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Free MIS Discovery Sessions for Schools, Academies & Trusts this September

Nick Finnemore 2 Comment

On the back of a LOT of requests from schools, academies, partners and MATS, this September we were pleased to independently host a series of MIS Discovery Sessions.

With everything going on in the MIS market at the moment, schools have a real appetite for understanding all the MIS+Finance options available to them. They told us they’d like to take a look at all the MIS options available in England & Wales so this month we were pleased to host the three largest multi-phase, cloud-based school MIS+Finance suppliers: Bromcom, Arbor and IRIS Ed:gen.

Who were the Sessions for?

We hosted the MIS Discovery Sessions as virtual events which are completely free of charge to participate in and to attend. The sessions were open to all schools, MATs and academies in England and Wales, plus anyone else from the sector who’d like to find out more.

 

What did the Discovery Sessions cover?

We asked suppliers to talk about how their MIS meets the needs of key people within schools (including business managers, SLT, teaching staff, finance, students, governors, and parents) and asked them all the follow the same agenda to make it easier to compare.
But it wasn’t just about the software; we also asked suppliers to talk about their organisation and culture, and what it’s like to work with them – especially when it comes to switching MIS. There was plenty of Q&A throughout each day and the goal was to help everyone feel confident about the options open to them and the next steps.

I was unable to attend, can I access recordings and information now?

Yes, all the suppliers are happy to share the recordings plus more info on everything discussed in the sessions, just click on the links below:

 

Bromcom MIS Discovery Session

Arbor MIS Discovery Session

IRIS Ed:gen MIS Discovery Session

Thank you to all the suppliers who took part, and to all the participants who joined us in the sessions. We had over 240 people register across the three days and the feedback has been great.
We’re looking to run further sessions in the future – watch this space!
Marketing Product Development Product Management Strategy

Where does Product Management belong in EdTech organisations?

Nick Finnemore 0 Comment

As EdTech companies grow and the nature of technology evolves into the world of SaaS and apps, there’s often confusion around where Product Management should sit in the organisation.

Traditional consumer organisations have had a tendency to consider Product Management in the same arena as Marketing.  However, the danger here is when Marketing is actually ‘Marketing Communications’ (sadly often the case in EdTech) – it means that no-one is involved in defining and delivering the products.

In a lot of Tech companies, the Product Management function tends to be viewed in the technical arena, lumped in with the Development Directorate.  The problem here is that the Product Managers can get tied up in functionality and requirements. They can spend so much time building products that there is no-one engaging the customers to understand their problems; no-one looking ahead and strategising as to what the business needs to do in the future to continue to be successful

To drive the maximum success from a Product Management team, you need to understand exactly what their role is.

A successful Product Management Directorate looks at the needs of the entire business and the entire market.  It’s broadly comprised of three main focuses:

  • Product strategy
  • Product marketing
  • Technical product management

The Product Management Directorate will focus the product management team on the business of building solutions for needs now and into the future.  The team will:

  • engage and communicate with existing and potential customers
  • articulate and quantify market problems
  • create business cases and market requirements documents
  • define standard procedures for product delivery and launch
  • support the creation of collateral and sales enablement tools
  • train the sales teams on the product

Within the EdTech market the truth is: if you want better products in the future, and for the product management team to be held accountable at organisational level, then it must be represented at Board level in its own right.