Until recently, Cloud School was billed by Advanced Learning as “the next generation Cloud based Management Information System (MIS) for Primaries, Secondaries and MATs.”
How ironic then, that on the final day of February this year, customer schools of Advanced received an e-mail announcing that the product was approaching its ‘end-of-life’:
“After much consideration and following a strategic review of our product portfolio, we have decided to end-of-life Cloud School. […] Your access to Cloud School and its support will continue until 31 August 2023 enabling you to plan a migration to an alternative supplier of your choice.”
Should schools have seen it coming?
Looking back in time, Facility CMIS was an old-school, locally deployed MIS by Serco Learning that was used in many schools. In 2008, a new online MIS prototype was unveiled with some fanfare at a lavish event at the British Library. It was bold and ambitious, but never fully launched.
Then at Bett 2012, following a “£20million-plus investment in education” Progresso came to market. Serco claimed it had been developed in conjunction with over 2,000 schools and was set “to replace 20th century systems with powerful 21st century cloud-based technology, boasting a multitude of new and enhanced features.”
At the end of 2012, Serco Learning was acquired by Advanced Computer Software Group and Advanced Learning was formed in 2013.
The following decade would be one of year-on-year decline in customer numbers.
In 2012 Advanced inherited over 1,200 schools. In 2022, this number was 161.
On receipt of their e-mail at the end of February, one busy Network Manager bemoaned on Edugeek that it was “gonna be a busy few months for a lot of us”.
Perhaps they should have seen the writing on the wall?
