However, there are data releases during the year, and while they reveal less, they're usually worth a quick look.
And that is indeed the case with the January 2018 census figures, which I've just got hold of. Unsurprisingly, there isn't a great deal of movement (not many schools choose to move MIS over Christmas), but there are useful nuggets of information that can be gleaned from the data nonetheless.
But first, here's the table of the latest data, alongside the October 2017 numbers for reference:
To summarise:
- Scholarpack, Pupil Asset, Bromcom and Arbor all keep growing, continuing impressive trends we've seen consistently now for five years.
- SIMS and Advanced Learning continue to see falls, though with SIMS, it should be remembered that when you start with an 80% market share, a 56 school net decrease is equivalent to a 0.3% drop, so is hardly reason for panic.
- RM and Schoolpod held steady, though RM's pre-existing 10% market share and firmly embedded status as the second largest vendor in the UK will make them the happier of the two with this state of affairs.
- iSAMS isn't yet showing much traction with English state schools, though it should be noted that their business is much more focused on the independent sector, which this dataset does not cover.
A final note: in my day job I run Assembly, a schools data platform that has relationships with most of the companies mentioned above. For that reason, I stick to data-driven observations in these posts to help people interpret the data, and I don't personally express MIS preferences or offer recommendations.
