPlus participation.
Achievement
Cobb County School District has experienced numerous technology successes in recent years. They piloted Rolling Verification for the 2018-2019 school year, and with OneSource reports, gained an extremely successful Non-Response Rate of 7.82% – a decrease of 53.89% from the previous year. The ability to start Verification as soon as applications are received allowed them to serve more students than ever. On the payment side of the program, Finance/Business Analyst Nancy Tolbert has rolled out MyPaymentsPlus Fees & Activities at all of their middle and high schools, and some of their elementary schools. They worked with the Horizon Team to implement custom integrations and have seen their revenue and MyPaymentsPlus usage grow exponentially in 2018. Customer Success Advisor Chastity Eggleston said, “I am very proud of where they are now and how well her team has worked with us to create a better product. I look forward to continuing this partnership in the future.”
Partnership
The Nutrition Services Department at Owatonna Public ISD #761 is one of our most responsive and helpful partners that uses our cloud-based solution, Solana. With Nutrition Services Support Technician Barbara Jacobson’s valuable feedback, Horizon has been able to better understand our own internal process and through this partnership, we have improved our product and service to other customers.
Newcomer
As a new customer using our cloud-based solution, Solana, King William County Schools’ School Nutrition Department has shown continual interest in growth and development of Solana. They offer constructive feedback and beneficial enhancement requests that will help all Solana users. We even recently implemented a feature that was requested from their district!