Bottom Line was founded in 1997 to create a Boston-based community-based organization that could help students from low-income households or who were the first generation in their family to go to college.
It provides intensive one-on-one support and resources to assist students to successfully pursue admission to— and graduation from — a four-year college. Today the Bottom Line serves more than 700 high school seniors per year in Boston and Worcester and nearly 1,000 college students.
Database Designs worked with Bottom Line to: map the workflow of the staff as they guide students through the college admissions and financial aid process; highlight what kinds of data needed to be available for each student; and identify privacy and security concerns in handling this data. Existing students were migrated from their Access database living on a local server to the new, custom web-based application.
The new system has been in operation for two years and continues to undergo enhancements. It has permitted Bottom Line to move ahead in expanding the number of students and cities served. It has become a tool integrated into every aspect of the organization’s operations.
