When you’re reaching out to people in the edtech field, it’s crucial to get your message right. Here’s a straightforward four-step plan to help you write emails and messages that hit the mark:

1. Understand and acknowledge their problems

Start by showing that you get what they’re going through and acknowledge the challenges they face in education or technology. This helps build trust and shows you’re genuinely interested in helping them.

2. Explain how you can help

Next, explain how your Edtech solution can solve their problems. Keep it simple, focus on the benefits, and avoid using technical language that might confuse them. Be clear about how your solution can make their lives easier.

3. Share proof of success

Back up your claims with real evidence. Share stories or data that show how your solution has helped others like them. This helps build credibility and makes your message more convincing.

4. Ask them to take action

Finally, tell them what you want them to do next. Whether it’s trying out your product or scheduling a demo, make it easy for them to take the next step. Be direct and clear about what you’re asking for.

The key is to keep it short, don’t over-explain, and make it about them and not you!

We’ve been privileged to speak with even more edtech and industry thought leaders throughout 2023 as part of our #FinnemoreFireside chats, and the insight they continue to provide to us and our community is invaluable.

Thanks to Catherine Tallis of HFL Education, a long-standing provider of MIS support to schools, for discussing how support teams must adapt as the MIS market continues to evolve.

Thanks to Derek Hills from Ark for sharing your views on where you see AI fitting into technology budgets and the broader education landscape, and what the future of MIS might be.

It’s great to speak with thought leaders from government so thank you to Edtech NED, legislator, schools and education expert Jim Knight for your thoughts on the disconnect between the education and labour market, and the need for a school system which truly meets the needs of learners, communities and employers.

Thank you to Chris Kirk of CJK Associates Ltd for your insight into MAT’s needs in terms of vision, strategy, operating models and governance, and what this means for suppliers – both now and in the future.

Our chat with Lyndon Stickley and Sam Curtis of iplicit is essential listening for everyone with an interest in finance as they discuss the importance of change in the education sector and the need for flexibility and adaptability in finance and management systems

Thank you to Ollie Burnett from the school support team in Coventry for talking to us about all the valuable ways they support their schools, including helping them procure and migrate to their new MIS as a group earlier this year.

Finally, we were delighted to speak with Izzi Dorrian and Ed Butcher, founders of the brilliant Habitude workflow platform, for an insightful discussion on the evolving landscape of MATs, the importance of infrastructure, and the need for a clear vision.

As always, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed making the series and are looking forward to a fantastic 2024!

Have a great Christmas break

Best wishes from Sarah & Nick

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We’re delighted to welcome one of our LA Support Team colleagues to our #FinnemoreFireside chats. A huge thank you to Ollie Burnett, Systems Lead at Coventry City Council, who talked to me about their work with schools and plans for the future.

Ollie has been in education since 2003, is passionate about education and aims to improve the experience for students and teachers through his work. It’s a great conversation and, amongst other things, we talk about:

• Having a vision for the future relies on consultation with the SLT, partnering with more suppliers, but ultimately listening and then delivering for their schools and MATs.

• How Support teams should understand the school’s context and goals, offering solutions beyond specific products.

• The importance of Support teams to schools in helping them navigate software and processes.

• How User Group sessions and sharing best practices among schools are promoted to enhance learning.

• The challenges of transitioning to new systems, praising the support provided by suppliers. Ollie highlights the need for training and consultancy services due to the shift to cloud-based systems.

• Support teams are becoming more consultancy-based in the future and collaborating closely with multi-academy trusts (MATs) to meet school needs.

Ollie also chats about the process they went through during their recent MIS switch and why they chose Bromcom. In total, 75% (45) of Coventry’s LA-maintained schools chose to move both MIS and Finance, with the Authority implementing the switch in only 3 weeks by working in a 3-way partnership between the Coventry Support Team, the schools and the supplier. It can be done!

