Tribal Group begins collaboration with Microsoft

The AIM-traded firm, which described itself as the “market-leading supplier” of student information systems and services within the UK, Australia and New Zealand, has been developing a next generation, cloud-based solution - Tribal Edge - since 2016, and had selected Microsoft Azure as the underlying platform.

To support the proactive development of Tribal Edge, Microsoft's Azure application development team would now work with Tribal to accelerate the creation of new functionality, which the Tribal board said would enable the rapid development of an enhanced cloud-based platform, and the conversion of the current functionally-rich applications of SITS:Vision and ebs to a cloud environment.

As a result, Tribal would be able to provide a single engagement solution for students in all educational establishments, to enhance student experience and underpin their learning success.

As part of the agreement, Tribal would offer both SITS:Vision and ebs in the Azure marketplace as cloud ready solutions.

Microsoft would also promote the Tribal portfolio in new geographical markets.

By taking an Azure-based solution, Tribal said its customers would have access to a “full range” of complementary applications such as ERP, CRM, HR and other solutions provided by Microsoft and its partners, that could be integrated with the Tribal solutions.

“We are excited to embark on this new, strategic collaboration with Microsoft and believe it will quickly reap significant benefits for our mutual and prospective customers,” said Tribal CEO Ian Bowles.

“With Microsoft's support, we will rapidly deliver Tribal Edge and improve the offering to our existing customers, providing new student engagement and superior student experience functionality across all our solutions, and also allow significant enhancements to other providers' solutions.”

Bowles said Microsoft was a “clear leader” with the breadth of its cloud offerings.

“That coupled with a focus on education made Microsoft the obvious partner for our next generation cloud offering.

“Working with Microsoft, we will be able to offer a host of new, complementary solutions to our extensive education customer base.”

By adopting Azure as its cloud platform, Bowles explained that the Tribal board knew that its customers could deploy the solutions quickly and with minimal effort.

“Working with an ecosystem of partners, we are underlining our commitment to continue to provide our customers with the best student information systems available and to maintain the pace of advancement that the cloud affords us.”