New EdTech Compliance Solution

[JaydenUK]

So to provide some context to this initially, I have worked in School IT for 5+ years as an IT Manager.

I noticed an issue with the current safeguarding products market and set out to make a software solution to this around 12 months ago as currently, no one is providing a solution to the problem, I even tried to find one for the schools in the trust initially which is where the idea came from, I would also get comments from account managers telling me they have had similar questions and the only way was some bespoke created and ridiculously expensive method that wasn't very good. (it would only check for violations once every 2 days) and the longer you had the solution the more expensive it got.

Fast forwarding to today, I created the product and now I am finding it extremely difficult to get in the door, everyone has convinced me it was a good idea and it would work, I feel the oversight I have had is that when you are trying to solve a problem that no one realised existed until you tell them they shut down or schools/teachers don't understand it.

To fully understand why it doesn't exist in the current market it does require understanding how DNS works but I feel it is easily explainable why.

I have tried calling schools to get in the door but I can never get past the receptionist, I have only tried this with 4 schools so far and one gave me an email address that never got back to me even with 2 chases, there must be better avenues to get my foot in the door as opposed to just calling them?

Unfortunately, I also don't have big pockets like the big players.

Happy to fully explain how it works over private messages and link to my website, trying to not link my website to this post to battle my forum threads with my company name on Google!

 

[fisicx]

You won’t ever get through the door. Schools buy from established providers with full support organisations. They are inundated with products of all sorts.

The education software companies could build their own product if they sniffed a profit. Maybe they are already in development.

 

[Ozzy]

I may be missing something, but as a school governor who has been through various safeguarding training, I've spent a lot of time in internet safety reports and flagged content. The systems I've looked at do real-time alerts, some do use DNS as part of the process, so with the limited info in your post I do think there are solutions out there that do a good job.
However, the internet is the internet and things do keep evolving.

Marketing and getting to market itself will be a challenge as the education sector is pretty wrapped up in the known providers and it is hard for new contenders to get a foot in the door. Those in charge of purchasing do like to stick to what they know that has a track record, no one wants to be the person who signed something off that resulted in something in the media that allowed a child access to something.

 

[JaydenUK]

I may be missing something, but as a school governor who has been through various safeguarding training, I've spent a lot of time in internet safety reports and flagged content. The systems I've looked at do real-time alerts, some do use DNS as part of the process, so with the limited info in your post I do think there are solutions out there that do a good job.
However, the internet is the internet and things do keep evolving.

Marketing and getting to market itself will be a challenge as the education sector is pretty wrapped up in the known providers and it is hard for new contenders to get a foot in the door. Those in charge of purchasing do like to stick to what they know that has a track record, no one wants to be the person who signed something off that resulted in something in the media that allowed a child access to something.

The interesting thing is it's something that's never been filtered before for schools but has become more of an issue in the last few years, Any ideas on how I could try to push this forward as an attempt?

 

[fisicx]

Any ideas on how I could try to push this forward as an attempt?

Sell the product to an existing supplier.

Or develop it to integrate with existing applications.

As a standalone developer with a single product you aren’t ever going to get any traction.

 

[JaydenUK]

Sell the product to an existing supplier.

Or develop it to integrate with existing applications.

As a standalone developer with a single product you aren’t ever going to get any traction.

Do you mean to integrate into MIS products?


Currently, once it's set up, it's set and forget. Each time something comes up, it will email you with what was found (on the email you specify).

 

[RobPickering]

So to provide some context to this initially, I have worked in School IT for 5+ years as an IT Manager.

I noticed an issue with the current safeguarding products market and set out to make a software solution to this around 12 months ago as currently, no one is providing a solution to the problem, I even tried to find one for the schools in the trust initially which is where the idea came from, I would also get comments from account managers telling me they have had similar questions and the only way was some bespoke created and ridiculously expensive method that wasn't very good. (it would only check for violations once every 2 days) and the longer you had the solution the more expensive it got.

Fast forwarding to today, I created the product and now I am finding it extremely difficult to get in the door, everyone has convinced me it was a good idea and it would work, I feel the oversight I have had is that when you are trying to solve a problem that no one realised existed until you tell them they shut down or schools/teachers don't understand it.

To fully understand why it doesn't exist in the current market it does require understanding how DNS works but I feel it is easily explainable why.

I have tried calling schools to get in the door but I can never get past the receptionist, I have only tried this with 4 schools so far and one gave me an email address that never got back to me even with 2 chases, there must be better avenues to get my foot in the door as opposed to just calling them?

Unfortunately, I also don't have big pockets like the big players.

Happy to fully explain how it works over private messages and link to my website, trying to not link my website to this post to battle my forum threads with my company name on Google!

Hi, this might be something I'm able to advise you on, having worked in around the IT/Education market for many years. I have a few good contacts that might be interested to help. However, don't be under any illusion that this can be a long and difficult road. Just for fun, look on YouTube and search for "Selling $100 Bills For $1" and see how hard it is to sell people what they should REALLY want to buy

PM me if you'd like to have a chat.
Rob Pickering

 

[fisicx]

Do you mean to integrate into MIS products?

Yes. That way they will be alerted using methods already established in the school.