SchoolBase Case study

• Which Furlong product are you currently using?

We use SchoolBase and Maestro, with some elements of FeeMaster.

• What were some of the challenges you were facing before using our products?

I have been with the school for 15 years and for the first 10 we ran our own bespoke in-house system which our IT director developed.

I took over when he retired and started thinking about moving the system to an online system. It became apparent that between the access required, the cost of staff to develop it and the front-end web development required, this just wasn’t a sustainable option. 

• What were your reasons for choosing SchoolBase?

I did some research and went to the Head and said we needed an off-the-shelf system as they were much stronger than they were 10 years ago. We went through a tender process and narrowed it down to two choices. Having had a bespoke system before, we really wanted a system that could be flexible and adaptable.

The level of flexibility that SchoolBase offered ultimately led to us choosing to go with Furlong.

• How do you find the communication between yourself and the Furlong Solutions team?

There are lots of nice relationships building. The help desk is great, if you log a call, you get a response. If it’s short and quick then they let you know. Communication, in general, is very good, if it’s a bigger issue you need to book a time but that makes sense.

They are very honest about looking to partner with people which is great.

• What do you value the most about SchoolBase?

I really value the bespoke nature of SchoolBase and its flexibility. I also like that I can engage with the Director - who listens! - or Furlong’s Account Managers, who are the same. The world isn’t perfect, sometimes you need to rant and rave and it feels like they actually listen. 

The product has a great deal of flexibility. We approached Furlong in lockdown and asked if we could do online parents' evenings. They suggested that this was not an area that SchoolBase would be developing as there were others who specialised in that arena.

At that point, we were trialling School Cloud which we were planning to use for parents' evenings. Furlong helped us integrate School Cloud into SchoolBase to simplify the whole process. The response time for this was great.