Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Technology Integration Provides Greater Success in Education

In today’s interconnected world, businesses, organizations, and even individuals rely heavily on a multitude of systems to manage and streamline their operations and lives. Nowhere is this more evident than in the education sector, where schools juggle multiple platforms to track student data, attendance, assignments, and more. With limited budgets they’re often implementing just-in-time technology solutions that may not work well within their whole ecosystems.

Just as teamwork is essential for success, ensuring that a school’s technology systems can talk to each other – or talk to just one customer-facing system – is crucial for enhancing the experience for parents and students, assisting parents and administration alike to catch kids before they fall through the cracks, and better reporting for school systems.

Calmer, Less Stressed Parents

Imagine a scenario where a parent needs to check on their child’s attendance, upcoming assignments, and lunch account balance. Without integrated systems, information about their student is coming to them in a myriad of ways (email, text, that app with the questionable UI). Maybe there’s even three different systems to log into and none of them accept the same password requirements. This disjointed experience not only wastes time (like parents had any extra to spare to begin with) but also creates frustration for parents who would likely kiss the team who made this part of their life easier. Instead, assignments are missed and students get left out because that one email about Spirit Week was overshadowed by the dozens of emails in Mom’s inbox. Wrangling kids for a successful school experience is hard enough without adding to the confusion.

Getting systems to talk to each other is hard. It’s obviously a challenge or we wouldn’t see this problem so often across industries. While we think it’s a good thing that there’s not one monopoly platform that handles all your data in this case (it’s a good thing for information privacy that applications stay in their lane and don’t like to talk to each other) it doesn’t mean we can’t provide parents and teachers a better digest of their students’ information.

It is possible to implement a front-end user interface that can integrate with multiple other systems. And Vertical can help. It’s a gamechanger for the harried, exhausted parent who doesn’t need five more logins or two more phone numbers to keep track of. Just imagine calling the school hotline and after putting in your kid’s ID number just once, you hear this:

“Good morning! Here are the highlights for Sally. She has a World History assignment due on April 11th. April 8^th is Solar Eclipse Day, please make sure your child is dressed for the weather as our festivities are happening on the football field rain or shine.”

Mind blowing. Easy. All the things you need to stay informed and manage your kid’s education right there, all together. No more accidentally ignored emails. No more repeatedly putting your password into that one app that always makes you reset it each time you try to log in. Interact with the school in the way you want to – voice call, chat, email, text message – just once and you’re done. It’s all there. Use all that time you just saved to daydream about all the other ways the information in your life could be so easily presented.

When data is brought together harmoniously, customer experiences are transformed. Parents can choose one touch point and immediately get all relevant information in one place. They can quickly see if their child has any upcoming assignments, whether they were present at school, and even manage their lunch account without the hassle of switching between multiple applications. This is not only time saving but also enhances the overall experience, fostering a sense of trust in the school system.

Easing the Communication Headaches for Teachers and Administrators

When you make it easy for a parent to get the information they need when they need it, it means less emails and calls to teachers and administrators fielding those simple questions. Teachers get to focus on parent interactions that help build the parent/teacher relationship and help students thrive.

Remember the rocks in a jar metaphor from Franklin Covey where you can’t fit all the big important rocks in if you’ve started filling your jar with the small rocks first? (If not, it’s just 4 minutes long on YouTube.) Imagine how many more big rocks you’d be able to focus on in your day if you and your staff weren’t filling up on those small but ever-persistent rocks?

Reporting that Doesn’t Suck

Another game-changing benefit of having interconnected systems is (drumroll, please) BETTER REPORTS! Let’s face it – if your systems don’t talk to each other, your reporting sucks and you don’t have the ability to make data-driven decisions.

With integrated reporting, you’ll be able to see though which channel your community is engaging with you most- voice, chat, email, texts. Providing multiple channels allows parents to interact in the way that works best for them. Vertical can provide a common platform through which all those channels are coordinated.

Conclusion

In essence, the adage “teamwork makes the dream work” holds true for technology as well. Just as effective collaboration among individuals can lead to greater success, streamlined systems can significantly enhance the user experience of customer-facing processes in any organization. For schools, ensuring that their various systems can communicate with each other is not just a matter of convenience; it’s a fundamental step toward creating a cohesive and supportive environment for parents, students, and educators alike. As technology continues to evolve, prioritizing integration and interoperability is crucial for staying ahead of the curve and delivering exceptional value to the community.

By prioritizing integration and interoperability, educational institutions can build a foundation for enhanced student experiences, informed decision-making, and stronger partnerships between educators, parents, and the broader community. As we continue to embrace technological advancements, let us remember that teamwork truly makes the dream work, not only for individuals but in shaping the future of education and therefore our society.

Get those bonus brownie points for making parents’ lives easier. We can help you build a communication system that can talk to all your data and deliver it more seamlessly to your customers or customer service agents. Whether you’re a school or a business, we’ve got you covered.

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