With data safe and a timeline fixed, turn to the replacement. Resist the urge to grab the first option out of relief. Draw up a short list of the tasks the current system handles, note what works and what frustrates staff, and use that as your brief. This is a chance to choose a platform that fits the school today rather than one inherited years ago. The MIS market has several established providers, including platforms such as Compass Education, so schools moving from a closing system usually have real choice.

For trust leaders weighing this up, the useful questions are about readiness and fit. Does the platform genuinely support a multi-site structure? How well does it handle schools joining and leaving? And can the central team get the trust-wide view it needs without extra manual work? A system that answers those well makes centralisation far easier to justify.

The first consideration is onboarding. When a school joins a trust, its data has to move into the trust's systems, its staff have to learn the tools, and its way of working has to align with the group. A platform built for this makes the move quick and predictable. One built only for a single school makes every addition a fresh project. Growing trusts should ask directly how a provider handles a new school coming on board, and how many times it has done so.

There are reasonable upsides. A larger owner can fund development that a small team could not, bring in stronger security practices and support integration across a wider set of tools. Schools may see features arrive faster and gain from a more stable supplier. The MIS market includes established names and newer entrants, and consolidation can strengthen the products that receive real investment.

See the details at Compass Canteen.

For school leaders weighing this up, a short set of questions helps. Which tasks currently take the most repetitive effort? Where does information already live in one place, ready to be summarised? And which outputs must a person always check before they go out? Answering those points to the use cases worth trying first.