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!

Next in our series of edtech thought leader Q&As is this conversation with Rowena Hackwood, Chief Executive Officer at Astrea Academy Trust, a family of 29 schools across South Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire with a proven track record of school improvement.

It was great to be able to get the perspective of a MAT leader as it’s something both edtech and MIS suppliers need to have at the heart of their product strategy. In this interview we talk about:

• What drives Rowena and her work in education
• Her approach to taking on a MAT, and what’s involved in the first 6 months as a new MAT CEO
• The most important factors when looking at edtech solutions across her MAT, and the biggest issues
• Innovation across the edtech sector as a whole, and what she’d like to see tackled by suppliers

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

The next in our series of Business Leader Q&A sessions is with Stephen Bilboe, Sales & Marketing Director at WCBS.

Founded in 1984, WCBS specialises in providing integrated management systems to Independent & International schools across three main areas: Admissions, MIS & Finance.  They’ve recently invested heavily in delivering next generation, cloud native systems that use the latest technology to achieve a much better user experience for Independent and International Schools.  This culminated in the launch of HUBmis in October 2020.

Stephen and I chatted about WCBS and the many changes happening in the MIS sector, including:

• Your focus is very much within the Independent and international schools market, do you see yourself ever moving into the maintained market?
• What makes you different from other Independent MIS solutions?
  Have you found the Covid situation has impacted your business, do you see yourselves working differently going forward?
• As an MIS business, what is going to be important to you over the next 2-3 years to continue to grow?
• What’s next for WCBS?

Next in our series of edtech thought leaders is this chat with barrister and entrepreneur, Priya Lakhani.

Priya founded CENTURY Tech in 2013 after being struck by underachievement rates in schools. The company has combined the latest research in learning science, artificial intelligence and neuroscience to ensure CENTURY is underpinned by evidence-based scientific and pedagogical techniques.  In this Q&A session we discuss:

• Approaches to personalisation
• The importance of data and AI in education
• The driving force behind CENTURY Tech, and how it benefits schools and learners
• Why being curious drives innovation
• How edtech companies and educationalists can work together to practically achieve learning goals

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

2020 was a busy year in the world of MIS!

Juniper Education Group acquired Pupil Asset and SISRA amongst others.  The Key Support Services has bolstered its position in the school MIS sector by adding Arbor Education to their portfolio alongside ScholarPack.  IRIS Software Group has acquired iSAMS Ltd which is a great addition to the solutions they already offer the education sector. And finally, Montagu announced they intend to acquire SIMS from Capita, and also invest in ParentPay with the goal of bringing SIMS into the ParentPay Group.

Following on from our initial chat in the Spring, Phil Neal and I caught up towards the end of the year to discuss the various changes that had happened across the sector, and get his views on what might happen next.

We’ve broken the interview down into parts to make it easier to digest. Enjoy!

Towards the end of 2020, I took the opportunity to chat with Furlong SchoolBase about their school management solutions. Furlong has been around in the education sector for over 30 years; they have developed, grown and acquired over the years, and were finally acquired themselves in 2017 by Canadian software group, Volaris.  They now work with over 250 schools across the world.

In this vid, I catch up with their Sales & Marketing Manager, Jack Broome, to discuss future plans and get his view on the school management software sector.

We’ve split it into two parts to make it easier to digest – enjoy!

Last week I took the opportunity to have a virtual get together with thought leader Graham Reed to talk all things edtech.

Graham has a diverse background and knows the MIS and epayments sectors particularly well. Amongst other things, we discussed:

• What made Graham start Omega Pegasus
• What’s driving more market movement than ever to challenger cloud solutions
• Views on recent acquisitions, and Graham’s predictions for the future of MIS
• The future of the e-payments sector which Graham knows well, including potential new players and innovations
• Graham’s separate app projects, and the thinking behind creating them

Please note: We chat about the future of MIS and how challenger solutions might look to compete by working with adjacent solutions, in particular epayments systems. However, this was recorded a few days before it was announced that Montagu intended to acquire/invest in both SIMS and ParentPay so things have changed!

Lots of insightful stuff was discussed so we’ve split the interview out into separate parts below – enjoy!

Nick

Last month IRIS Software Group, one of the UK’s largest privately held software companies, announced it has acquired iSAMS, a leading, fully integrated, online school management system. I caught up with Winston Poyton, the Senior Product Director there, to talk about their education strategy and their most recent acquisition.

IRIS already has 11,000+ school customers, and their overall goal is to take the pain out of processes and let professionals working in schools focus on the work they love.

Some of the things we discuss include:

• What’s important to IRIS right now, and what are your plans in the education sector?
• What’s your strategy for IRIS and iSAMS? How does it sit with the other solutions you offer to schools?
• Who do you feel is your main threat, and what makes you different?
• How do you think the forthcoming sale of Capita ESS (SIMS) will affect the education market?
• Where do you see the future of MIS, what will make the difference, and what needs to change?

With so much change going on in the UK MIS sector, I thought it was time to have a conversation with one of the big MIS support teams to understand how their business is changing too.

Last week I had a virtual get together with Director of School Business Services Ltd, Mark Tadman, to talk about how his company supports schools in their use of MIS, amongst other things. Mark and Tina started the business back in 2008 and have always been clear that the goal is to provide schools with the freedom to teach; with their managed services and budget planning software, they aim to save taxpayers money and allow schools to focus on teaching on learning.

Some of the questions we discuss include:

• In what ways has the business changed recently (especially around MIS)?
• Do you think that commercial school service teams are going to have to expand on the types of solutions supported?
• With the change in the MIS and tracker market, how does this affect your vision and strategy?
• Who do you think will be the winners in the MIS space?
• Do you feel the Capita SIMS FM agreement with Local Authorities will stay in place even if someone does buy SIMS?
• How would you make it a more competitive and innovative market?

We’ve split it into three parts to make it easier to digest. Hope you like it, and we’d welcome your comments.