Posted Date: January 08, 2009

Author: William Leith, Service Director, Program Management, Federal Student Aid

Subject: Beta Test Volunteers Needed for EDExpress for Windows 2009-2010, Release 2.0

Federal Student Aid is recruiting schools and servicers to participate in the beta test of EDExpress for Windows 2009-2010, Release 2.0. Beta testing is scheduled to run from February 2 through February 27, 2009.

Release 2.0 beta test participants will have the opportunity to test Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant), Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant, and/or William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) functionality in Release 2.0.

Note: Beta test participants who choose to test grant functionality in Release 2.0 will also be able to test Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) and National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant) functionality in the 2009-2010 Pell Grant module.

During the beta test, participants download an in-development version of the EDExpress software and test documentation from an FTP site, replicate typical usage of the software in a mock-production environment, report any problems encountered, and submit a summary report detailing test findings and software suggestions for our analysis.

If you are interested in being considered as a beta test participant for grant and/or loan functionality, please send an e-mail to CPSSAIG@ed.gov with the subject line "Attention: EDExpress 2009-2010 Release 2.0 Beta Testing" and provide the following information:

1) School name and TG ID
2) Primary and secondary testing contact names, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses
3) Windows operating system version(s) for PC workstations accessing EDExpress
4) EDExpress operating environment (network/standalone). If your EDExpress database is stored on a network, please identify the network type and version (Novell 5.1, Windows 2003 Server, etc.).
5) EDExpress grant or loan module(s) you want to test (Pell Grant, TEACH Grant, Direct Loan, or all grant/loan modules)
6) EDExpress functionality you would like to beta test (please provide specific details, such as External Add Import, Multiple Entry, list and report printing, etc.)
7) Do you use EDExpress in combination with a mainframe system or 3rd party software to process grant or loan data? If so, what type of mainframe system and/or 3rd party software do you use?
8) FTP download capability (i.e., can you upload and download files from an FTP server?)
9) Number of student records processed using Pell Grant, TEACH Grant, and/or Direct Loan module functionality in EDExpress 2008-2009

We will select participants from a wide variety of processing environments to ensure a diverse and thorough testing of the software is performed.

We will contact all Release 2.0 beta test volunteers by January 28, 2009. If your school is selected for participation, further information will be provided by e-mail at that time.

We appreciate your interest in helping us test EDExpress 2009-2010, Release 2.0 and look forward to hearing from you.