TO: Barbara Means
FROM: Austin Lasseter
DATE: October 27, 2009
RE: “Can we get more info on companies that claim to provide enterprise solutions for K-12?”
Dear Barbara,
I believe that “enterprise solutions” is used somewhat interchangeably with terms like “enterprise
management system,” “enterprise software,” and “solutions architecture.” This family of school-related
software products seems to be an outgrowth of the original IT function in schools: the Student
Information Systems (SIS), which continues to be the most important function of any “enterprise
solutions” product.
As far as I can tell, a lot of companies offer this product to K-12 schools. The same companies also offer
similar services to colleges & universities as well as business organizations. From what I gathered, the
leader in K-12 services is a company called Pearson. Two recent reports exist that claim to describe the
playing field in K-12 Enterprise Management (Eduventure, and Wilson & Nelson) but both reports are
very expensive to access in full.
I hope this is helpful; I confess I never heard of “enterprise solutions” before yesterday so some of this
may be way off target. Hope it helps.
Austin
Outline of the Brief:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
History
Trends in K-12 Enterprise Management Software
Trends in K-12 Student Information Systems (SIS)
Key Players
Important Resources
Appendix: Terms
1. History:
a. Ten years ago, the Student Information System (SIS) was the only mission-critical
academic application that most campus IT departments had to worry about.
b. Then colleges and universities began adding Learning Management Systems (LMSs).
LMSs provided universities with enterprise systems that could support core academic
processes of teaching and learning for the first time, but they needed course and
student registration information from the SIS in order to do so. Integration was
retrofitted to SISs for this purpose.
c. Campus IT departments have often struggled to maintain just the one integration
between the SIS and the LMS. Now they are facing demands to support dozens of
integrations. They need a new architecture that will break down application silos.
d. Therefore, college & K-12 IT departments are now outsourcing this architecture to
provider companies, which often refer to themselves as “Academic Enterprise
Solutions” companies. (See: oracle).
2. Trends in K-12 Enterprise Management
a. Trends in enterprise software & technology services for all businesses
i. a $1.8 billion industry in 2009
ii. expected to grow annually at a modest 5% to 7% over the next few years.
iii. Corporations are seeking an integrated enterprise approach to data
management
iv. Schools are imitating corporations in this regard
b. Survey of district officials (Eduventure Report)
i. Ninety-one percent of district officials indicated that it is important "to integrate
academic and administrative data from various district technology systems."
ii. Similarly, 90% agreed that "a K-12 enterprise management approach would
enable their district to be more effective on behalf of its students."
c. Data warehouse in a K-12 enterprise management platform:
i. financial
ii. human resources
iii. facilities management
iv. school and student characteristics
v. instructional practices
vi. assessment strategies
vii. professional development
viii. student achievement results.
d. Perceptions of district leaders about enterprise management software
i. Growth of K-12 enterprise management software is fueled by NCLB data
reporting demands
ii. districts ranked stakeholder access to (92%) and reporting of (87%) key data, as
well as time-savings (87%), as among the strongest perceived benefits of
enterprise systems.
iii. district staff is relatively less confident in the potential of enterprise
management systems to improve instruction, increase student performance, or
enhance teacher preparedness.
iv. Districts are responding directly to the need for solutions to the immediate
reporting-related challenges
v. Providers of enterprise solutions have not yet succeeded in providing a
compelling argument regarding the link between effective enterprise data
management and systemic strategies to raise student performance.
3. Trends in K-12 Student Information Systems (SIS)
a. The ARRA stimulus funds will probably spur an unusually large purchase of SIS and Data
Warehouses next summer.
b. Four ways of calculating market share.
c. Open source software like OpenSIS is having a rough go breaking into the K-12
education market.
