Reflecting on the past three years of using Bromcom
Since we last checked in with the trust, Joanne was happy to report that they’ve had a very positive experience with Bromcom.
“Everybody’s happy with Bromcom MIS.” Joanne says. “I’ve spoken to staff across all the trust’s schools recently and heard lots of great feedback for Bromcom, mainly about how it’s so efficient and that it saves them time and money. In fact, it’s sped up administrative tasks so significantly that when admin staff have moved on from a school, we don’t need to hire replacements.”
She had particularly good feedback for our support offering, namely the fact that Bromcom offered in-person, 1-to-1 training for new starters, and that their Customer Success Manager has been so helpful.
“If we have any issues,” she continues, “I know we can go to our Customer Success Manager, Louise, who will happily chase up solutions or even conduct sessions with the team, like she did when we had some queries about attendance. She’s even coming down for a town hall with my Business Managers and Bursars soon, which we’re all really looking forward to.”
Transitioning away from third-party apps
St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Diocesan MAT uses our One-Stop Shop MIS, giving them unrivalled access to the most comprehensive range of features on the market and enabling them to cut costs by doing away with expensive third-party apps. Last year, Joanne made it her mission to get all the schools using their new MIS to its full advantage.
“We started slowly,” Joanne shares, “encouraging staff to start using the modules like Online Payments and Communication in February 2024 and making it compulsory to use all the modules by that September.”
While they don’t technically use all the modules – they still use their pre-Bromcom safeguarding app and an app for assessment – they have reported back a very smooth transition process and lots of positive feedback about our modules’ capabilities.
“MyChildAtSchool is fantastic. Parents love that you can do everything in one place like manage trips, school clubs, and pay for things from an app or web browser. It’s also a great example of how Bromcom has saved us time: we used to have a spreadsheet for managing Breakfast Club, for instance, but now we can quickly print off a report.”
One of the key factors behind this smooth transition has ultimately been how easy Bromcom is to use, Joanne says:
“Bromcom is very simple to navigate and you can quite easily work your way around it. I’ve had some staff who have been using our old MIS for 20 years who did the training and figured out how to use the MIS with no hassle.”
Even though they haven’t fully moved over to One-Stop Shop, their third-party apps are testament to how well Bromcom integrates with different systems and how flexible our MIS can be to your needs.
“Don’t be afraid of switching MIS”
To round off our conversation with Joanne, we asked her what advice she would give to schools and trusts considering their MIS options.
“Shop around. Speak to people already using the systems you’re interested in and ask all the right questions.” Joanne says. “Most importantly, don’t be afraid of switching MIS – it’s not as scary as you think! Change is good, and if you switch to an easy-to-use MIS like Bromcom’s, you can be sure that your staff will figure things out themselves and quickly come up to speed with the new system.”
Learn more about Bromcom’s One-Stop Shop MIS
Over 3000 primary schools and 390 MATs across the UK use Bromcom MIS and are benefiting from streamline processes, time savings, and lower costs. You can find out more about the MIS and our range of solutions for schools, trusts, and local authorities on our website.