With so many EdTech solutions available, you can see why schools often find themselves in a position where they have 10+ different providers for their education management.
This was certainly the case for Cranbrook School in Kent, and when they decided to switch MIS, they felt it was a good time to reassess all their EdTech needs.
NAME: Karen Radford, bursar at Cranbrook School
FAVOURITE THING: The technology is always improving, and customer feedback is part of the process, which means we’re getting the software we need.
What drove you to reassess your EdTech needs?
I think with most schools, you buy the product you need when you need it. Most use a certain well-known MIS, and for a while that was just accepted as the choice to be made, but when you find it no longer meets the needs you have, you’ve got to have a look at what other providers are out there.
You then find there are solutions like IRIS Education which have a whole suite of products that not only meet your needs but do so better than the mismatch of products you’ve currently got in place.
One system with integrated products and one provider to speak to – what a simpler way of doing things.
Why did you choose IRIS Education?
We were very happy with Ed:gen so decided it made sense to invest further with IRIS Education.
We bought IRIS Financials a year after Ed:gen, using this as an opportunity to incorporate all the DfE codes. The Department for Education is pushing schools to go down that route and so we wanted to get ahead of it and get it done.
We then realised we needed to change our payroll model because it was being outsourced and that wasn’t working for us. We decided to bring in Every for our HR, and Dataplan for our payroll.
The other product that we’re really getting into now is IRIS Central, which consolidates all of our data, giving us a drilled-down insight into attendance, behaviour, staff absences, etc. This is a fantastic tool that allows us to view our data so easily and integrates seamlessly with the other products we have in place.
What’s your experience with IRIS Education been like so far?
Our previous MIS was what it was, and there were no changes or developments to the technology, which meant it quickly became stagnant.
What I love about IRIS Education is that the technology is always improving, and customer feedback is part of the process, which means we’re getting the software we need.
I think that’s so telling in the products you have – this is software that has been created with the end user in mind, and it’s evolving all the time.
I can’t recommend IRIS Education enough. Even just Ed:gen as an MIS, I would highly recommend.
Bringing in a new MIS is always going to be disruptive, and change isn’t always welcomed in schools, but my advice would be don’t try and put your structure and processes into the system – instead, work out how the system can work for you, and you’ll soon see the benefits.
As a school, we’ve seen improvements across so many departments since moving – to have an MIS that talks to your finance system, that’s something we’ve not had for the past 20 years!
We have our staff’s, our students’, and our parents’ information all in one place, which means we can update one record and it’s done across all our systems. I just cannot recommend it enough.
NEED TO KNOW
- Switching to our MIS, IRIS Ed:gen, is stunningly simple, with a dedicated project manager who supports you through your project plan – designed as per your needs and timescales.
- 100% cloud-based, IRIS Ed:gen processes real-time information that’s easily accessible anytime, anywhere.
- One provider for multiple platforms = one provider to speak to regarding support, renewals and more.
- IRIS Education is already the trusted partner of over 12,000 schools, and 75% of multi-academy trusts.
To speak to one of the experts at IRIS Education, complete their online form.
