Lifetouch Creates One-Of-A-Kind School Opening Dashboard to Aid in Picture Day Scheduling

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., 9/3/20 - Lifetouch, the professional photography company of choice for schools and families, today released its proprietary COVID-19 School Opening Dashboard, a tool for Lifetouch and its partner schools to use while planning how, and when, schools can carry out school picture days despite COVID-19-related disruptions.

The Lifetouch School Opening Dashboard aggregates disparate data into a single view that includes heat maps and other visualization tools for Lifetouch teams to be able to schedule or adjust picture days as needed. The dashboard overlays data with several machine learning models to help Lifetouch anticipate school picture day scheduling and rebooking needs, and other service requests from schools.

Data from the top 500 school districts by size across the country cross is cross-referenced with COVID-19 data from John Hopkins University, WHO, Bing COVID Tracker and Harvard Global Health Institute.

“It’s difficult enough to figure out your own child’s specific back to school schedule, let alone trying to do it for nearly 25 million students across North America,” said Greg Hintz, President of Lifetouch. “This is exactly what Lifetouch is doing, and we knew early on we needed to use data and analytics to help us make better decisions to most effectively deliver a safe and optimal picture day experience.”

In addition to using data to assist with accurate, up-to-the-minute scheduling in light of COVID-19, Lifetouch is also following strict safety protocols to ensure the safety of students and staff. To learn more about how Lifetouch is helping safely carry out school picture day, visit https://lifetouch.com/newpicturedayexperience/

For more than 80 years, Lifetouch has been the professional photography company of choice for schools and families. Headquartered in Eden Prairie, MN., the enterprise is organized around four primary business lines operating in local communities across North America.

Built on the tradition of “Picture Day”, Lifetouch captures smiling faces from preschool through high school graduation, as well as sports, special events, seniors and yearbooks; and also serves customers in JCPenney Portraits.

Lifetouch is also proud to be a part of the Shutterfly family of brands.