Our first #FinnemoreFireside of this academic year is with Lyndon Stickley (CEO) and Sam Curtis (Customer Service Director) from iplicit where they discuss, amongst other things, their company’s growth in the education sector.

iplicit offers a cloud-based finance and management software solution, tailored for frustrated on-premise legacy software users and establishments that have outgrown entry-level software. It’s a really insightful discussion and we cover topics including:

• The importance of change in the education sector, and the need for flexibility and adaptability in finance and management systems.
• The evolution of MATs and whether they should be expanding on their requirements when going out to tender for a Finance system – or any system – to include areas of their strategy
• 3 pillars of change
• The challenges of moving from on-premise systems to cloud-based solutions and the importance of post-implementation support.
• How systems need to continue to disrupt, innovate and develop to stay ahead of the game, and how this can be difficult for large or incumbent companies
• Maintaining partnerships with customers and reducing any friction to ensure the customer has the best experience.
• The significance of listening to the market and customers’ needs for successful change and growth in the education sector.

Enjoy!

I keep reading that Sales is something people get into ‘accidentally’.

Apparently people don’t set out to do it but before you know it you find yourself in a role where you get to earn some lovely commission . . . but have to make dreaded calls and meet a ‘too high’ target to get it.

Is that really true for everyone??

My first job after uni was a for a finance company in the underwriting department.  I was green as hell so knew nothing about business at all. Once I’d been there a few months I’d gotten a feel for what bits of a business does what . . . and I knew at that point I wanted to get into Sales.

Being the person who wins the new business to keep a company moving forward was, to me, the most interesting role by far.   And creating something out of nothing sounded amazing!

So I started at the beginning on a telesales desk and have worked in all sorts of ways with all sorts of clients.  It’s been brilliant all the way and there’s still loads more I want to do. I definitely chose to go into Sales.

What about you? I’d love to hear how my sales connections found themselves where they are.

It can’t all be accidental  😉

The next in our series of Q&As with edtech business leaders is with Barry Anns, Chief Executive Officer at Engage MIS and Group Head of International at Education Horizons Group.

Engage MIS has been widely adopted by independent and international schools in 60 countries across six continents.

In this interview, Nick talked to Barry about:

• What is important to Engage and where is your focus in the Edtech market?
• What do you think will be the impact of the sale of SIMS will be on schools and the market (including the international markets?)
• How is the international market different and how are you achieving success? Why would it be hard for UK based solutions to compete?
• If you were to predict the future, where would you see the MIS market shaping up to be in 5 years time?
• There are a large number of overlapping solutions HR/MIS/Learning tools; do you think will we ever see a consolidation of these solutions?

We’ve split it into two parts to make it easy to digest.  Enjoy!

According to McKinsey, if a software company grows at only 20%, it has a 92% chance of ceasing to exist within a few years.

This means that software companies – particularly SaaS companies – must look at every advantage possible to stay alive in an ever-competitive market.

Remember it is the small margins that can be the deciding factor as to how successful you are.

Customer analytics can be just one way that gives you that competitive edge.

Whether it is measuring retention, product usage, or on-boarding, SaaS businesses must have comprehensive data collection and usage analytics. This enables them to make agile decisions as to the priorities and direction of their overall solution.

When starting a project, make sure that usage analytics are part of the initial NFRs (Non-Functional Requirements).  Think about: what information do you want to understand and act upon.

Ask your stakeholders what information would they find useful to support their business area so they can offer the best service they possibly can.

Ensure the Architect and development lead build in these analytics from the beginning – you want the feedback at every opportunity.