Established in 1977, Jebel Ali School is a leading British Curriculum school located in Dubai, catering for students aged 3 – 18 years.
The Jebel Ali School ethos is that their students never stop believing that better is possible. They welcome over 1600 students each year, thanks to over 200 qualified and experienced staff members.
A fully integrated, school-wide SIS
We previously had an SIS that was predominantly used by the admissions and finance team to manage onboarding and invoicing. This system wasn’t implemented across the school and was entirely client based. We faced challenges with the number of licences, and the system could only be accessed on specific desktops.
We soft launched iSAMS in September 2017 as a school-wide SIS and grew modules from there. We wouldn’t have made it through COVID-19 without the cloud-based system.
Watch: Q&A with Jebel Ali School
Watch: Q&A with Jebel Ali School
We met with Admissions Manager, Gill Massingham and Data Manager, Athira Kumar to talk about their experiences of migrating to and using iSAMS at Jebel Ali School.
“I found migrating to iSAMS exciting, challenging, but smooth and quite straightforward and iSAMS were really supportive in that.”
How did you find the system integration and training?
iSAMS offered a lot of support at the outset with implementing the system. We had an intensive week of training at the beginning which was really helpful and set up a lot of the configuration for us.
When iSAMS come over to the Middle East for User Forums and conferences, we’ve hosted training courses, including exams manager training and SSRS training.
What feature does your school use most often?
Ultimately, student manager is the core feature that we use. We also frequently use the admissions manager and admissions portal, which was implemented during COVID. Previously, our admissions process was paper based. Now, our applications are all online, resulting in improved data quality. Student registers and report cycles are excellent and have become key features for our school.
What do we like most about iSAMS? The iSAMS system is extremely user friendly and flexible. Any of our staff can use the system easily. Since the system is cloud-based, it’s accessible from anywhere.
How has your experience been with iSAMS support?
The support is there. As a school that operated with a working week running Sunday – Thursday, we often needed support at different times compared to a lot of schools which was frustrating. iSAMS‘ support desk is now available around the clock which is great news.
We also have a local community in the Middle East that we correspond with regularly. The iSAMS User Forums are great for us to be able to get together and build relationships. We often call on these resources when we have a question or need advice!
“I love iSAMS and I sell it internally as well. I try and promote the use of more modules and I am very keen to get started with the iTeacher app and the Student Portal. I’m continually looking for ways to extend our use of the system because I think it’s great!”