Continuous development isn’t something you can just think of every now and then, especially for EdTech companies that accelerate digital transformation; they need to be on their toes. We need to make our products easier to use, serve the customers better, and provide tools that can resolve operational issues faster.
Our objective with Eepos is to stay ahead of the standards. Actually, we want to SET the standards for Music Hub management systems. And, in order to do so, we need to listen.
Over the last few years, we have listened to our customers and other stakeholders in the UK music education industry, learning how local authorities, music hubs, music teachers, and schools interact, and how all this could be digitised with Eepos. We’ve heard how Eepos could be developed further and which mandatory features Eepos was missing.
Honesty is key here. We are developing, and we admit it. If a feature or tool developed for the Finnish market is inadequate in the UK, we must swallow our pride and tweak it to match the requirements of the UK market.
Our development team has done amazing work based on the lessons we’ve learned. In the near future, Eepos is about to launch a few really interesting and useful new tools and features.
HR Management and the SCR Tool
The first one to mention is the built-in HR management and SCR tool. The Single Central Record or SCR serves as a comprehensive record of background checks and other relevant information for all staff members, including teachers and support staff. The purpose of the SCR is to ensure that all individuals working with children are appropriately vetted having undergone the necessary checks to ensure the safeguarding of children and young people.
In Eepos, we combine a fully auditable SCR with an HR management tool, where music hub admins can maintain this mandatory set of documents. The admins can create new background checks or HR cards for teachers and staff members, enjoy a built-in to-do list with alerts and notifications if a teacher’s certain background check is about to expire or if mandatory background checks haven’t been completed at all.
This tool feeds the information to a colour coded dashboard, which the Hub Management can then present to OfSTED when inspected. All the changes are logged, ensuring that this information will not be misused.
The HR Manager information is linked to teachers’ Eepos Teacher portal where teachers can view their HR information and share documents as evidence of the check with the admin.
Partner Portal
The second interesting feature is the Partner Portal, which connects music hubs and the schools and partner organisations they provide tuition too. The Partner portal allows school admins to have real-time access to all the tuition they’ve purchased from the music hub.
They can see the necessary information (personal information, schedules, etc.) for pupils, teachers, and groups. They can update their school information without having to send out any spreadsheets back and forth, and they can maintain their development plan for music education within the system.
The Partner Portal allows schools to link their data to DfE census data sets, and provide analytical insights that helps evidence the impact of Music Education.
Eepos HubView
The third new tool is the “Eepos HubView”; a dashboard and reporting tool for several joint Eepos databases. In 2024, the English music education hubs will begin to combine some of their operations with the neighbouring ones and centralise their management.
Also, their funding from the Arts Council England (ACE) will be allocated to these Super Hubs in the future, which creates a demand for a completely new kind of reporting and data management facility.
Eepos HubView will bring together individual, small group, and large group tuition information and enable an easy access overview for the leading organisations of the Super Hubs.
London calling
This spring is exciting for Eepos and our customers. The aforementioned tools and features will start to be used in earnest by our customers, but we need to keep on listening; customer feedback will help us to develop these tools even further. These new tools and features will open new opportunities for our UK Eepos customers, help us stay ahead of the game, and allow Eepos to set the standards for modern Music Hub Management and Administration Systems in the UK.
If you want to hear more about these new tools and features, come and see us in London at the Music and Drama Education Expo (Booth B98!).
