IRIS Software Group has announced a strategic technology partnership with EPM, the industry-leading education service provider. EPM delivers services to more than 2,500 Schools and 250 Trusts across the UK. It will now leverage EveryHR By IRIS. It is an HR solution designed to maximise performance and improve strategic decision-making in schools and MATs alongside those services.
Jen Elliott, CEO of EPM, commented, “We’re excited to work with IRIS Software Group as a strategic technology partner to support our clients to improve educational outcomes. With our 30-year heritage, we will continue to focus on providing the best service experience to clients and harness this with a robust technology solution that complements our market-leading administration, advisory and consultancy service.”
Existing customers of EPM will see increased automation as the software is rolled out with an improved user experience. What isn’t clear from the announcement is the timeline for this.
However, once fully deployed, it will allow the EPM team of experts to spend more time delivering strategic benefits to education establishments rather than manually analysing and reporting.
The press release did not indicate which modules would be used by EPM across its customer portfolio. However, it is an evolution of how EPM will deliver its services.
Elliott added, “Change in the education sector is constant, making it crucial for leaders to have access to data and insights that help save time and allow them to stay one step ahead. We want to make sure our services are based on the best partnerships. Most importantly, this partnership provides us with scalability and opportunities to adapt and increase our service provision as our clients grow.”
EveryHR delivers
This is a useful partnership for IRIS Software to see its software used by even more establishments. The full EveryHR software suite includes several features that EPM and its clients can take advantage of:
- Employee Management
- Online Employee Portal
- Single Central Record to support Ofsted inspections
- School Workforce Census feature
- Documents and Policies storage
- Staff Absence Management
- Case Management
- Performance management
- Training, CPD, and E-Learning tracking
Simon Freeman, MD of Education at IRIS, commented, “We’re delighted to be working with EPM. Education leaders want and need to manage every aspect of the essential running of a school or Trust in real-time. Combined with the exceptional EPM service, our next-generation technology allows educators to do just that – connect people with data to create intelligent insights, helping them make better decisions and deliver smarter outcomes for pupils.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean?
This is a very useful partnership for IRIS Software to see its software used more effectively in a wider set of schools. In 2021 it was used by over 300 schools, and that number will now increase substantially. For EPM, it gives it access to technology that can only help it deliver its extensive services to schools and trusts across the UK.
A lot is missing from this announcement. How will it deploy the solutions, and what costs will schools incur? There is also nothing about whether this solution replaces an existing one and how long the transition will take. If EPM delivers a case study or even a video story about this, it will be fascinating. With 29,682 maintained schools across the UK (2021/22), this potentially gives IRIS a huge boost in the number of schools it covers. Can it persuade other service companies to adopt its software?
