Author: Azreen Latiff

Rolling out QuickSchools.com – Don’t overwhelm the users!

Azreen Latiff2 Comments

When a school decides to roll-out QuickSchools.com (or any other system for that matter), a decision has to be made.

  1. Roll-out all features at once?
  2. Roll-out the most value-added features first, and phase in additional features over time?

I understand many schools prefer option (1). They just want to do a big-bang, get everything out there, and be done with it. And then they can proudly look back and say they’ve done it.

However, after seeing many roll-outs of school systems and other kinds of systems as well, I’m in favor of option (2). 

The reality is, it’s easy to overwhelm users when you try to do too much, too fast. Users (teachers, administrators, parents etc) have a lot on their plate already. And chances are, if you ask if they’d like to start learning a new system today that can help them do their work, the fear of having to learn a new unknown system (combined with bad experiences in the past) would probably drive them to push back against the introduction of a school management system.

And all that before they’ve even had a chance to look at the system.

Now, let’s say we take the conservative approach and roll-out in phases, focusing on the most value-added features in the first phase. Usually we find introducing the grading and report card generation the most value-added process as this is a very tedious process for most schools.

At the beginning, teachers are fearful. But when they log in, they see a very small number of menu items. It almost looks… bare. Certainly not very frightening.

 

Don't you think new users would find the menu on the left much less daunting to navigate than the menu on the right?
Don't you think new users would find the menu on the left much less daunting to navigate than the menu on the right?

As they start to grade (and really, it’s almost brainlessly easy), their confidence in the system and in their ability to use the system grows. Remember, we were focusing on the most value-added features first.

“Hey, not only is this easy, but this really helps my job!”

Before you know it, they’ll be telling you that they want more!

“Can I get a report that shows the students by district? How about a feature where I can check for the allrergies of my students?”

At that point, it’ll be a cinch to roll-out the rest of the features.

QuickSchools.com has been carefully designed so that you can expose only a subset of the features first so that the user’s screen does not get cluttered with features. Take advantage of this to ensure a smooth, successful roll-out.

QuickSchools.com reduces your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Azreen LatiffLeave a comment

We sometimes get enquiries from customers who compare the license fees charged by a competing school management system which looks cheaper than using QuickSchools.com. Certainly, there will be some programs out there which are cheaper. In fact, if all you’re looking for is a single-user system installed on a PC to track student particulars, you can download such systems for free (i.e. http://www.topshareware.com/School-Management-System-download-44233.htm).

But if you’re like most schools, you’re looking for an advanced web-based system that will support simultaneous logins by your administrative staff, your teachers, and the parents. Such a system needs to be reliable. Can you imagine handling frustrated complaints by teachers and parents if the system goes down, perhaps for days at a time? I didn’t think so.

So let’s take a look at the costs involved if you had to install and run your own web-based school management system. Unsurprisingly, there are a ton of hidden costs which go way beyond the software license cost.

The many hidden costs associated with a traditional school management system
The many hidden costs associated with a traditional school management system

It is not trivial to provide a reliable, web-based system. The moment you have many users who depend on the system, you have a responsibility to ensure the system is secure and reliable. Expensive (and reliable) servers must be procured and managed. Backups have to be made and periodically checked to make sure garbage is not being backed up. Upgrades must be planned to ensure the system remains up to date in terms of hardware and software. Security patches must be carried out.

To do all of the above, you need competent IT staff to take care of the system.

You can see how this gets really expensive, really fast. Your total cost of ownership (TCO) balloons to much more than your initial purchase cost. As a school, I don’t think you want to deal with these non-value-added stuff. You want to focus on education.

This is where QuickSchools.com comes in. We’re the experts in managing the behind-the-scenes details, so let us take care of all that for you. It’s available 24×7 via the web… you just focus on using the system.

And to top it all off, we’re able to do this at such low prices because we’re able to amortize all those costs across many schools. So you end up winning – both in terms of TCO, and in terms of not having to deal with all the back-end stuff.