WHITEHOUSE — While some in East Texas may not recognize the name PraxiPower, the Whitehouse-based company is making a significant impact in schools across the country through technology designed to help educators spend less time on paperwork and more time serving students.

Operating from Whitehouse, PraxiPower provides an all-in-one school management platform used by private and Christian schools to manage everything from enrollment and attendance to billing, communication, donor management and student records.

Leading the company is Andrew Blankenship, who was recently interviewed by ETX Bell on PraxiPower’s mission, growth and vision for the future.

Blankenship said one of the company’s primary goals is listening to educators and building software around their real-world needs rather than simply developing features behind closed doors.

“We realized we’re not teachers,” Blankenship said. “It’s one thing to say, ‘I’ve got a really good idea,’ but it’s another thing for a teacher to come in and say, ‘I’m the one doing this every single day.'”

That realization led PraxiPower to establish a user advisory committee made up of teachers, administrators and school staff members from schools using the platform. The committee provides direct feedback on proposed features and helps guide future development.

According to Blankenship, the company recently surveyed its customer base, accepted applications and assembled a team of educators who now help shape the direction of the software.

The collaborative approach is already producing results. Blankenship shared an example of a customer requesting a new email function within a specific screen of the software. The PraxiPower development team implemented the feature and released it within about a week.

The company is currently working on a major redesign of its user interface and plans to introduce several new features aimed at making school administration more efficient. Among those are enhanced reporting tools, customizable enrollment forms and expanded donor management capabilities.

One upcoming feature would allow schools to visually map donor locations, helping administrators better understand and connect with supporters who help sustain many private schools.

“We’re implementing these features not because we think they’re good ideas, but because we’re hearing directly from teachers, school administrators, secretaries and financial administrators,” Blankenship said.

While PraxiPower serves schools across the nation, its operations remain rooted in East Texas. From its Whitehouse headquarters, the company continues to develop software solutions while maintaining a strong focus on customer service and direct relationships with the educators who use the platform every day.

For Blankenship, that customer-driven approach remains central to the company’s future.

“It’s not just us hoping somebody likes it,” he said. “We’re going straight to the teachers and school administrators and asking what they need. Those are the kinds of features we’re delivering.”

As PraxiPower continues to expand its offerings, the Whitehouse company represents another example of how East Texas businesses are leveraging technology to serve customers far beyond the region while maintaining local roots.

You can learn more about the company  at praxipower.com.