A student information system should be fast and easy to navigate for the entire school community, especially from what we’ve learned during the pandemic. Another key issue for schools that must be addressed is that software providers need to keep costs low, affordable, clear and obvious, with no hidden modules or extras. This is what Patrice Peyre, CEO and Founder of MySchool believes.
We sat down with Patrice to learn more about his thoughts and inspiration for creating MySchool as an easy-to-use, unified platform, what Patrice has learned from his own customers’ experiences, and what changes need to happen in the education sector, post-COVID.
What inspired you to create MySchool?
“I read an article in the New York Times which said parents were more obsessed with their childrens’ grades than the performance of their stock portfolio. I thought that was rubbish. Then a couple of weeks later I read another article saying how much money parents spend on their childrens’ education. As I’d just finished my MBA, my mind was full of business ideas at the time, and these articles made me sure that I could reinvent something. So I said to myself, what if I invent a really cool school management system?
Originally, I thought of creating a new system that was free to use for schools, with a subscription service only for their parents to access it. That way, schools can make money from their school management software – the bigger the school, the more parents would be using it, resulting in a higher revenue. I thought it was a really good idea… but it didn’t work out. Why? Because the question I found myself asking was: why should parents pay for the system on top of tuition fees and taxes too? What would this mean to disadvantaged parents? The concept of a parent who couldn’t afford to access their own child’s school’s system really bothered me.
I consider myself to be a socialist super-nerd. I believe in accessibility for all as school funding is low and we need to create an equal society in the education sector. It’s not the school’s fault if they don’t have the same money as another school has, and it’s not the parents’ fault if they can’t afford the platform. Instead, I decided to design a more classical SaaS with a payment system that was affordable for schools, with a subscription based on the number of students.”
What stood out to you about the quality and performance of other school management systems?
“When it came to other platforms on the market – they were really terrible! I was really disappointed by how complicated the interface for a student information system was. Overall, they were antiquated and incredibly unhelpful to the person who uses the system. To be honest, I was convinced I could do something better than that. From working within large corporations, I knew that existing School Information Systems (SISes) were missing quite a few tricks. They were clearly using really old technology; there were so many tools and so many options that were missing that could make the experience more unified for administrators, teachers, IT managers, and parents. What I was seeing were disconnected systems and bad user experiences, which, most importantly, was offering very little value to the schools that were using them. A computer system’s only purpose is, and should be, to make people’s lives easier.”
What is the biggest issue with school management systems that you’ve heard directly from schools?
“We are constantly being told that schools are having to use multiple systems to manage their school data. We were recently contacted by a school in Cincinnati who told us they had to deal with three payment gateways. Not one payment gateway, but three! One gateway was specifically to process payments from Chinese international students, another to manage donations, and a third to deal with US-based tuition fees. They also had separate platforms for admissions, email communications, and even job postings – it was crazy! We offer everything from one platform with MySchool, making it the ‘sum that exceeds the value of all its parts’.
When you can see data from both the Individual Education Plan (IEP) and the assignment platform in the same place – suddenly teachers have a better insight into their students. Then, if you link this to the behaviour platform, the legal platform and the students’ medical records, you get access to concise and relevant information which is readily available to educators. This is designed to make their lives so much easier. Schools will also have a clearer view of their resource and events management, as well as attendance and accounting platforms, to reduce unnecessary work for their back office team. Can you believe that the average number of systems a school uses is 42? 42! And none of these systems talk to each other! Again, it’s crazy.”
This is why Patrice is so passionate about the user experience of a school management system…
“I love software development. It’s something I get really frustrated and passionate about when I’m talking. It’s as if you’re designing buildings, like an architect. Living in a nice building is important; having a functional building that makes everything easier because life is too short. Work is important too, but your life is more so.
When you’re working, I believe it must be fulfilling and simple to do. My job is to make lives easier. As a life purpose, it makes me feel good to remove that dredge from people’s lives.”
How would you say COVID has impacted schools and their experience in adapting to using student information software remotely?
“When schools were closed we collectively hit a brick wall. Few schools were truly prepared and many governments supported schools with solutions to migrate from in-class teaching to online learning. However, there are instances that require automation and integrated systems to be in place. For example, the class enrolment process requires a lot of data and there wasn’t a lot of flexibility in place for schools to do this remotely. While the tools were there, it was a huge pain to shift all their student data and establish best practices regarding online education.”
Moving forward and beyond the pandemic, what needs to happen in order to support educators?
“I think educators need support and training materials to effectively manage online learning – if we need to continue with online or blended learning, post-COVID. There needs to be a seamless transition from in-class to remote learning because there are so many aspects of remote class management that are different. For example, from the social element to keeping students focused and sharing content, etc. I think research on how to really use online learning effectively is an important move forward.”
What process still needs to be changed (and you’re still shocked that it still exists)?
“I can’t believe forms are still available online that parents must print off, complete, submit to the school, then have an administrator manually transcribe and input the data into the school management system. It doesn’t make sense! Schools should have access to an online admissions system which is easy to use and customizable to their school’s needs, enabling the relevant questions to be asked of parents, and thereby reducing the workload for administrators.
Administrators have better things to do than to upload data from forms and re-enter the information onto their system. The responsibility should sit with the parents who are passionate and want to give schools accurate information about their child: medical information, legal consent, etc. It will remove the burden from the administrator’s shoulders. All schools must have an online admissions system – not using pieces of paper.”
What are your thoughts on the anxieties surrounding online security following the rise of cyberattacks in the education sector?
“I personally think these anxieties are fully justified and school administrators shouldn’t be responsible for protecting systems from these vulnerabilities. There are professionals who source solutions for banks and national agencies… and they get it wrong! It’s too vast and complex. Cybersecurity is a beast of a subject and I don’t think schools are equipped with the knowledge and the resources to protect their systems. I think outsourcing to third parties who specialize in online security is the way to go.
At MySchool, we have the knowledge and resources to protect systems. They are monitored by our staff, who are trained to deal with cyberattacks and social engineering, which includes contingency plans. Even if we do experience an attack, we have the expertise to rebuild and recover from it. Security is part of our background and daily fabric with a mindset that is always ‘security first’. This benefits our customers because running a school is hard enough, without having to worry about online security. That’s an unfair ask for schools. It isn’t an unfair ask for the suppliers – like us – who are providing a service.
My worst nightmare is having a scammer called Igor calling me at 4 AM asking for $400,000 – or else! It could happen even though I’m very careful. If the FBI or the CIA gets hacked. It could happen, you know?”.
Find out more about MySchool’s clear and affordable pricing story and how your school can spring clean your processes and reclaim your energy to educate with a cutting-edge and unified school management system here.
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