e-safety Monitoring Software (Forensic Software & more)

e-safety Monitoring Software (Forensic Software & more)

What is going on?

It’s the time of year when many contracts are due for renewal and many of our customers will be receiving information from Futures Cloud about their PCE software, this used to be called Forensic Software.

We just wanted to let you know of a couple of alternatives that may help improve safeguarding in your school and give you more choice about how to keep your children safe online.

Futures Cloud has caused us quite a lot of headaches over recent years and is quite a tricky product to fix when things go wrong or needs updating, which become additional support costs for us to maintain on your behalf. In its current format iPads and other tablets are not currently protected by this product (however they can be with add-ons).

Prices for some schools have also increased quite heavily in the last round of renewals. We’ve also experienced issues with the support recently.

This software is very important in keeping children safe in your school and helps towards your compliance with KCSiE guidance.

What choices do we have?

There are 2 products that we’ve been using in a number of schools that we feel do a better job.

Securus XT – is a very similar product in the way that it works and its offerings however it is cheaper and considerably easier to install and maintain and has some good extra add on options with regards to protection of iPads and other tablets.

It has a clean and easy to use web portal for monitoring, reporting and is much more intuitive and easier to use for the end user.

The product has been used for many years in Cheshire schools. Below is a link to their site and a YouTube clip which is very informative. They will also provide you with a demo.

http://www.securus-software.com/

Impero – this is a good product that goes a step further than just the statutory monitoring/reporting. With Impero your teachers can monitor what the children are doing from their own screen, share screens with the whole class and lock screens to stop children being distracted during teacher input. It also comes with IPad and Tablet protection as standard not as an add on. Pricing is per device rather than numbers on roll so you pay for what you’re using it on.

This extra functionality is something that we’ve been asked for quite a lot recently and so we’ve been researching a product that offered something else, we think its great to have this teacher functionality built into a safeguarding program as simply adds value to your purchase. But does cost quite a bit more than Securus. Below is a link to their site and a YouTube link

https://www.imperosoftware.com/uk/

Why does this matter?

We have had issues maintaining your existing Future Digital product and applying updates, which intern make it unreliable and costly to maintain. It also costs more to buy(than Securus). In our opinion, the two products we have outlined here are better products when considering value for money and maintenance and offer more functionality.

It’s an opportunity to review your e-safety monitoring, maybe save some money and add some functionality

Pricing and further information

If you’d like any further information please see the attached PDF documents and let us know if you’d like a bespoke quote.