– Abhiraj, Cofounder and CEO, SchoolPad

The concept of school management software or a school ERP was there for years. However, what has changed for the better is its deployment from offline to online.

School management software started as offline software. These were installed on computers/ laptops and used by only a handful of people in the daily routine of school operation. A data entry operator would use it for maintaining daily records, or a front desk staff member would use it for routine work, or it would help manage students’ records. Someone from the accounts team would take its help for maintaining fee entries and generating reports. Marks entries would be done by a data entry operator/computer teacher to create report cards and print them out. That was more or less it.

The offline school management software was a big hit as it helped schools manage their internal management tasks more efficiently and accurately.

However, with the passage of time, the school management software has matured from offline, on-premise software to online school management software.

Teachers, students, parents and other staff members across different departments have access to the software, and they could use it to manage their work from anywhere and at any given time. The combination of communication- collaboration-features and powerful-internal- management-features made it a perfect platform for schools to keep up with the times.

Its capability to connect all stakeholders and keep them involved and informed made it a superpower for the schools. This matured and seasoned school management software is what we see and use today in our schools. Though the school management softwares have gained traction with the schools but unfortunately, many schools that invest in this superpower are not able to use it well or do not use it at all. They keep it as a regular ‘software’ to add to the portfolio of technology tools used by the school.

Right implementation

Involved in the school management software space for the past decade ten years, I’ve always been curious to find the reasons behind why schools are unable to implement such powerful pieces of technology.

After building SchoolPad’s online school management software in 2013 and working on the pilot version with a handful of schools, the first thing we did to address this problem was to set up a team of expert coaches who worked closely with schools to help them implement SchoolPad.

They didn’t just extend their support but nurtured them into advanced users. And that nurturing is what we figured out was the real answer to this problem.

Implementation of school management software across different departments of a school is a journey but starting the journey right is one of the most essential activities required by schools to get the implementation going in the right direction.

Triggers for adopting school management software

This is one of the most fundamental steps that set up the stage for successful implementation of your school management software. You might require school management software for everything that it has to offer, but think about it a little deeper; there must be a handful of requirements or triggers that pushed you to decide on going ahead and implementing school management software for your school. Make a note of these and keep them handy.

Evaluating the software against the triggers

Once you have your triggers documented, try to validate them during your shortlisting process by actually simulating them on the software or ask the software team to simulate it for you during the evaluation process. It isn’t necessary to try them all but maybe a few or just a couple of them. For example: one of your triggers is that you need to take your fee payment option online so that parents can pay their fee online as a lot of them have been asking for it. Validate this and see it in action during your shortlisting process.

Processes & Systems

Once you have shortlisted your school management software and are ready to start with the implementation, make sure you have a document of your processes and systems.

It isn’t necessary that you have all of them ready at this point, but the ones used regularly should be implemented first. For example, on the 1st of every month, your school prints and shares a fee bill with parents in a particular format along with the payment details, so that they can make their fee payments in time. If they don’t do it by the 10th of the month, they have to pay a fine of Rs. 10 per day as mentioned on the fee bill.

Roles and accessibility permissions

Once you’ve picked up the right software and started implementing it with a process document, this becomes the most crucial step. I see this missing in most school management software implementations. After creating the process document, it is also essential to mention the people involved at each step of the process and their work. With this, schools can easily map these staff members on the software, giving them access to the features they have to work on to accomplish their work.

Health checkups and monitoring

Once all of the above steps are in place and the implementation has started, the only way you can validate the success of your implementation and ensure that it is helping your school and the associated staff members achieve their desired outcomes is through regular monitoring. Make sure you generate specific, actionable reports and make people responsible for monitoring these reports to check the usage insights and correctness of the data. Keep this practice going till the time you see stability in the usage patterns and the desired outcomes being achieved regularly.

No short term investment

School management software is not a short term investment. It works like fuel for your engine of systems running inside the school, which are responsible for running your school and helping it grow. Spending time and making a conscious effort will help you implement and run your school management software and make it a superpower for your school’s growth.