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Working with MIS

We’ve been lucky enough to have worked with most of the maintained MIS suppliers including SIMS (then owned by Capita), Arbor, IRIS Ed:gen, Pupil Asset, and, at the time of writing, working with Bromcom as they grow their user base across the UK.

We’ve recorded tons more #FinnemoreFireside chats on the topic of MIS with MATs, school leaders, support teams, suppliers and independent consultants which you can find here or subscribe to our You Tube channel for regular updates.

Other brilliant free, independent resources we’d recommend you take a look at include WhichMIS and BringMoreData, We also run a LinkedIn group ‘The Future of MIS’ which seeks to understand the new role of MIS in schools and explore what it will look like in the future – come and join the conversation 🙂

There’s been a huge amount of change in the school MIS sector in the last 5 years. The make-up of MIS market share is completely turning on its head, and the landscape continues to move towards one where academisation dominates and the number of maintained schools gets smaller each year.

It can feel like a scary time for a lot of teams; over the years some have ceased to exist as they just weren’t sustainable for their local authorities. Others have grown and gotten stronger, sometimes joining up with neighbouring teams or striking out on their own as separate commercial entities. The school support market continues to be an exciting market with lots of opportunities – something many private equity companies can see as they acquire in this sector.

We’re often asked what’s next for support teams, so in this blog, we’ve outlined what to avoid and what to try and focus on instead.

While it may not be possible to make all these changes immediately, it’s worth having a plan for what the edtech and school management landscape might look like in 3-5 years’ time. What will your value and unique offer be as a team? Will your revenue be dependent on certain suppliers and, if so, what are the potential consequences?  Owning your own destiny is about ensuring your revenue is not tied to suppliers, but instead to all the value your offer outside of product support.

Try not to be too dependent on financial incentives that come from suppliers for signing your schools up to their products.

Being able to achieve revenue from school management suppliers via favourable licence deals, rebates and referral fees has been the traditional model for some time. However, it’s a risky strategy for support teams in the future:

• They can be pulled very easily by the supplier once you’ve got all your schools on their product – many support teams will likely have experienced something like this. Incentives provide a revenue stream in the short term, but it can easily be threatened.

• A big part of your uniqueness and value as a Support Team is that you’re independent and trusted, but this standpoint can be challenged on ethical grounds if you suggest one solution above all others based on financial kickbacks/incentives.

• Being a support partner for solutions can often result in a financial rebate from the supplier (in the case of MIS this is usually around 20% of the annual subscription price for all those with support partner programmes in place) but what happens if this arrangement is pulled in the future? What you offer schools is far more than just product support. You support the processes, not the products, and your SLAs and services can really focus on the additional value you provide over and above user support in a way that supplier SLAs cannot.

So how will you adapt your team and your business to be a truly agnostic and independent partner to your schools? Here are our ideas:

1. Continue to advocate on behalf of your schools and seek the best value for them.

As a support team, you are still your schools’ no. 1 point of contact for most things and will often have a close relationship with them spanning many years (or even decades!). This is so important to schools; these strong relationships are built on trust and there are many ways you can ensure their best interests are at the centre of what you do:

• Helping coordinate aggregated purchases means you can access discounts for your schools which can be passed back directly to the schools, ensuring they get the best value.

• Being the provider of support for those solutions means you can offer an enhanced SLA to schools which is much more than just product support; it helps them use the solution as part of their overall SDP which provides them with far better value.

• Support teams are able to help schools navigate the procurement process which might feel daunting for schools on an individual level. Helping your schools through a well-thought-out procurement process can make a huge difference to them—both financially, by releasing cashable savings, and by maximizing social benefits for your schools and the wider community.

2. Look for more ways to add value, new ways to help your schools and create additional partnerships.

It’s hard to survive as a team if you only offer IT support, even harder if your support is limited solely to MIS. There are tons of technology-enabled systems and services required by schools and only a fraction of these is usually delivered within an MIS (see below):

Original image courtesy of Chris Kirk, CJK Associates

Consider:

• Are there other staff-related areas you could support such as HR or payroll? If so, have you considered a partnership with an excellent software solution such as Fusion/SAM People?

