A Perth-based pioneer of calendar-based apps that transform school communications and boost parental engagement, is eyeing rapid growth after winning scores of high-profile contracts in its first full year of trading.
The Apps Central school app has also won praise from the Welsh schools minister Huw Lewis, who said that the adoption in economically disadvantaged Ebbw Vale: "Will improve engagement between the school, pupils, parents and the wider community and improve the life chances of our learners."
Apps Central is the brainchild of former Saatchi's and Airmiles marketer and serial tech entrepreneur Mick Empson. It is chaired by the former Noble Group director and venture capitalist Charles McMicking.
The company already has 75 schools signed up for its software and accompanying management tool, and is fine-tuning strategies to capture a major portion of the 30,000 primary and secondary schools throughout the UK.
Empson told the Sunday Herald that if the firm won "even 5% of UK schools I would be very happy. Once you break even, our model becomes exponentially profitable and therefore very attractive to investors."
App Central developed its product last year in partnership with Edinburgh-based developers xDesign, part-funded by £300,000 in equity finance from Coburg Capital. As well as its UK contracts, it has a handful of overseas school subscriptions in Thailand, Zambia and Costa Rica, and is preparing a major overseas sales drive.
The company is also considering diversification strategies, including moves into the UK nursery sector, as well as more generalised community groups, where it has won early customers.
Using their smartphone or tablet , the app allows users to view a live calendar of all school meetings, events and activities, and to filter material relevant by school group , year group, or type of sport. The app also provides detailed events information, location maps of events linked to satnavs, It enables the sharing of events by social media and to receive updated information on contingencies such as late buses or changes to normal school day. The platform will also send messages out to select groups, take live feeds from the school website, and access all contact details, lunch menus, school brochures,
Versions of the app can be tailored to the needs and branding requirements of specific schools for an annual fee of between £600-£1200 a year, an easy-maintenance subscription model designed, according to Empson "to make the unaffordable affordable."
Adaptable for Android and Apple Platforms, and managed by the schools themselves with an web based management tool, the app claims to promote parental engagement in their childrens' school life and learning. The optimising of the software has been streamlined by App Central's collection of data on how people interact with school apps.
Empson said: "Schools are very hard to sell to because they are busy places. We do a lot of our marketing by email using specialised education marketing companies. Our customer referral programme is bearing fruit. At the moment we are still in market creation mode as people don't yet realise they need our product."
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