intelligent

“ These were exceptional times ; we were keen to find the best solution to meet an unforeseen need as quickly and effectively as possible .”

The process : customisation and training

Gregory was familiar with technology from Quadient that helps organisations personalise and distribute communications . A Quadient representative assessed the ONTO Group ’ s requirement and listened to Gregory ’ s objective , which was to gather data from the schools ’ management information system , use this to populate new timetables presented professionally and customisable by schools and send these to parents simply and quickly .

ONTO worked with Quadient ’ s support team to harvest the right data to feed into communications software where it could be formatted and the resulting documents could be processed for sending . Once the solution was up and running , Quadient organised training for ONTO . “ It ’ s a tool that ’ s really simple to use ,” said Gregory . “ Mastering the process was quick and easy ; the software has a userfriendly interface , and we were able to create the templates we needed for the documents .”

The solution

Quadient Impress is a comprehensive outbound document management platform that automates communications workflows and provides the flexibility of sending documents through print or digital channels . By automating access to the data needed by ONTO to compile the schools ’ timetables , the platform avoids any slow , manual data collection or error-prone retyping of information for rapid and efficient document delivery . Personalisation and formatting of documents is simple , enabling ONTO to add school logos and other customisable information for a professional end result .

“ The great thing about the Quadient platform is it supports a range of fields , so we could create bespoke timetables to suit this very particular situation and present them in a professional way . As a communication tool , it ’ s really good ,” said Gregory . “ Compatibility wasn ’ t an issue – the platform is able to draw on the data it needs from the systems that hold it .

The result

Through automation and personalisation , ONTO delivers clear , comprehensive timetables that can rapidly and easily be sent to parents by email or SMS text , or made available for them to access through a secure portal . The option is also there to send documents to be printed to an outsourced print facility at the click of a button .

The templates have been developed according to each school ’ s particular needs and can be adapted to maximise clarity and presentation of the information . The time it takes to develop and issue the timetables has been reduced from days to less than two hours . “ It ’ s been really good ,” said Gregory . “ It ’ s meant the schools can communicate effectively with parents , manage the process more quickly and produce timetables to suit the situation . That ’ s the power of the system – it can be unique to each school ; whichever way they want to display the data . We ’ ve also used the solution to deliver worksheets for schools and it works really well for that too .”

Gregory , Co-founder at The ONTO Group , spoke to Intelligent SME . tech in more detail about the company and the services it provides .

Is the right data always available to carry out the task or does it sometimes need to be inputted ?

In general , we always have the right data available . We work with Quadient Impress , which enables us to draw on data from schools ’ Management Information Systems ( MIS ). Using school data directly means we have all we need to create bespoke timetables that suit schools ’ and pupils ’ needs .

Previous page : Neil Gregory , Co-founder at The ONTO Group

IT ’ S MEANT THE SCHOOLS CAN COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY WITH PARENTS , MANAGE THE PROCESS MORE QUICKLY AND PRODUCE TIMETABLES TO SUIT THE SITUATION .