I think the other factors that really sold us, besides the strong endorsement of two of our agencies who have used it for years, is the onetime fee instead of an annual fee and that the technical support is so good. Of course none of that would mean anything if it wasn’t user friendly, adaptable to the individual agencies particular needs and able to gather the information that is specific to CASA reporting.
Having worked with advocacy programs for almost ten years, one of the hardest tasks I have come across is data entry and reporting for VOCA grants when you do not have an efficient database. At one of my previous jobs, I had to manually count each victim and VOCA service on a tally sheet monthly. However, being able to have everything neatly entered on the VOCA screen in CASA Manager is WONDERFUL!!! All my information is in one location and reports are easier to produce. NO MORE TALLY SHEETS FOR ME!!!!
As an IT Business Management consultant, I am responsible for understanding an organization's business and Information Technology challenges and recommending the best solution that meets their needs. In the case of working with Fulton County CASA in Atlanta, GA, they want the ability to easily manage their program and grow it so they can serve more children in need. I evaluated the current database solution offered by the national organization and CASA Manager. I found the CASA Manager solution provides full functionality that any CASA/GAL program needs and then some.
Susanne's own experience working in a CASA organization allowed her to create an exceptionally robust and easy-to-use application that solves challenges in managing the end-to-end process for any CASA organization. My client, Fulton County CASA, was thrilled during the product demo to learn that CASA Manager addresses all aspects of tracking and managing Advocates, Coordinators and above all, each child's case. CASA Manager also offers a wide range of built-in reporting that you cannot get with other CASA specific applications. I highly recommend CASA Manager and especially the opportunity to work with Susanne Waher.
In Essex County, CASA Manager has proven itself as a valuable tool for understanding and analyzing our caseload and volunteer population. We have successfully used this information in all of our fundraising efforts. The ease with which we are able to pull statistics and generate reports from CASA Manager has had a huge impact on the financial health of our program.
CASA Manager is my lifeline to quality data production, whether regarding cases, volunteers, reports or the agency overall. With CASA Manager, I not only have an awesome database to work with, the client support services that my program receives from Susanne is without fault! No matter where Susanne is, whether in the U.S. or overseas, she responds to my email requests for support, most times within minutes!
As for CASA Manager's ease of use, I wish I could have you hear from each of my staff members. One particular employee did not have the best of computer skills, but within just a few months, she went from being unskilled and afraid of using CASA Manager, to having some of the best developed skills and accuracy among my staff.
CASA Manager has really streamlined our work. It is easy for us to use and mold to our program. The technical support has been wonderful and CASA Manager has become a critical database for our volunteer tracking, case tracking, grant reporting and case documentation. It has helped us reduce the amount of paper files we used and is easy to backup without taking up a lot of memory space on our server. We love it.