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 🙂

Our first #FinnemoreFireside of 2023 is with Catherine Tallis, Director of Business Services at HFL Education.

HFL Education (formerly Herts for Learning) is a national provider of school improvement and business support services, training and resources.  As long-standing providers of MIS support to their schools, this Q&A discussed in detail the ways in which support teams must adapt as the MIS market continues to evolve. Being a SIMS-only support team, as was usually once the case, is now a risky strategy for any team wanting to remain in business in the coming years.

It’s a fascinating chat and, amongst other things, Nick and Catherine discuss:

• The precarious state of school finances and the impact that has on decisions, and the huge amount of pressure on schools as they are taking on more as services around them are cut to the bone (e.g. CAMHS, social care, etc.)
• How academisation and changes to the way schools licence MIS have led to the sector completely changing, and how HFL Education have adapted into a multi-MIS support team to help their schools
• What will happen to teams who aren’t able to adapt quickly, and how the conversation needs to shift away from software support to whole school strategic support
• The challenges around understanding overheads as a business where teams are still part of an LA
• The democratisation of data, and how HFL Education supports meaningful school improvement through the effective use of data
• Schools are great at curriculum change but not always so great at change across other systems, and this is something support teams can help with
• HFL Education’s vision and plans for the next five years
• What Catherine would like to see from the market and from suppliers

We’d love to hear your feedback; what would you like to learn from support team leaders?

Over the summer, we took the opportunity to have a virtual get together with thought leader and entrepreneur Josh Perry to talk all things education.

Josh has a diverse and creative background, having worked in a large, progressive MAT himself and then going on to start numerous edtech businesses.

Really interesting views on everything from the role of MATs in an emerging tech market, his new projects (including Carousel, Smartgrade and advisory work), trends in the MIS sector, his Bring More Data blog, thoughts on forthcoming MIS mergers/acquisitions, and a great deal more!

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

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!