Delivering secure records management to the education industry with GilbyIM

Outcomes

Provide secure, GDPR-compliant record keeping to two schools at the same time

Reduce tasks by integrating with the schools’ Management Information System

Enable fully digital records and agile working

The challenge

To be able to scan paper records to an Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS) without the need to repeat the pupil data that was stored in the Management Information System (MIS).

About the Madani Boys School & the Madani Girls Schools

Memoona Lakhi the school admissions officer at the Madani Boys School and the Madani Girls School explained that the “Two schools are Voluntary Aided (VA) faith schools, based on one site, located in Leicester.  Student numbers are currently 390 on roll per school – we are currently expanding Number On Roll (NOR) in Y7 each year by an additional 30 (from 60 – 90) with the intention of the maximum capacity in each school of 450 by 2024 entry”.

The need to free up space taken by paper records

Paper records take up space, and need a lot of manual handling, especially in the school environment. Each year a new intake of pupils arrives, then each year group goes up a year, and the year 11 files need to go into storage as the pupils have left. Memoona explain “Both our schools are small, with limited space.  Archiving student records was becoming problematic – as well as difficulty in locating files once archived – the archive room was filled with too many boxes!  Additionally, with the increase in NOR space is becoming problematic for keeping current student records.  We are gradually moving all student records onto GilbyIM.”

The CIO of GilbyIM Neal O’Kelly explained “Initially, this created a huge challenge for us. Pupils move academic years and tutor groups and we needed to reflect this in GilbyIM. Fileplans are static so we needed a way to move the folders.”

Connecting to the MIS

The solution was to connect with their MIS Bromcom, which already contained the information needed. What’s more changes carried out in the MIS could be reflected in GilbyIM in real time, meaning changes in name, tutor group, starters and leavers could all be managed in one place.

O’Kelly said “We used a product that already connects to the leading 20+ school MIS, meaning we can now provide an integrated service to 25,000 UK schools, so this project was a huge step forward for both GilbyIM and schools of all sizes”

Another benefit was that details didn’t need to input into both the MIS and the records system, which reduced duplication of effort and taking time away from other vital tasks. Memoona said “Connecting to our MIS was important to us, we needed to ensure that all our students were recorded on GilbyIM.”

O’Kelly explained “The cost of administrating an EDRMS would be too high for most schools. But GilbyIM is built in conjunction with schools, for schools, and with their budgets in mind. We have gone to great lengths to keep costs low. We have been able to automate many of the maintenance tasks, and introduced self-service for the most common tickets we receive. This allows staff to get on with the important work of teaching and running the school.”

Delivery of GilbyIM

GilbyIM was delivered over the half term. Before staff went on leave, an online meeting took place to discuss the Madani Schools unique requirements and clarifications were resolved via email.  Thanks to the MIS integration this gave staff a fully functional system, populated with a range of folders per pupil, each with its own targeted security and retentions schedules.  Memoona commented “The service we received was fantastic, it was delivered efficiently, with all queries fully answered and support provided throughout the process.”

“We are a very happy customer; I would definitely recommend GilbyIM to other schools”

Real benefits

“The project has delivered exactly what we wanted, we have moved our records online and freed up much needed space” said Memoona “Additionally, our records are better organised, records can be located easily and are GDPR-compliant. We are a very happy customer, I would definitely recommend GilbyIM to other schools.” O’Kelly said “The rollout of GilbyIM to the Madani Schools is one of our most important to date, due to the MIS integration. We now have helped primary, secondary, special and hospital school types, manage a range of records such as Safeguarding, Pupil, HR, Contractual and Financial records.