Nigel Milligan, IT manager to schools and businesses, gives his advice on how you can automate processes in your school to minimise your already busy workload
Read the full article below on page 29 in our January magazine
Does your school use Google Workspace or Office 365? The constant demands of creating new Users, or keeping track of who has left the school, can add even more to your already busy workload. I have discovered recently how many school business managers and other members of staff are managing the users in these systems. Why isn’t your IT support provider doing this as part of the service they provide? Here’s a simple answer.
The IT support team will, in most cases, happily manage the Microsoft users as part of the Windows server/clients that they love so much and don’t ever want to change; in many cases, they won’t entertain the idea of looking after a Google Workspace domain because there’s so much that can be done with Google to enhance and improve the overall experience in school.
There will have been many occasions where a new pupil has started, and nobody has informed you then, over a week or so later, a teacher will message you to ask where the login details are for this new pupil. Reflecting on my own experience of this process, you are 100% reliant on key members of staff telling you who is starting and leaving.
As you all know, life in school is so hectic and, even with the most organised processes and reminders in place, it’s so easy to overlook things. Automated sync tools should remove issues such as this and ensure that pupils and staff quickly have access to everything they need. The same efficiency works the other way too; when a pupil leaves and has been updated as having left in the MIS, their account in Google/Microsoft will be changed accordingly.
How do we automate the process?
There are a couple of excellent options to consider. Wonde and SalamanderSoft provide great tools that allow you to automate the creation of new pupil and staff users once they are in your MIS. They have Google and Microsoft Sync Tools that, once set up, will create users based on the preferences you create.
Their data management solution has been designed and built to integrate seamlessly with school MIS packages, ensuring data is securely maintained, managed and accessible. By continuously acquiring updates from schools and apps, you can be assured your data is accurate and timely. When it comes to protecting your data, they have comprehensive security and compliance processes in place, employing industry-standard practices and organisational control, so you can be confident that they will protect and defend your data.
Wonde and SalamanderSoft also provide many other sync services which can make a massive difference for your school. It’s certainly worth considering these solutions. They are affordable and, when you factor in the time saving element for your staff, the return on investment will be huge.
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