How SCUG came to represent Jenzabar schools

Pictured here are Jim Koehler and Michael Womack, two programmers in the early years of the POISE company.

The Computer Center at New Mexico Military Institute during the mid-1970s wrote administrative software on a PDP-11/35 running RSTS/E 6A for the Business and Registrars office. In 1977, a company was formed and a product hit the higher education market called POISE (People Oriented Information Systems for Education). Some years later, users of the POISE product established the POISE User Group organization (PUG, Inc), and started hosting national conferences.

Distributor agreements were entered with three companies around the USA. One of those, called Educational Systems Products (ESP) was founded in Tulsa, Oklahoma by David Hamlin and Jerry Barker. ESP held a regional conference for South Central POISE users called SCPUG (South Central POISE Users Group).

The POISE company would later become owned by Campus America, Inc, who established a contractual agreement with ESP to sell, develop, and support the POISE product. In the early 2000s, Jenzabar purchased Campus America, renewed the contractual agreement with ESP, and the POISE product became known as Jenzabar PX.

It was around this same time that the PUG board, with support and assistance from ESP, started to take a more active role in the planning and hosting of the SCPUG conference, whose participants comprised of those college and universities using the Jenzabar PX product.

In 2013, Jenzabar purchased ESP; allowing the Tulsa office the ability to sale and support other Jenzabar student information system products besides PX. PUG, Inc. became SCUG, Inc. (South Central User Group) and expanded its membership to schools of all Jenzabar product lines in the south central region (defined as Oklahoma or any state bordering Oklahoma).

In 2015, the SCPUG conference was changed to the SCRUG (South Central Regional Users Group) conference. SCRUG conferences offer an inexpensive alternative to learn about, share knowledge, and provide feedback on Jenzabar products and partners with other Jenzabar users.

SCUG, Inc. is a non-profit independent organization with a governing board elected by its membership. Any college or university, located in the south central region using a Jenzabar product is eligible to be a SCUG member and to run for positions on the SCUG board of directors.

SCUG, Inc. continues to be an important organization for Jenzabar schools in the south central region.