A bit of background to our parent portal system
The portal started life in January 2013. It was an enhancement to our own inhouse customer relationship management system that we started to develop in 2006. Its key features are:
- Shop facility for schools and parents to order devices and sign up to a scheme
- Management of parental contributions arrears
- Asset tracking of devices by custodian
- Tracking and reporting of insurance claims
- Online reporting for schools and direct access for parents to see their account
In 2017, edde undertook a range of enhancements to our internal software systems and rebranded and renamed our internal software system to “tedd.” (Technology, EDucation, Contribution)
In 2018, edde will be launching our new shop facility and making a number of enhancements to the school reporting system. The plan is also to launch an APP for parents to quickly review their account from a mobile device.
edde owns the software and has a full-time employee in the group making enhancements on a regular basis. The benefit is that we are not dependant on a third-party IT company to make changes or support our system.
What does the edde parent portal system not do?
This is an important question as education establishments often buy software to manage devices in a classroom.
The edde parent portal software does not:
- Control security on the devices
- Link digital devices together in the classroom
- Offer any learning applications
We are aware of a number of software solutions available called MDM- (Mobile Device Management) that will offer these services such as:
- Lightspeed
- Meraki
- Air watch
We can help recommend a suitable supplier to you should you be looking at this.
What is the Shop Facility and How Does it Work?
The shop facility is a web based portal that provides a platform for the school to offer the recommended device and accessories for students. Guardians will log on to the portal with a unique reference code, select the option they wish to opt for from the shop select the preferred method of payment, upfront or monthly contribution, and set up their own account for the scheme.
Why does a parent use the parent portal?
- In the first instance, to order their device and sign up to the scheme
- To review contributions made, and contributions to be made
- To manage and monitor any insurance claims
Why use edde to manage this, why can we do not do it ourselves and save the administration fee?
Some schools do manage the whole process themselves, often by the use of a simple spreadsheet. Their rational is simple, and that is to save money by not paying an administration fee to companies like edde.
There are schools that do a great job of managing a digital device classroom scheme. However, many who have gone down this path often look to companies like us to implement a management reporting system and collection process later on, for some key reasons:
- Many schools are not set up to deal with collection of monies from parents
- The collection of arrears and management of insurance claims is time consuming
- There is a perception that it is worse of a parent does not pay a third-party company/ direct debit originator compared to the school their child goes to
- A classroom set of iPads or other digital devices is a big financial investment. These devices – if school owned – have to be asset tracked, insured and managed. Often this task will fall upon the school ICT Manager, who normally is always busy anyway
Why use the edde parent portal system as opposed to a solution offered directly by our supplier of equipment?
There are a number of suppliers of mobile learning devices to the education sector. The larger and more sophisticated of these computer companies have developed a basic parental portal system for their education customers to use. Many of these companies will argue they are also software developers and to be fair, many of them will employ people internally to develop and support software. We understand their logic as to why they wish to offer this scheme management service as well, and that is to keep control of the school customer.
However, this does not always work. These companies may be software developers to the education sector but typically they do not have the team to manage the system, to collect arrears and to keep control of insurance claims. Computer supplier are also not finance companies used to collecting income via direct debits or managing a lease portfolio.
edde’s history is originally a leasing company with nearly 30 years’ experience in asset finance and collection on rentals via direct debit and managing arrears / bad debt.
Suppliers parental portal systems are often basic as they do not have the experience of working with hundreds of schools introduced from many supplier of digital learning devices in the UK.