School Technology Associates’ partnership with Skyward began in 1992, offering peripheral hardware for Food Service. Collaborating year-round with both Skyward and its users, including at the many Skyward User Groups throughout the year, highlighted a need for integrated hardware solutions, which led to the development of Time Clocks for Skyward ERP. Dan Hoerl, the founder of School Technology, built the company on the principles of listening to users and innovating unique solutions to meet their challenges. We continue to follow that roadmap today.
As the connections and relationships progressed with Skyward districts across the country, the integrated solutions expanded from Tardy Kiosk and Positive Attendance for Skyward SMS 2.0 SIS software, to ID Badging for both SIS and ERP, and to our latest innovation: SchoolTRAK software for Skyward Qmlativ SIS users. Throughout the years, Skyward has continued to innovate, evolving from Skyward SMS 2.0 to their latest Skyward Qmlativ solution. School Tech has grown alongside Skyward, ensuring integrated solutions created for Skyward SMS 2.0 migrate to Qmlativ.
We sat down with Chris Casey, Jake Breneman, and Jacob Larsen at Skyward to hear more about the value Skyward finds in partnering with School Tech.
Simplicity
Chris Casey, the Director of Sales Operations at Skyward, emphasized simplicity, “School Tech is the longest partner and one of the few exclusive partners Skyward has… the simplicity of having one partner to connect with is a great benefit for our users. The connection to Skyward is stronger than we have with any other partner and that provides a lot of peace of mind to the customers as a whole.”
Looking back at his first interactions with School Tech, he said, “I’ve been with Skyward just shy of 19 years and School Tech has been there since the beginning. Starting with School Tech’s Time Clocks that we use at the Skyward headquarters, I’ve been clocking in and out with one since my first day.”
He also highlighted, “The best part about working with the School Tech team is the communication. There is no doubt in my mind that any time of day, if a customer has a question and I connect them with School Tech, I will receive a prompt response. We are confident in the responsiveness from the School Tech team and it seems, in this day and age, the responsiveness of a business partner has become paramount. The straightforward communication makes it that much more simple for Skyward users.”
Collaboration
Jake Breneman, the Product Line Manager for the Skyward Business Suite, focused on collaboration, “Skyward has a true partnership with School Tech. Not only are we working together to make sure our solutions work well, we’re collaborating, we’re innovating, and we’re solving problems. School Tech is always looking at new solutions to support and supplement our product to improve our customer experience.”
An example of an issue he worked on with School Tech was, “A district had a large number of time clocks to set up and didn’t have the manpower to go clock by clock to import their employees. We worked together with School Tech to create a way for them to mass import their staff into the clocks.”
Regarding the exclusive partnership School Tech has with Skyward, Jake said, “I think the word ‘partnership’ gets thrown around a lot. When you look at a website and see that these are our partners; does a partnership go beyond a logo on a website? I think that’s 100% true when you look at the partnership between Skyward and School Tech.”
Efficiency
Jacob Larsen, the Customer Success Team Manager for the Skyward Student Suite, highlighted the efficiency School Tech provides, “Solutions like the Tardy Kiosk and Positive Attendance really help with the efficiency to achieve more than just standard attendance taking; it maxes out efficiency.” Jacob’s favorite School Tech solution is Positive Attendance, “It is very customizable and districts are using it in really unique ways. With the devices being from School Tech, we know that they will be compatible no matter what. Even if it doesn’t work right away for the creative use case the customer has; School Tech has helped with custom configurations, which is something Skyward itself isn’t always able to do.”
Jacob told us about one of these unique scenarios that improved the efficiency of attendance taking, “A district wanted a system where the students check in when they get off the bus in the morning and then have that check-in push through to the rest of the day. We found a way to do that where they check in with a Positive Attendance device and then we were able to get Skyward to push those throughout the day and create accountability.“
While Jacob primarily works with Skyward SMS 2.0 SIS software, he has had a chance to preview School Tech’s new SchoolTRAK software for Skyward Qmlativ SIS software, “It looks really intuitive and user friendly. From my background with the SMS 2.0 Tardy Kiosk and Positive Attendance, I could see how I could do the different unique setups we’ve worked on for SMS 2.0 users with it.” When thinking about the migration process and changes between Skyward SMS 2.0 and Qmaltiv, he said: “We sometimes get nervous about integrations going from SMS to Qmlativ, but seeing SchoolTRAK, I feel comfortable with that part moving… Once the user gets into it and sees that it does more than we were able to do in Skyward SMS 2.0, it’s exciting.”
Thinking back on the long-standing partnership, Chris Casey said, “The evolution and the growth of School Tech and Skyward has been side by side, looking at the solutions and integrations that are provided.” At School Tech, we are incredibly grateful for all the Skyward employees and school district personnel that have helped bring our innovative solutions to life.
If you have any ideas, feedback, or want to learn more about how School Tech solutions can streamline your use of Skyward, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at sales@k12sta.com.
