Next in our series of thought leader interviews is this Q&A session with Jeff Marshall.

Through J&G Marshall Ltd, Jeff’s core business is helping schools to convert to academy status. They cover everything a school needs to become an academy: legals, project management, finance system as well as post-conversion services for accounts, HR, School Improvement, governing body training plus much more.

They also conduct MAT Growth Audits to ascertain where a Trust is, where it wants/needs to be and how to get there through step-change growth. It’s this knowledge and expertise that I wanted to tap into to understand a little bit more about the specific challenges MAT leaders face.

Some of the things we discuss include:

• What’s the background to your education experience, and what do you find so attractive about working in education?
• What’s your approach to supporting a MAT; what do you feel are the greatest pain points in the first 6 months and what conclusions have you come to regarding what is required to get it right and wrong, as the first 6 months are very important?
• What do you think is important when looking at edtech solutions across a MAT? What issues do you find?
• Do you feel that there is enough innovation in Edtech, how would you like to see this tackled?
• What do you think is missing from what Edtech companies offer, do they act like strong partners in your opinion? What could they do more of or differently?

We’ve split the interview into three parts to make it easier to digest. Enjoy!

Continuing our series of business thought leader interviews, I recently caught up with Will Jordan, the visionary Co-Founder of IMP Software.

IMP Software has developed a budgeting, forecasting and reporting solution specifically for use by Multi Academy Trusts (MATs). They take a single database solution to market that is adopted by the entire Trust, rather than the traditional approach of an aggregation of individual school datasets. The solution is not a school system with MAT functionality added on top!

This data is used to drive future forecasts, whilst also factoring in and enabling ‘what if’ scenario planning on a host of potential drivers which can impact the viability of MATs.  It gives the Trust and its leaders the whole picture across their schools.

Some of the things we discuss include:

• IMP only launched in 2019 but has gained 600+ loyal customers in 20 months. What’s the reason behind forming the business and how has this been achieved?
• The most important current issues MATs and CFOs
• What makes IMP different from other budgeting solutions
• As a start-up business, the big areas of importance over the next 2-3 years to continue with current levels of growth
• With all the changes in the Edtech market, the effect of consolidation of solutions by Juniper, Iris, etc. and how this might affect customers
• Diversifying into other segments with the same solutions, or new solutions in the same segment
• What’s next for IMP?

We’ve split the interview into four parts to make it easier to digest. Enjoy!