You are here:
What to look for in a management information system (MIS)
Use this list and input from your staff to help you develop a specification for your MIS.
When contracts come to an end it's good practice to re-procure, to make sure the product or service still meets your needs and gives you the best value for money.
Understand what you need
This document sets out the key features and functions you should be looking for in an MIS and in the provider.
When buying any product or service, you should involve the staff who'll be using it so you can make sure it meets their needs.
Give this list to relevant staff and ask them to feed back if there's anything missing that they feel they need - there's space at the bottom for them to comment.
The list, and the feedback from staff, will help you develop the specification you'll send to suppliers.
Remember hidden and ongoing costs
When you come to write your specification, it’ll be helpful for your planning and budgeting to have a good idea of the whole-life cost of the purchase. This also affects which procurement process you can use.
Remember there may be ‘hidden’ costs in addition to the initial purchase. Think about:
- Initial licence
- Annual maintenance fee
- Costs for any additional modules
- Support fee
- Consultancy fee
- Transfer costs, to move data to a new database
- Costs for additional licences
- Academisation costs
Find out more about how to buy products and services for your school and which procurement process you'll need to follow.
Thinking of switching?
ScholarPack is The Key's MIS for primary schools.
Find out more, or get in touch to book a demo.
More from The Key
Bitesize training with a big impact
Our on-demand training has your whole board covered and lets them learn at a time and pace that suits them.
Help your new governors hit the ground running with our expertly-designed induction training, and our role-specific courses support your link governors develop key skills and confidence in their role.
Upskill your staff, any time, anywhere with CPD Toolkit.
The most effective way to deliver engaging virtual training to support the professional development of your staff.
Downloadable courses and 5-minute online summaries provide flexibility for training, whether staff are participating in-school, via video call or independently at their own pace.
- In the news: Your weekly round-up for 4 to 11 June 2021 11 Jun 2021 08:00 New
- In the news: Your weekly round-up for 28 May to 4 June 2021 4 Jun 2021 08:00 New
- In the news: Your weekly round-up for 21 to 28 May 2021 28 May 2021 08:00 New
- In the news: Your weekly round-up for 14 to 21 May 2021 21 May 2021 08:00 New
- In the news: Your weekly round-up for 7 to 14 May 2021 14 May 2021 08:00
The Key has taken great care in publishing this article. However, some of the article's content and information may come from or link to third party sources whose quality, relevance, accuracy, completeness, currency and reliability we do not guarantee. Accordingly, we will not be held liable for any use of or reliance placed on this article's content or the links or downloads it provides. This article may contain information sourced from public sector bodies and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.