Primary Week by Week Onboarding Guide (SIMS Schools)

This guide is designed for primary schools that are moving to Arbor from SIMS. This week-by-week guide will give you an overview of the onboarding journey and more information about what to expect at each stage. 

Note: Schools will complete an eight-week onboarding journey before transitioning to Customer Success once they are live with the core functionality to run their school effectively. 

Week 1: Kick Off

Your onboarding officially begins with a Kick-Off Video. This video will cover essential aspects like your project team, the onboarding process, and available support and training. We will also provide details on your data migration, which will take place in week four, ready for your Go Live date in week five. 

Your Actions:

• Watch your Kick-Off Video - You will receive an email from the Digital Onboarding team that contains a link to your Kick-Off Video.
• Download your migration pack - Also in your initial email from the Digital Onboarding team is a link to download all the resources you need to ensure your migration is successful.
• Look out for your Arbor Training Hub login email - Once received, ensure all key staff can log in. You will need to complete a survey in the email to assign training to other members of staff. 

Note: Only the school Project Lead is initially enrolled on the Training Hub. If you require additional staff to be enrolled in the training, you must complete and send back the survey in the email titled 'Get started with your Arbor training'.

Week 2: Set Up Prerequisites for a Successful Migration 

It is essential that you complete your migration setup steps by the end of week three. This is to ensure that Arbor can pull the required data from SIMS. This week, your focus should be on ensuring all recommended actions to connect Groupcall Xporter on Demand are completed. 

Your Actions:

• Complete all data cleansing in SIMS. This is non-negotiable for a successful migration. Information on how to complete your data can be found in your migration pack.
• Agree to Arbor Terms & Conditions: You will receive two emails from Arbor with instructions on how to access the Secure Upload Portal. You need to log in to the portal and agree to the terms and conditions. Do this as soon as you receive the portal - your migration will not start until your booked migration day.
• Approve data sharing via Groupcall and install Groupcall Xporter on Demand. You will receive an email from Groupcall with the subject line 'Invitation from Arbor Education to sync your MIS data and complete your setup'. You must complete these steps as soon as possible to ensure your migration is set up correctly.
• Contact any third-party applications that you plan to use alongside Arbor and let them know you are changing MIS as well as your Go Live date.

Note: You will be given the option to install Groupcall Xporter on Demand yourself or through a guided install. Our recommendation is to select the guided install as this will ensure everything is set up correctly.

Week 3: Readiness for Go Live 

This week, your focus should be on ensuring your data migration prerequisites are completed and all staff are completing the recommended training for their role. 

Your Actions:

• Complete Data Cleansing on SIMS by following the instructions in your data migration pack.
• Ensure staff are maximising their training sessions: Share online training resources and videos, and ensure relevant Arbor Champions have full access to the Arbor Training Hub.
• Share the Teacher Essentials training videos with any teachers who will be logging in and taking attendance on your Go Live date.

Note: Arbor will run health checks on your data this week to check if your migration is set up correctly. We will be in touch if we run into any problems.

Week 4: Migration Week

This week, Arbor will start the process of migrating your data across to your new MIS. You won't notice anything but we will continue our background checks to ensure we won't encounter any issues with your migration. If we notice anything, we will call you to discuss the best course of action. You can continue to use SIMS up until your migration day at 4PM, after this you should use paper registers until your new Arbor site is ready. 

Your Actions:

While there are no immediate actions required from you this week, it's important to review the tasks completed in the past few weeks to make sure everything is on track for your Go Live date. Specifically, please ensure the following are in place:

• Your team is trained on Arbor and ready for day one
• Your third-party providers are aware of your move to Arbor
• