Established in 1824, Edinburgh Academy is a private day school located in Scotland, catering for students aged 2-18 years.
The school operates out of two sites, with its ethos being to care for the unique talents, needs and ambitions of all its students.
Searching for a school system that suits Scottish requirements
We were in a position that I think a lot of independent schools in Scotland found themselves in, in that we didn’t have that many options when it came to MIS systems because, with the Scottish Qualifications Authority, there weren’t that many systems that could cope with that data to manage it.
Watch the Q&A with Edinburgh Academy
Watch the Q&A with Edinburgh Academy
We met with Anna Millar, Director of ICT at Edinburgh Academy, to hear about their experience with the iSAMS migration process
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“My migration experience so far has been great. We have regular contact; regular calls and I do feel that we’re kind of hugged through the process. I feel supported.”
The challenge with school-based servers
We had, for many years, been using a system that was really the only option for us. However, because of the limitations of it, we then had branched out and were using an in-house database as well for other processes that that platform didn’t do in the way that we needed it to. On top of that, our processes grew into lots of different systems because of the limitations of the MIS that we were using.
What problems does iSAMS solve?
The big thing that it solves for us is the fact that it’s cloud based. Moving forward, because of the pandemic, I think we will have more staff who are choosing to work from home at times, if they can. The fact that everything is accessible through the cloud and that it will integrate properly with a lot of our other products really will solve a lot of those headaches that we’ve encountered.
The big thing that it solves for us is the fact that it’s cloud based. Moving forward, because of the pandemic, I think we will have more staff who are choosing to work from home at times, if they can. The fact that everything is accessible through the cloud and that it will integrate properly with a lot of our other products really will solve a lot of those headaches that we’ve encountered.
Do you feel prepared for the switchover?
You need people with you and to be ready for it. I think that we have tried really hard to do that. I now have people coming to me and asking when the new system is coming, which is great because I want them to have a total awareness of it and for them to be prepared.
I’m not feeling that anything is on the backburner. I’m never worried that we’re not making progress because of the regular contact. I’m confident about the training which is a huge peace of mind for me.