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TDWI Best Practices Award Honors Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and Mariner for Managing for Performance Project

Premier Provider of Education and Research Recognizes Key Partners for Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing Excellence

June 25, 2009 – Charlotte, NC – Mariner, an industry-leading business intelligence and performance management solutions provider, is being recognized by The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) as an Implementation Partner for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) Managing for Performance Initiative. The Data Warehousing Institute’s highly-regarded 2009 Best Practices Award recognizes CMS for its excellence in developing, deploying and maintaining the initiative. Mariner and Microsoft are the Solution Sponsors, having nominated the CMS for the Award. As CMS’s Implementation Partner, Mariner has helped CMS meet their goals for the District Dashboard and continues to support their Managing for Performance Initiative.

The efforts goals are to:

• Provide the school board, administrators, teachers, parents and the community with a single source of relevant, timely and accurate information about the district and individual schools.

• Build the capacity to use the information to improve student performance and enhance instructional leadership.

• Align priorities with strategic goals while enabling stakeholders the ability to quickly determine whether current improvement efforts are on track.

• Establish a method within the district for continuous improvement.
The Initiative includes the District Data Dashboard as the first in a series of key portals that will allow teachers, principals, school support staff and administrators to see comprehensive indicators of student progress. Administrators and analysts will use data indicators to proactively monitor all key performance areas, enabling them to attain and maintain district-wide as well as individual excellence levels.

Drawing from its deep performance management expertise and implementation experience, Mariner is working closely with CMS to develop the technology architecture for the Managing Performance initiative. Based on Microsoft’s Business Intelligence platform, CMS has been able to build on its investment in Microsoft technology, while providing meaningful analyses with tools that users already know and like.

"Contributing to a winning partnership for a TDWI Best Practices Award is a tremendous honor for us because of the standard of excellence the award requires. This honor illustrates the strength of our collaborative team and the good work we are doing. And the opportunity to help CMS achieve this honor while assisting in their efforts to improve how our children learn makes the award even more meaningful,” commented David Fitzgerald, Mariner’s Education Practice Leader.

TDWI's Best Practices Awards program is designed to identify and honor companies that have demonstrated excellence in developing, deploying, and maintaining Business Intelligence and Date Warehousing applications. Only 11 winners worldwide were chosen by a panel of independent judges who have expertise in BI and DW. Companies and sponsoring solution providers from many diverse industries submitted entries to be judged in a variety of categories on four criteria: business impact, maturity, innovation, and relevance.

Best Practices Awards winners will be honored at the TDWI World Conference in San Diego in August. Representatives of each company, along with their solution sponsors, will receive awards and be invited to discuss their winning implementations with attendees.

Details regarding Mariner’s K-12 solutions are available at the company’s website.

A recent Web Series about the District Data Dashboard, featuring key CMS leaders, is archived and available for download from Mariner’s website.

Review TDWI’s press release regarding the 2009 Best Practices Award.

The Data Warehousing Institute™ (TDWI), a division of 1105 Media, Inc., is the premier provider of in-depth, high-quality education and research in the business intelligence and data warehousing industry. TDWI is dedicated to educating business and information technology professionals about the strategies, techniques, and tools required to successfully design, build, and maintain business intelligence and data warehousing solutions. www.tdwi.org
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is a nationally recognized, city-county school district serving more than 137,000 students. During the past decade, CMS has won widespread acclaim as one of America’s best school districts. Now, CMS and its 19,000 employees are focused on making sure all students are globally competitive. For more information, visit www.cms.k12.nc.us.

About Mariner
Mariner, Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner of the Year for 2008 in Performance Management Solutions, specializes in business intelligence, data warehousing, business scorecards and performance dashboards to help clients improve productivity and decision making in a variety of industries including the education, utility and healthcare industries. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner with specializations in Business Intelligence and Performance Management Solutions, Mariner helps organizations translate strategy into action. Mariner-Realizing Visions with Technology. www.mariner-usa.com.

For additional information:
Contact Sally Phillips, Director of Marketing & Partner Alliances, Mariner
Tel. 704.943.5222
Email sally.phillips@mariner-usa.com

Product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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