We’re thrilled to reveal that Cloud Design Box attended this year’s MAT Digital Acceleration Programme, hosted by Microsoft at the stunning Microsoft Experience Centre in Oxford Circus.
Aimed at multi academy trusts (MATs) in the UK, the event centred around the challenges and successes of digital transformation in education.
“A highlight of the event for us was the opportunity to speak with MATs in-depth about digital transformation and hear their struggles and successes. Conversations like this always inform how we consider their use of our product and how we can best support them in their digital transformation,” says Sophie Allen, one of our Onboarding Leads who also attended the event.
Some of the challenges we discussed with trust CIOs and CEOs included:
- CPD
- Sustainability (travelling between schools and paper)
- Teams-enabled hybrid meetings
- Wellbeing
- Workload
- Funding
A key challenge mentioned by several of the SLTs was their limited time to train staff and students in new technologies:
“We’ve also recognised this when working with schools and trusts over the years. Time is limited and many staff who aren’t traditionally ‘tech savvy’ get left behind. That’s why we developed our onboarding process to include long-term support and designed our CPD-certified courses to fit around busy schedules and give staff the confidence they need to embrace a new way of working,” explains Tony.
We also discussed how – as Microsoft Partners – we have developed a product that eases communication and collaboration across trusts, facilitating digital transformation.
Another struggle many MAT Senior Leaders face is creating a successful digital transformation strategy.
“For us, this event confirmed that digital transformation is very much individualised to the specific needs of schools and trusts and comes with its own unique challenges and successes,” Sophie adds.
“It was great to catch up with some of our customers face-to-face, including Rodillian Academy, Bridge Academy Trust, Bishop Bewick Catholic Education Trust and Leodis Academies Trust, as well as see some new faces.”
Interestingly, we heard from one trust who are working to be more sustainable and cut its CO2 and waste:
“This trust explained that by using Teams they were not only saving paper but also cutting down travel between sites for trust-wide meetings. While they still do some in-person meetings, they can be optionally hybrid,” Tony points out.
Overall, the day was a fantastic experience, and our team enjoyed getting an even deeper insight into MATs and their digital transformation experiences.
We’d particularly like to thank Tablet Academy’s Philemon Burney, Anthony Martin from Exeter College and Matt McDermott from The Multi-Academy Trust Association for their inspiring presentations, as well as Microsoft’s Jennifer King for organising the event.
