Arbor - 'free' report with a lot of information without knowing who they are!

[tj2419]

Hi

 

Has anyone else received a free report with a worrying amount of information about your school without having ever spoke to them?

 

A quick google looks like they are a genuine company but just a wake up call as to what information is freely available without us even knowing.

 

Cheers

[LosOjos]

From what I gather, all the information they have is taken from RAISE (just from flicking through it). It's presented much better than RAISE though. Got a free report a while back and I liked it but it's really to get you to buy their analysis framework which I don't see us doing - we do so much in house now we're talking of ditching some of our existing products, not buying new ones!

[tj2419]

Thanks for the reply. Don't really know much about Raise online. Can anyone go on there and get information about our school then?

[LosOjos]

Well RAISE is just an amalgamation of league table data.

 

If you go to this website: Performance Tables - The Department for Education

 

You can obtain pretty much all the data in the Arbor reports for any LA controlled school in the country. What RAISE, Arbor and the like tend to do is to amalgamate national data to draw more useful comparisons. You could do it yourself, but it'd take you weeks!

[vikpaw]

It was all supposed to be from freely accessible sources, E.g ofsted reports etc.

There is a lot of data out there if you care to seek it out.

 

They are legitimate. Check the sticky thread on dfe info - 1800% growth!

 

At BETT last year they said if you wanted a demo you'd get a raspberry pi and If you were on SIMS the pi would rip your data out and to the arbor cloud for a live demo.

 

I've never actually seen it bar screenshots. There wasn't a self host option cos it analyses your data constantly on their farm.

[tj2419]

Cloud MIS. Wouldn't that introduce a whole load of data protection issues? Any one know where their servers are?

[GREED]

Cloud MIS. Wouldn't that introduce a whole load of data protection issues? Any one know where their servers are?

 

In London, and complies fully with DPA. As has been stated, no information presented is not already available to the public and does not specify individuals. I was speaking to one of their chiefs not long ago, and this report initiative came up.

 

Interesting to see and hear peoples reactions. What do you think?

 

Is well timed for you all to go scope them out at BETT!

[GeekyPete]

We've been approached by Arbour too. If you are going to drop all your school data on to the cloud servers of a 3rd party do your due diligence. You need to check that they are established and stable. You don't want them going belly up and taking your school data with them. Just imagine losing all your HR, pupil tracking, financial, payroll..... This will give you an idea of what you should be looking at. This one is for mergers but you should follow similar lines considering the risk. http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/media/89310/chkduedil.pdf

 

The DfE have a framework for MIS procurment and have awarded only a very select few on to the framework. Supplier listing - Schools The DfE have in effect done most of the due dilligence for you. Checking this list may actually form part of your due dilligence. I believe that LEA schools have to chose from this list. Academys and free schools can use whatever they want as they (Probably you in truth) carry the can. These suppliers have convinced the DfE that they are technically capable and financially stable. You won't get fired for chosing one of these...

Edited January 16, 2014 by GeekyPete

[vikpaw]

They have according to their site over 4000 schools including a lot of international. A big project out here too but I'm missing the opportunity to catch up with it next week as their guy comes out here while I'm BETTing

 

I agree with the due diligence but the framework is merely a guide. You could apparently get on it without a product! Plus some missed out on the deadlines, some companies no longer exist ... It's not the be all, but it's a good start for a list of companies that managed to tick the boxes to say they could offer certain features.

 

I'm sure you can buy off the list, it's just the list is approved. I'd dread to just pick one without an audit of what the school requires and how well the needs are met.

 

I know some of them simply couldn't cope with my requirements.