• Are there other operational school management areas you could support such as safety and compliance? Have you considered creating a channel partnership with a supplier such as iAM Compliant to add value for your schools?

• Could the range of school management-related services be extended if you were to work in partnership with other support teams across the country? We’re seeing more and more teams work together in order to be able to deliver a personalised service to their local schools, but also to the MATs they support which often span the width and breadth of the UK. Teams such as OSMIS and SCOMIS do just this to provide an exceptional level of support to their schools and help them use their MIS to truly improve outcomes.

• Could you elevate your conversations to truly understand the pain Heads and MAT leaders experience and support their School Development Plan or the MAT strategic plan? This could be through getting the best out of technology, becoming more sustainable, reducing the cost of ownership, automating processes, getting more out of the data – the list goes on.

Support Teams offer so much to schools, academies and Trusts in the way that they help reduce friction for them. You can do everything from uncovering awareness of needs, understanding their portfolio of all solutions and making recommendations and driving usage, to helping the procurement process, supporting transitioning and onboarding, ensuring MATs/schools are getting the greatest value from the solution and supporting schools to hit their climate and net-zero targets.

Owning your own destiny is about ensuring the revenue you generate is in your hands, not the hands of product suppliers. There are tons of brilliant ideas out there which will help make it a possibility; in this blog, we’ve listed just a few but we’re always happy to share best practices so get in touch if you’d like to discuss.

Last week we joined MATs, LAs and the Bromcom team for an exciting day of learning, networking, and inspiration at the annual Bromcom Shard Event. There was a great lineup of expert speakers and engaging workshops; here are 7 things we learnt at last week’s event:

1. There is still a huge appetite from schools to participate in an aggregated MIS purchase, and there were some brilliant stories from LA Support Teams who helped make this happen for their schools.

2. MAT and school leaders want data that can help them make informed decisions, not just on attendance and academic performance, but on areas such as:

• Financial performance
• Operational efficiency
• Culture
• Staffing & HR

3.  Support Teams are increasingly looking to support multiple MIS so they can meet the needs of their schools, irrespective of which MIS they use – they support the process, not the product. It’s a positive step for everyone as the relationship between schools and local support is a close one, it’s something schools usually want to continue.

4. Using AI alongside MIS data can and will make a difference to schools . . . but it really does need to be handled with care when it comes to users understanding children’s data. It’s an interesting conversation

5. Academies and MATs have often led the charge in moving to a new MIS as they’ve tended to go to market and look for new cost-effective, innovative cloud solutions shortly after academisation. However, the rate of switching MIS amongst state schools has also accelerated and actually shows signs of increasing if anything! In 2018 77% of state schools used the then-dominant supplier SIMS, this has now fallen to 55% in 2023 (it will be interesting to see what the next census data shows).

6. A huge priority for MATs when they look to test the MIS market is understanding all the separate products and subscriptions they currently buy in to which they potentially wouldn’t need when they switch MIS. Across a MAT the savings really do stack up and can be used to fund staff or be reinvested in teaching and learning.

7. Strong professional relationships and great customer support are everything in our sector. It was great to hear so many individuals praised as we heard about the various journeys MATs, LAs and schools had been on switching MIS.

There’s definitely plenty of change going on across the sector and it’s clear that MATs and LAs want the very best solutions for their schools – both in terms of value and outcomes. It will be interesting to see what happens next!

Thanks again for the invite, Nick loved presenting a session and we enjoyed catching up with friends and colleagues 🙂

If you’re lucky, you would have had the Christmas period off, and today will be your first day back. For the vast majority of us, it’s time to crack on with January and I for one am looking forward to the New Year despite the weather/new exercise regime/lack of daylight that goes with it.

I’ve read a lot of articles and blogs recently about January blues and how to overcome them, usually by easing yourself into it slowly. As someone who’s growing a business I’m not entirely sure that works for everyone so, having given it some thought, my three top tips to help you hit the ground running are:

1. Talk to people

You might be feeling a bit bloated and bleary-eyed after Christmas and New Year and may not be feeling that sociable. However, the sooner you start engaging with people (colleagues, customers and suppliers) the sooner you’ll start to get your mojo back and remember what your business is all about.

2. Do one good thing well on your first day back.

You could easily spend your first day or even the first few days back in the office shuffling emails around and doing admin. However, I find that you feel much better if you find a task that needs doing which will genuinely help your business develop and then do it well. You could pick up the phone to those potential customers you met at that event last year to see how they’re doing. You could write that blog about the product you’re due to release to give your customers something to look forward to.

Whatever it is, make sure it has a tangible business outcome as it’s bound to make you feel better.

3. Book your next break

It might not be realistic to have that dream holiday to the Maldives booked, but you should definitely have a look at your calendar and your workload and plan for your next break from work. Just knowing that you have a week off during the February half term will give you something to look forward to helping you get over the January blues.

And it’s only 6 and a bit weeks away anyway. Blimey — better get cracking!

Here’s to a successful 2023 🙂

Just before Bett this year, Nick caught up with Lawrence Royston, Founder of teamSOS, to talk all things edtech.

Lawrence is one of the true entrepreneurs of the Edtech market. Along with his partner Joanne, he started with GroupCall messenger, the first SMS messaging system for schools in the UK, then built Xporter, supporting Third parties to have a generic way to integrate with MIS data, before looking at how they could provide deeper insights in the data they were already transferring through GroupCall XVault. He’s also supported GDPRis and has recently started a new business in teamSOS, an incident management and compliance tool for staff in Education and NHS establishments.

We’ve split the interview into two parts to make it easier to digest. In part one Nick and Lawrence discuss:

• What it means to have an entrepreneurial mindset
• Working with partners (and family!), their symbiotic skills, and how this is a great asset in business
• The thinking behind teamSOS, where the idea came from, and the problem it solves
• The importance of listening and learning from users
• ‘Successive approximation’ and continually iterating solutions to help better meet the needs of your customers

In part two they talk about:

• What advice would Lawrence give budding edtech entrepreneurs based on his own experience?
• Getting work/life balance right
• The effect of recent market changes: how consolidation makes space for speedboats!
• The innovation bubbling away in the background within smaller businesses that lead on vision and integration
• Modernising technology (case in point: walkie talkies)
• Their approach to pricing and delivering value
• How making school staff feel cared for attracts and retains the best candidates

Enjoy!

A few weeks ago Nick caught up with Ian Koxvold, currently Head of Education, Strategy and Corporate Development at Supporting Education Group, but many people might know him better for his years of strategic consultancy work across the education sector.

They talked about the changes across the education sector and what the future might hold in terms of new solutions and new strategies including:

• Ian’s background delivering projects across businesses and educational establishments to make them more effective or efficient
• The insight he gets working for Supporting Education Group as the largest provider of services to schools in the UK
• His perspective on consolidation, and how this has increased from maybe 2-3 players to around 10 in recent years
• What’s a good strategy for acquiring, and has consolidation peaked in his opinion
• The importance of use case analysis in any business, and using it to identify upsell and product integration opportunities
• How different products serve different use cases
• Advice for startups in the edtech space
• The concept of ‘one product for everything’ v ‘best of breed’ solutions
• School support services, the role they play in the evolving landscape, and future consolidation
• The perils of complacency when it comes to servicing your customer, and the potential pitfalls of having a dominant supplier in any given area
• How to measure the impact of solutions on schools and why this is important to success; should we be more ambitious about how we use data?
• The future of the MIS sector given recent changes, and what we might expect to see next
• Three things companies should be doing now to future-proof their business

We’ve split the interview into three parts to make it easier to digest – enjoy!

P.S. We’re aware that some of the audio is a bit rough in places so we’re working on getting a transcript created to accompany this Q&A – we’ll add once completed 🙂

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!