MIS providers and BETT – we ask the questions for you.

With BETT 2024 fast approaching we asked MIS providers the following questions:

1. Are you attending BETT in January?
2. Are you planning any new releases?
3. Do you have any special offers to encourage visitors to your stand?
4. If you’re not attending, do you have press releases or news stories you’d like us to promote?
5. Do you have a view on the organisers plan to charge ‘commercial’ visitors?
6. Schools & MATs are under a lot of well publicised financial pressure – are you doing anything to help?

We also offered them the opportunity to provide a promotional piece, no larger than A4, which we would publish alongside their answers.

We received the following responses:

Bromcom

1. Yes – we’ll be on stand SC20
   1. We have an exciting roadmap for the year ahead, including further developments in AI which are going to transform how schools gain insights from their data.
2. Our offer to BETT visitors is the same value-for-money proposition we offer to all schools, MATs and LAs: an all-inclusive cloud MIS and fully integrated Finance solution which saves money by removing the need for costly bolt-ons.
3. See 2 above
4. See our blog https://bromcom.com/10-mis-features-to-look-out-for
5. Charging commercial visitors is likely to have an effect on overall numbers attending, but we hope it will facilitate meaningful engagement between education providers and exhibitors.
6. See 2 above.

5. While we understand the need to manage the event effectively, we believe that Bett should remain free for all school staff. Our focus is on fostering meaningful interactions with educators and exploring potential partnerships. Although commercial visitors might also find value in attending, the primary aim should be to create an environment conducive to teachers and school leaders’ needs – free from unrelated commercial distractions.

6. Our integrated solution allows schools to consolidate software costs, eliminating the need for separate MIS and classroom management systems. We offer trust pricing, discounts on multi-year licences, and additional savings for extensive use of Satchel One. Our bundle discounts and a money-back guarantee on Satchel Pulse pilots further underscore our commitment to supporting schools financially.

ParentPay / ESS / SIMS

1. Yes. ParentPay Group will be on stand SC50. We’ll be showcasing SIMS our MIS and specifically SIMS Next Gen – the evolution of SIMS in the cloud with a completely new look and intuitive design.

SIMS 7 and SIMS Connected customers can add Next Gen to benefit now from these cloud features and they get data sharing with their existing version of SIMS. This gives them new cloud capabilities they can introduce at their own pace with no disruption to how they work today. On our stand we’ll show what’s available in Next Gen to use right now including:

• Statutory Attendance Register – teachers can take session attendance registers anywhere, on any device, at any time.
• Lesson Attendance Register – teachers can also complete their lesson registers anywhere.
• My Markbook – make monitoring student progress easy with a single tool to record the outcomes of tests, observations, evaluations, or skill competencies in one location.
• Staff Profile – a one-stop shop for all information on staff members.
• Pupil Profile – the central hub for viewing and editing pupil information.
• Custom Groups – with its user-friendly interface Custom Groups allows data managers, school administrators, and teachers to create, edit, and organise groups quickly and effectively.
• Exclusions and Suspensions – easy to use interface for recording suspensions and exclusions.
• Staff Timetables Calendar – an easy-to-use calendar tool that displays staff timetables and cover lessons in one place.

We’ll also explain the great additions to SIMS Next Gen for teachers, leaders, administrators, schools, groups and MATs coming in 2024.

Then for those SIMS customers that want a safe and easy transition from on-premises to the cloud we have SIMS Connected.

On our stand we’ll also feature the Group’s other key technologies for schools: ParentPay (cashless payments); Schoolcomms (parental engagement); Cypad and BlueRunner (catering management), and Reading Cloud (library management).

We are also hosting a session in the Teacher and Learning theatre on the value of data in supporting attendance strategies (Thursday 25th Jan at 13:45).

Finally, we have customer and educator briefings to deep dive into SIMS by school stage and type. Plus, an expert panel discussion about strategies for developing a reading for pleasure culture.

2. We will be showcasing the comprehensive range of new SIMS Next Gen cloud modules coming in 2024 including:

• Seating Plans: which allows teachers to create positive learning environments through great classroom planning tools.
• Role-based Homepages: personalised homepages giving access to the most used tools for frequent tasks.
• School Analytics: Powerful tool for school leaders to get a clear picture of attendance or help identify at risk pupils easily.

Plus, we have SIMS Group Analytics – our new reporting and analytics tools and consulting services tailored for MATs and school groups using SIMS. It provides a comprehensive overview of group or trust performance so leaders and administrators can identify trends, benchmark performance, and develop and monitor targeted improvement strategies to enhance overall educational performance.

3. We offer great technology and the best value possible all year round.

4. n/a

5. No

6. ParentPay Group is focused on delivering good value for money. Our comprehensive products enable schools and MATs to meet a large number of their needs within our products enabling them to look again at their software infrastructure and make savings. We are also working with customers to support them in a move to the cloud where they can then benefit from savings in infrastructure cost and management.

d6

Note: Whilst d6 are a South African MIS supplier intending on launching in the UK, they are not promoting their full systems at BETT.

We’ve therefore reduced the information they submitted.

1. Yes, we are and will be on Stand ND50

2. Our highly acclaimed school communication platform, d6, is now available for you to use. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to join over 2,500 schools in the mission for effective communication. Meet us at BETT, sign up and experience the power of d6 for yourself!

3. Schools that register at BETT will receive free training and implementation.

4. n/a

5. n/a

6. Our product offers greater value compared to other similar products available in the market, while maintaining cost-effectiveness. Our organization’s mission is to assist schools to achieve their best potential, which involves ensuring that our product is priced optimally to enable schools to flourish.

Other MIS that are attending but from whom we received no response are:

Arbor – Stand SE31

Arbor helps schools of all sizes work more easily and collaboratively, with intuitive tools designed to make a difference.

For schools: Arbor MIS gives schools the tools they need to work better today and be ready for tomorrow. Used by over 5,000 schools it’s the most popular MIS today.

For MATs: See the bigger picture with the only true MIS for MATs. Used by over 500 MATs, it’s more than just a dashboard. Arbor MIS for MATs is custom-built for better collaboration across your trust, with tools that make it easy to work together as one organisation.

Compass – Stand SC43

Experience the power of one connected platform

Software should do the hard work for you. Compass easily handles the day-to-day across student admin and data management, timetabling, communications and consent, and more. Create the right combination of tools to unlock productivity for administrators, and make life easier for teachers and parents.

PowerSchool Stand SK61

PowerSchool (NYSE: PWSC) is a global leader in cloud-based education software for school organizations, supporting over 50 million students in more than 90 countries. 

PowerSchool’s mission is to empower educators, administrators, and families to ensure personalized education for every student journey. 

PowerSchool achieves this mission thanks to a comprehensive and innovative platform that helps educational organizations ensure security, data accessibility, AI-driven personalized learning, and overall life readiness for every student.

Iris (iSAMS & Horizon) Stand SA50

We help good schools become great. Our range of cloud-based solutions connects people with data, helping you make better decisions and deliver smarter outcomes for pupils.

For over 12,000 schools and more than 75% of trusts in the UK, our next-generation software is the catalyst for real change. From parent engagement solutions to finance and school management systems, all our products talk to each other and update data in real time, meaning information is updated across all systems, instantly.

Our solutions:

• Finance: enhancing financial management across schools and trusts
  • School Management: improving processes with simple, streamlined, flexible systems
  • Engagement: better connecting schools with parents, teachers, and pupils