The next in our series of Q&As with edtech business leaders is with James Weatherill, CEO of Arbor Education.

Since their inception in 2011, Arbor has established themselves in the MIS market with their cloud MIS and analytical insights.

In this interview, Nick and James discuss the driving force behind Arbor, what makes it unique, the huge role support teams play in the MIS market and predictions for the future.

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

Capita will look to sell its education software solutions (ESS) unit for at least £500 million as the listed business services provider’s board this week prepares to approve an auction (as exclusively revealed by EducationInvestor Global this week and reported on Capita’s website)

This includes SIMS, and after the recent acquisition of Pupil Asset by Juniper Education, looks like more change is afoot in the UK MIS sector.

But what will this actually mean?

Capita SIMS has by far the largest market share across England, Wales and Northern Ireland with 75% market share across the board. This means whoever ends up acquiring SIMS are going to pick up a LOT of school and academy customers – over 21,000 in total. Tons of opportunity to use it as a platform to sell additional services and solutions.

From the SIMS users point of view, most will see the idea of new owners and fresh investment as a good thing. Many are frustrated with waiting for a cloud solution to materialise when all other suppliers are SaaS.

That frustration is often echoed by the LA MIS Support Teams based around the country who support schools and academies in using SIMS on a day-to-day basis

Ultimately, we hope the downstream effect will be greater and faster innovation so teachers and leaders can benefit from less siloed data, manage daily school life more efficiently, and improve in learner outcomes.