Stevew303

I have been writing a piece on this recently (excerpt below) 3 years ago we made the change in our MAT to bring all our schools under the one MIS provider – Bromcom. The providers that we were using “worked – did the job” but we wanted more – much more. We previously had some of the big players in our schools, CMIS, SIMS but through a competitive procurement found that there was one other provider that we were not currently using that could provide for all our needs (and more) at a fantastic price (I’ll put this bit in now as I’m sure you all want to know about cost… we have saved around £2.8m over 40 schools in the three years since the change). Fear of change: When I talk with other senior school leaders the fear of change is often their biggest challenge that holds them back. We too went through the fear stage… “what could the system do? How would we learn to use it? What if staff couldn’t even take registers? How much more work was this going to be for us? How difficult would the transition from one MIS to another be? The questions went on and on and the list just grew each time we spoke to different departments about their needs. In reality the migration was seamless. A very well planned out strategy was in place ensuring that systems were tested and tested again before actually making the change. Bromcom did by far the majority of the work bringing so many different schools together without schools even realising it was taking place. The school I worked in at the time was the first to make the change, it was changed over half term and teachers were shown on the first day back how to take registers and add behaviour points (there was a comprehensive training roll out for many departments but this genuinely was all teachers needed to get going). The user interface was so responsive and user friendly it was easy for staff to navigate around the system, try things that they had not been shown how to do and still save time. Schools were feeling empowered as they could now report, manipulate data for their own use, import and export using excel and other programs with ease – there was no dependence on the central team from head office or local “super-users” as there had been before. There were so many “back-up systems” ready in case we couldn’t use Bromcom and none of them were needed. Current MIS “does the job…..”: Of course many MIS systems can “do the job” but my question here would be what job is being done? Is it being done in the best most efficient way? Is there more that you could be getting from your MIS? If you don’t look around and see what else is out there you will never know what you are missing! A great Head Teacher once used to say to me “we don’t know what we don’t know”. It costs nothing to look around and see what else is out there. If it was your own personal money being spent would you be so relaxed? How often do you shop around for the best phone tariff, TV package, motor insurance, holiday deal…..? With many of the best deals going to “new customers only” we have to have the mentality of looking around for the best offer out there - especially with school budgets being cut more and more. I mentioned earlier in this blog the savings we have made changing our MIS systems all to Bromcom, those savings are now being used in other areas to have a positive impact on children’s lives which is the reason we all came in to this profession initially! Functional superiority: Despite not actually needing much training and support due to the system being so easy to use I should still highlight Bromcom have a fantastic support service. Where we have wanted to do more it is often the case that Bromcom already has the functionality and we have not seen it due to only scratching the surface of the capabilities of the MIS. Further developments have seen the creation of PowerBi and MAT Vision with more on the way. In a MAT of our size having quick easy access to data across the federation is fundamental to our success and Bromcom deliver on this where our previous MIS providers didn’t. This is all without even going in to the extra modules provided saving us further expenditure on other 3rd party software, (MCAS, Medical tracker, Show my homework, SEND profile, Bromcom parent app and communications). Educational institutions have some of the most qualified individuals in the country, degrees, PHD’s, etc….. we do not stay stagnant in our own development or teaching and welfare strategies for pupils so we should apply this same mindset to our MIS and all other support systems. My experience of Bromcom has opened my eyes like they hadn’t been before.

Why is your DM so against the change? Sounds like that is the initial hurdle to address. Always do what you have always done and you will always get what you always got! We made the change with lots of staff not so keen but it was smooth and does so much for us. Happy to show people around the system at our school if you need.

This sounds like a crazy option. We transferred across to Bromcom and brought our schools together under a virtual school option. I would suggest contacting them to discuss. I’m Sure we could host a visit too if you wanted to come and view to discuss.