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FOUR GOOD REASONS TO LEARN ABOUT SIS
Student Information Systems (SIS) are critical to the future of almost every product sold into schools, yet little attention has been paid to this vital segment of the market. In this article we review four reasons why knowing more about the SIS market can help your business grow.
1. The line between instructional and administrative solutions is blurring. Understanding the nature of this change will help you meet core customer needs and support the educational mission of schools and districts.
2. Your products are going to be judged using data from the SIS. Print, software, and on-line products are all affected by this trend. According to this study most districts are planning to use the SIS as the primary NCLB reporting tool.
3. Interoperability will increase customer satisfaction. Reducing clerical drudgework and improving data accuracy will make all products in a school look better. The study shows that half of all districts are ready to start mandating interoperability.
4. The SIS market provides a glimpse at where other K12 markets are headed. Districts are recentralizing decision-making about systems and resources. The SIS market made this transition several years ago.
Below we explore each of these trends in more detail. This article is based on information from Student Information Systems 2003 – Trends & Opportunities, a newly released research report based on interviews with 400 District MIS Managers (visit www.headwaystrategies.com for more information).
The Line Between Instructional and Administrative Solutions is Blurring
The trend towards increased accountability has encouraged educators to focus on answering four straightforward but difficult questions. Those questions are:
1. Who is in school?
2. What is being taught?
3. What is being learned?
4. Which resources work best?
Externally the answer to these questions is taking the form of NCLB compliance and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) reports. While useful in keeping score, this is a rearview mirror perspective on the issues. Internally, progressive districts are taking a forward looking approach to answering the questions, with an emphasis on getting information to teachers, students, and parents that informs instruction and improves outcomes.
Addressing both the external and internal issues is forcing districts to look at blending their instructional and administrative solutions. Below is a very high level view of how this is starting to look.
The blending will have the biggest impact in the classroom and as evidence of this trend 60% of teachers are directly connected to the SIS from the classroom today (although some segments lag far behind).
Your Products Are Going To Be Judged With Data From the SIS
Another example of this trend is showing which resources are the most effective with disaggregated groups of students. Educators want to tailor the mix of instructional materials and strategies to the specific needs of individual students. In order to perform this high level analysis demographic data from the SIS needs to be linked to standards-based lesson plans and the results of a variety of assessments. This kind of data-mining capability is being added into most of the mainstream SIS’s.
The results of this analysis will be applied to print, software, and on-line resources as well as instructional strategies and other resources used in the classroom.
Interoperability Will Increase Customer Satisfaction
Fortunately, as districts are trying to implement this model interoperability standards have evolved to the point where half of all districts are planning to mandate them.
The most immediate and visible benefits will be a dramatic reduction in data entry as data is entered once and shared among many systems. A student can be enrolled at the front office in the SIS and by the time they reach the classroom already have appropriate access to instructional software, the library, even the cafeteria. Simply put, the user experience with all of these products should be significantly better.
But interoperability goes much deeper than this and the long-term goal is creating the nervous system of a wired district. Educators can’t get timely answers to the key questions outlined above without administrative and instructional products that are seamlessly linked.
The market is roughly split between the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) as the solution of choice. The preference for one or the other varies by market segment. The expectation of many experts is that both standards will continue to be used as they meet slightly different needs.
The SIS Market Provides A Glimpse At Where Other K12 Markets Are Headed
The twin forces of accountability and tight budgets are leading districts to re-centralize many decisions about products and services. District level administrators need consistent information across all schools to make informed decisions; increased accountability is pushing many to require district rather than site-based solutions. Budget pressure is also encouraging districts to buy at the district level. Centralized purchases result in better discounts and having a district-wide solution reduces support and staff development costs.
The SIS market went through this transition several years ago, turning what had been a market characterized by a mix of site-based and centralized decisions into one where virtually no site-based decisions are made today. Other companies who are experiencing this change today can learn a great deal from how the SIS market is structured and how customers make decisions about these systems. To cite just a few examples:
1. The decision making process differs significantly in large and small districts.
2. Different market segments have different purchase cycles.
3. Pricing strategies are different at the district level.
4. The keys to customer satisfaction are different for MIS Managers than for site-based administrators.
How to structure the sales force, how to price products, what kind of support options do customers want, and how to partner with SIS vendors are all examples of critical strategic decisions that a deeper understanding of the SIS market can help with.
Conclusion
Most companies in the K12 market are going to need some strategy for working with and understanding the SIS market. Making this commitment will allow you to meet your customer’s core needs more effectively, get your products evaluated correctly, and will help you to compete in a tight market.
This article was written for MDR's School Marketing Newsletter.
Copyright Headway Strategies 2003 - All Rights Reserved