IOWA CITY, IA - MetaCommunications today announced the launch and immediate availability of the new Software for Students Program. Under the new program, any accredited educational organization interested in teaching real-world estimating, billing, scheduling, project collaboration, productivity techniques, and project management skills to their students can acquire and use the new Workgroups 2010 Suite for free.  

"Educators preparing students for careers in ad agencies, internet marketing, photography, video production, graphic design, printing, and many other industries are telling us that it's now more important than ever for their students to have a working knowledge of real-world electronic workflow and project collaboration skills," said Robert T. Long, Executive Vice President of MetaCommunications. "Our new Software for Students Program formalizes our commitment to the industry and to educators interested in preparing students with the essential skills demanded by a technologically evolving job market."
 
According to Penny Ann Dolan, Graphic Information Technology Professor at Arizona State University, students with exposure to MetaCommunications software have a distinct advantage in today's competitive market. Dolan says, "For the past 4 years we have used Job Manger [a module of the Workgroups suite] as a resource to teach about MIS in the graphics field. It's been wonderfully instructive and we have had feedback from graduates that it has helped with their jobs and put them 'ahead of the pack.'"

Under the Software for Students Program, qualified high schools, colleges, and educational institutions interested in using MetaCommunications software as part of an instructional program are eligible for the following:
    •    Free complete Workgroups 2010 Suite
    •    Unlimited Users License for all modules
    •    Free Upgrades
    •    Free Support
    •    Free professor and classroom instructor Training
    
Workgroups Online Option
The new Software for Students Program provides institutions with the option to install the Workgroups 2010 suite in-house for free, or they can choose the subscription-based Workgroups online hosted option for a zero-install experience. The Workgroups online option is available through Workgroups.com and requires a monthly server access charge to cover hosting expenses.

About Workgroups 2010
The Workgroups 2010 suite is a tightly integrated collaborative process and productivity management suite for marketing, advertising, creative design, packaging and prepress. Workgroups 2010 is comprised of four key modules, and provides an open and flexible solution so that users can adopt the modules of the suite that meet their initial needs and retain the ability to easily expand the solution later.

The four core modules of Workgroups 2010 are:
    •    Virtual Ticket, a configurable project and workflow solution that brings together all the components of your work in a centralized location, including project briefs, job tickets, schedules, customer information, associated document files, and more.

    •    Approval Manager, an approval management workflow tool for managing, tracking, and scheduling any proof review process within and across marketing, advertising, creative design and production environments.

    •    Digital Storage Manager, a powerful storage management solution designed to integrate a workgroup's file management into the overall creative design and production workflow. The solution associates files with projects, archives & retrieves files, and enables users to quickly find digital files for creative design or production processes.

    •    Job Manager, a powerful suite of financial management tools that enable users to accurately create estimates and quotes, monitor job costs, quickly generate on-demand reporting and invoices, and share information with industry leading accounting systems.

By combining all four modules in a streamlined, integrated suite, Workgroups 2010 unites and empowers workgroups by facilitating collaboration, automating processes, centralizing information, managing workflows, tracking files, and measuring key financial and productivity metrics.

Desktop and Server Support
Support for Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Windows 7 ensures that students can run their applications on the latest desktop operating systems (support for previous versions of these operating systems is included as well). Server components can be hosted on the following:
    •    SQL Server 2008 (including Express Edition)
    •    SQL Server 2005 (including Express Edition)
    •    Windows Server 2008
    •    Windows Server 2003
    •    Windows 7
    •    Windows Vista
    •    Windows XP
    
Availability
The Workgroups 2010 suite is available immediately to qualified institutions under the MetaCommunications Software for Students Program. Additional information is available on the Software for Students Program page.