4. Some Key Players in the Market for K-12 Student Information Systems (SIS)
a. SIS market is dominated by Pearson
i. Controls greater market share than any other SIS company
ii. Previously offered one software product called School (for Mac and Win)
iii. Recently absorbed its two nearest competitors Powerschool and Chancery
iv. “There is a great deal of movement in the tier below Pearson – the acquisitions
pulled two of the stronger second tier companies out of the mix and others
have taken advantage of the void. Details are in the report.” Source.
b. Lawson
i. Largest district in South Carolina contracts with Lawson: Report
c. Eduventures
d. Oracle AES
e. SAS Education
5. Important Resources:
a. SIS Trends and Opportunity report from 2003.
b. Oracle White Paper
c. Eduventures' report, Trends in K-12 Enterprise Management: Are Districts Ready to
Cross the Chasm?
i. Press Release
ii. Summary
iii. Only available through purchase
d.
Wilson & Nelson 2009
i.
“The only comprehensive market research report on Student Information
Systems and Data Warehouses in the K-12 education market.”
ii.
Press Release on publication of report
iii.
Table of Contents, very helpful.
iv.
Access to the full report costs $3000
v.
Authors are planning to publish a follow-up report
APPENDIX: TERMS
The phrase “enterprise solutions” is amalgamated from several other buzz words currently popular in IT:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
“enterprise”
a. In the business world, “enterprise” refers to the whole organization, as opposed to just
a “department”
b. In the computer industry, an enterprise is an organization that uses computers. A word
was needed that would encompass corporations, small businesses, non-profit
institutions, government bodies, and possibly other kinds of organizations. The term
enterprise seemed to do the job. In practice, the term is applied much more often to
larger organizations than smaller ones.
c. The term may now be used to mean virtually anything large and corporate, by virtue of
it having become the latest corporate-speak buzzword.
“enterprise system”
a. A system that supports enterprise-wide or cross-functional requirements, rather than a
single department or group within the organization.
b. A software product designed to integrate computer systems that run all phases of an
enterprise's operations to facilitate cooperation and coordination of work across the
enterprise. The intent is to integrate core business processes (such as sales, accounting,
finance, human resources, inventory and manufacturing). The ideal enterprise system
could control all major business processes in real time via a single software architecture.
“enterprise information system”
a. Enterprise Information Systems provide a technology platform that enables
organizations to integrate and coordinate their business processes. They provide a
single system that is central to the organization and ensure that information can be
shared across all functional levels and management hierarchies. Enterprise systems are
invaluable in eliminating the problem of information fragmentation caused by multiple
information systems in an organization, by creating a standard data structure.
b. A typical Enterprise Information System would be housed in one or more Data centers ,
run Enterprise software, and could include applications such as Content management
systems and typically cross organizational borders.
“enterprise software”
a. Enterprise software, also known as enterprise application software (EAS), is intended
to solve an enterprise problem (rather than a departmental problem)
b. Due to the cost of building what is often proprietary software, only large enterprises
attempt to build such enterprise software that models the entire business enterprise
and is the core IT system of governing the enterprise and the core of communication
within the enterprise.
“strategic enterprise management”
a. Strategic Enterprise Management (SEM) refers to the management techniques, metrics
and related tools (such as computer software) designed to assist companies in making
high-level (strategic) decisions.
b. a business using SEM would incorporate a strategic information system, to manage
information and assist in strategic decision making.
i. A strategic information system has been defined as, "The information system to
support or change enterprise's strategy."
6. “enterprise architecture”
a. To some, "enterprise architecture" refers either to the structure of a business, or the
documents and diagrams that describe that structure.
b. To others, "enterprise architecture" refers to the business methods that seek to
understand and document that structure.
c. Enterprise architecture is a complete expression of the enterprise; a master plan which
“acts as a collaboration force” between aspects of business planning such as goals,
visions, strategies and governance principles; aspects of business operations such as
business terms, organization structures, processes and data; aspects of automation such
as information systems and databases; and the enabling technological infrastructure of
the business such as computers, operating systems and networks.
7. “solutions architecture”
a. a kind of architecture domain, that aims to address specific problems and requirements,
usually through the design of specific information systems or applications.
b. The solution described may be all or part of what an enterprise architect's migration
plan delivers. The solution might be unrelated to any such plan. Solution architecture
often leads to software architecture work[2] and technical architecture work, and often
contains elements of those.
The following image from the 2006 FEA Practice Guidance of US OMB sheds light on the relationship
between enterprise architecture and segment(BPR) or Solution architectures.