Arbor-Maggie

Don't forget you are presenting this in education, so look for the impact on learning and teaching and HOW to achieve this. I have seen 2 schools roll out ipads/BYOD. In one, they caused more issues than anything else as they were literally used by the kids to communicate in lessons and the teachers didn't have a clue. Behaviour issues went through the roof and suddenly all eletronic devices were banned completely. In the other there were trials of apps for different subjects, a usage policy discussed and planned with pupils, teachers and IT to ensure ownership, consequences for misuse (and be clear on what misuse was). Staff, pupils, parents all knew the educational reasonings behind the rollout and it's been brilliant. If you get people buying into the vision, and able to see the positive impact then when you show costs for training, upgrades etc it is more readily accepted by leaders and those who may be fundraising for it to happen. As a former school leader I was always looking for the value in expenditure - how was this good for the pupils and the staff team? As a parent I try and think like a parent but here is my next experience of a lack of thought into the education side of tech: One of my kids schools PTFA just asked us to help raise £25k for 30 computers, I have responded by requesting a breakdown of where on earth they are spending the money and who they have had 3 quotes from. I was greeted with a grimace but was given the info - turns out they want a new telephone system, WiFi and server as well as some other things (like mathletics which is already billed back to us parents as a voluntary donation that we are hounded for monthly until we pay it) I also asked for the reasons WHY they wanted these things and several weeks later no one has been able to tell me! (telephones near each classroom for safeguarding, and in the staff workroom for home contact would be easy to say, but they literally haven't put any thought into the impact or reasoning to even be able to say this) If they could show the impact and reasons for the costings - I would help them raise £100k. As it is, I cannot bring myself to support the £25k drive they are on...

I was tutoring a boy who had his own version... Silliness On Holiday Causes A Headache, Take One Aspirin Let's just say the word he used wasn't actually 'Silliness' and, as his science tutor, we spent some time discussing how Aspirin was NOT a substitute for adequate contraception!

It is correct that Arbor have looked VERY carefully at SSO functionality, you CAN use SSO when Arbor is the identifier (I think I may have the wrong term there) In laymans terms we often say "do you use your google account to log into online banking" and (most) people are vaguely horrified by the thought as they see banking as requiring more security. Well, in your MIS it isn't just your personal data - it could be 1000's of pieces of identifiable information!

I declaring I work for Arbor but can confirm we are also NOT just for MAT's or primaries. We have plenty of very happy secondary, specials, primaries, infants, PRU's, 6th forms both standalone and in MATs. In fact, when I started with Arbor over 2 years ago we launched LOTS of new secondary functionality and have been expanding on this even since. Take a look at the website or feel free to call one of the team as I am aware this is not the place for me to be 'advertising'. You should definitely not rule out Arbor though - a good place is g-cloud framework to get a true look into where the MIS can support you.