The Acado team · 3 min read
Every education ERP demo looks good. The screens are clean, the modules are many, and the salesperson has an answer for everything. What decides whether the office is still using the system two years later is rarely on the demo. It is in the questions below. Ask them of every vendor, including us.
1. Who owns our data, and can we take it with us?
The right answer is: you do, and yes, at any time, in a format you can use. Ask for it in writing. If a vendor hesitates, that tells you how leaving will go.
Acado: your institution owns its records. They are kept separate from every other institution's, backed up daily, and exportable whenever you ask, not only on the way out.
2. What happens on fee collection day when something breaks?
This is the question that matters most and is asked least. Who do you call, do they know your fee structure, and how long until someone who can fix it is looking at it?
Acado: a named contact who knows your setup, on call and remote through working hours, with priority on fee days, results days and the first week of a session, and an arrangement for urgent issues outside hours. How we support you.
3. Who moves our existing records across, and who checks them?
Migration is where most implementations slip. Ask who imports your student, staff and fee history, and who reconciles the opening balances against your ledger before you go live.
Acado: we do the import from your current system or spreadsheets, and your accountant signs off the reconciled balances before online collection is switched on.
4. Who trains our staff, and how?
A system nobody was trained on is a system nobody uses. Ask whether training is by role — the fee clerk learns the fee desk, class teachers learn attendance and marks — and what happens for staff who join mid-year.
Acado: role-by-role sessions, on site or remote, with a recorded session for later joiners.
5. What do parents without a smartphone get?
Every vendor has a parent app. Not every parent has a smartphone, and the ones who do not are often the ones the institution most needs to reach.
Acado: SMS carries what must arrive — absence alerts, fee reminders, exam and result notices — alongside the app.
6. If we run more than one campus, is it one system or several?
Groups are often sold several copies of the same software with a report stapled on top. Ask whether the group office sees every campus from one sign-in, and whether each principal still runs their own.
Acado: one platform, every campus of a group on one dashboard, each campus with its own programmes, fee structures and staff. Acado for groups.
7. What exactly is in the annual fee, and what is not?
Ask for the licence, the setup, migration and training as separate line items, so you can see what year two actually costs. Ask what happens to the price when student numbers change.
Acado: an annual licence sized on student numbers and the modules you use, plus a one-time setup fee for configuration, migration and training, itemised in a written proposal before anything starts.
If you would like these answers for your own institution, with your fee structure and class list on the screen, book a 30-minute demo.