CMP

We went live with Bromcom on 1 April, so in the early stages of the lockdown. In all honestly I was worried as the thought of changing systems at such a difficult time filled me with dread. However, we had already completed our training in February and given notice to our previous provider (SIMS) so felt we should carry on with our schedule. Bromcom kept in touch with us during this time, making sure we were still happy to migrate our data and keeping us up to date with how it was all going. The migration went smoothly and because normal operations in school had ceased during this time, it gave us breathing space to get our configuration settings set up and allow the administration teams in our schools to get used to the system. Like the poster above, not having teachers to train on the new MIS for registers/dinners has allowed those admin teams time to build up their confidence in navigating the system. The cloud based nature of the system actually made things much easier for us during this time. With so many staff working from home, the ability to access the system (albeit we do restrict location based IP logins) has made things much easier than would have been the case. We are a small MAT, and what we found worked for us was to create a project team of users from each school who attend the training webinars and are responsible for the system in their school. From a change management point of view, I took the lead role for the MAT (CFO) to oversee the project and coordinate the process. Whilst I will use the school level MIS the least in my role I have completed all parts of the training alongside the team. This way the schools know that there is someone in the central team who they can escalate any issues to who understands the system. Looking back, I needn't have worried as on the whole the process has gone very smoothly. Have we had teething issues? Of course we have, I wouldn't expect to change such a major system and not have any issues. As has already been mentioned above the support team is very good at resolving issues as quickly as possible and we had as much transition support as we needed straight after migration. What I would suggest is speaking to the providers about what is concerning you most about completing your procurement during the current situation. They will be able to address your reservations and hopefully set your mind at ease. Good luck!