We explored solutions supported in the education market. It was important the vendor knew the market that we were in. We looked at their ability to integrate to SSO, Active Directory and the other systems we were already running in our school.
Elcom stood out to us. They were the only vendor that had already built integration into Synergetic and Canvas. With both being such complex systems, the proven development work and design, was a big plus. They could also custom build models for me and pull data out of other systems down the track. For example, integrating to our library system to show a list of books students have loaned out.
With the thorough development process and the backend support provided, we knew Elcom was the right choice for us. We were constantly asking for changes and nothing was ever too much for them. Every deadline for a deliverable was met and we were impressed with the level of site testing they did.
We now have a school portal for staff, parents and students. As a first point of call, users log onto the portal, Ametur, and it gives them a snapshot of their school related information. We also have SSO to other systems, so users don’t have to keep inputting their credentials again.
Notices is the big one for us. Staff don’t have the ability to send emails to all staff or students, so notices is the only way to communicate with everyone. Notices submitted by staff go through an automated approval process and can be published for everyone or selected groups.
We've never had an online school calendar or timetable before. Now teachers and students can see what their timetable is wherever they are, on any device. If there's a change, we simply update the calendar or timetable and publish a notice to notify relevant users.
Currently we pull the timetable out of Synergetic onto the portal in real-time. As a second phase, we’ll pull through the student reports and the reports staff regularly use, as well as students’ birthdays and a list of extras or yard duties staff have for the day. Parents will also have the ability to mark their daughter absent from school, notify us if their child is arriving late and update medical information.
With the Canvas integration, we can show students any tasks due and feedback from assignments they’ve handed in or had graded. Parents can see this along with the current grades for their daughter(s). The Canvas product for parents is quite confusing especially if they have more than one child. Now they can easily select a daughter on the portal and view a summary of information from Canvas.
We use the online forms and workflows to manage applications. For leave requests, the person requesting the leave and finance are notified. We will also be looking at integrating this with Synergetic in the staff records section.