Strengthening Data Management – Transition to Visit Tracker Web!
A lot has happened with Programmatic Data Management at Parents as Teachers in the last year, which includes the transition to a new data management system. Continue reading to learn more about the transition from PAT Penelope to Visit Tracker Web.
A Little History:
Parents as Teachers began its journey with PAT Penelope just over 9 years ago when we launched the PAT Penelope data management system in July of 2015. Since that time, our understanding and commitment to quality data entry, secure data management, and robust reporting has only grown!
When we rolled out the initial version of Penelope with a handful of reports, and just one staff member to support, we had no idea the places we would go. Now, 9 years later, we have more powerful reporting options, a whole team for support, and most importantly, affiliates that are using data to drive changes in the lives of families and children.
A Transition in Data Systems:
With this growth has come a need for a more flexible, yet robust data management system that will take Parents as Teachers affiliates into the next phase of their journey. For this reason, Parents as Teachers announced a transition from PAT Penelope to Visit Tracker Web as its preferred data system in April of 2024.
Visit Tracker Web, owned by DataKeeper Technologies, was founded in 1998 by Laura Ruether, the daughter of a local parent educator at the time. With over 25 years’ experience in the home visiting field, Visit Tracker Web, originally built for Parents as Teachers but now incorporating multiple home visiting models, is dedicated to and focused on the home visiting community which makes it an excellent fit for affiliates and their funders.
Due to affiliate need, we adopted an aggressive timeline for the migration of affiliates from Penelope to Visit Tracker in early October of 2024 and are excited to share that the migration process wrapped up in December of the same year. During that timeframe we migrated the data of 338 affiliates from Penelope to Visit Tracker, which made up 93% of all affiliates using Penelope. Those affiliates joined other programs already using Visit Tracker to total 576 affiliates in Visit Tracker.
What are affiliates saying?
We are currently using Visit Tracker and have found it to be the most user friendly of all data tracking systems. We love it! Looking forward to the new changes and diving more into the reports.
We are so happy with the visit tracker database. It is working well, and Parent Educators are getting familiar with the data entry faster than it took us with Penelope.
Love the new Family Summary page! This will make the annual updates so much easier!
I am excited to use some of the new tracking features that will help make data for PAT easier.
I look forward to using the new system to document PVRs and enter data. It appears to create a seamless documenting experience.
Thank you for bringing us a platform that is more user friendly.
I’m excited for the new features that are not currently in Penelope, like date stamping the parent handouts and activity pages! I’ve been doing this by hand!
Excited to be back with Visit Tracker. Love how most things are imbedded in the home visit record, and you don’t have to go out of it to add information.
I am looking forward to being able to use Visit Tracker to run reports and monitor compliance.
Visit Tracker is visually better and makes finding the information needed and done for the visit easier.
Looking Towards the Future:
With the transition to Visit Tracker Web behind us, we are excited to continue building upon what we have and ensure an even more robust and data driven experience for affiliates and their funders. With nearly two thirds of affiliates now in one data system we are able to bring consistency to the field, along with richer research and evaluation possibilities which will only deepen the impact for families. As we work to integrate the Visit Tracker data into our data warehouse, combining that data with historical data from Penelope, we are also excited to explore ways to provide a deeper dive into data at many different levels for a number of audiences.
Thinking about adopting Visit Tracker Web?
If your affiliate is considering using Visit Tracker, or you are a funder considering it for your state, we’d be happy to share more information with you. Access to Visit Tracker is a benefit of affiliations and is available at no extra charge. Visit the Visit Tracker Information page for more information about Visit Tracker web, or head over to the Demo Page to see the system for yourself.
If you have questions, we are here to help! Data Support Specialists are available during regular business hours (8:00 – 5:00 Central Time) to assist you. Contact us at datasupport@parentsasteachers.org