Your choice of software can make or break your school’s daily operations. That’s why choosing the right solution and the right provider is vital.
Research suggests that around 75% of software buyers are unhappy with the service they received. Despite that, 77% say they continue to renew their contracts with those providers, citing a lack of better options available.
Ultimately, it’s impossible for any one provider to provide every solution that every school needs. But that doesn’t mean that you need to keep migrating systems until you find the best fit. Start by finding the right MIS provider – a provider that’s flexible – and work with them to build a solution that is exactly right for your school.
MIS integration could be the difference between a software that meets the needs of all school departments, or spending each day trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole.
How system integration looks for your school will depend on your chosen provider and their software structure. In some cases, MIS providers may offer a range of solutions that can be added to your foundational database to build the solution that you need. Whereas other suppliers may offer a more off-the-shelf approach.
MIS integration offers a more flexible approach to school software. No one solution will suit every school’s needs, despite the best efforts from each provider. The latest API and software integration technology enables you to work with a range of bespoke systems offered by each supplier, or engage with third parties that better suit your needs.
Any provider that claims to offer a complete solution that meets the needs of every Independent school is demonstrating a lack of understanding about their industry. No one school is the same day-in, day-out. It’s unrealistic to expect any single software solution to meet your needs. While some options may work better for your school, a certain amount of flexibility within that system is important.
However, the growth of the EdTech industry has meant that more providers are present on the market than ever before. There are now more and more options for your school’s tech stack, and some might meet your needs more than others.
The best MIS providers will recognise that integration is key to continued growth and development. They will assess their limitations and understand that MIS integration can strengthen their functionality, thereby empowering schools to continue growing with their system.
Integration boosts the potential of your school management software. The right provider will encourage you to seek the features that you need, where they cannot provide a solution.
The benefit of choosing one MIS provider and working with their integration technology is that it removes the need for disparate databases and inconsistent, manual data transfer.
Once central database is the key to promoting total data accuracy in your school. The smaller your need to transfer data, the smaller your margin of error. Reduce mistakes by working with one database that shares key data with your systems, rather than attempting to manage multiple databases across your departments.
MIS integration means that your teams can trust the accuracy of your data, and that it is the most up-to-date information available within your systems. This is particularly key when managing sensitive student data, or working with your data stores to generate analytics and insights. Empower your teams to make the most out of your MIS database with a seamlessly integrated school tech stack.
It might seem like stating the obvious to say that working with multiple providers individually becomes expensive, as you add more and more accounts to your growing list of suppliers. However, many schools have come to accept this in order to build the right suite of systems.
An MIS that offers software freedom via integration could remove the need to work with individual accounts across providers. The best solutions on the market will welcome the use of alternative suppliers that enable you to build the software that you need.
Consider working with a provider that already has relationships with other solutions in the space. It’s important to discuss this when meeting with your shortlist of MIS suppliers.
Do they offer flexible integration? Do you need to work with only their solutions? Or do they have a chosen selection of third parties that are tried and tested with their system? These are all important questions that will enable you to find the best software, while also making the most cost-effective financial decision.
Working within one database doesn’t just ensure data accuracy, but also enables your data managers to prioritise security. Maintaining one database is a much more manageable task for your teams and allows them to focus on securing one set of data, rather than managing separate systems.
Integration also enables single sign-on for your school software. This is a much more secure approach to log in, and all data transfer is handled within one system.
Ultimately, data security is a priority for any school. Your databases handle large amounts of sensitive student information and it’s key to ensure the safety of this data wherever it is accessed across your school. Reducing the need for data transfer, and restricting access to only relevant data, removes the margin for error, mistakes, and lessens the risk.
At iSAMS, we recognise that we cannot provide a solution for every single area of school life and an off-the-shelf solution is often not the best choice of software for any business. In our years of experience, we have learned that every school is different. While you may need a foundational database, the required solutions for each school can be fundamentally different.
While our teams have worked hard over the years to build key solutions into our modular system, there are a range of other providers on the market that may better meet your specific needs. That’s why we offer a dedicated iSAMS API and existing partner marketplace.
Work with our existing partners to build a solution that works seamlessly for your school and benefit from our existing relationships. Alternatively, you can work with our API to share data with any other third-party by building an integration that works for you.
To learn more about the iSAMS school management system and how it can be adapted to suit your needs, you can watch a demonstration below: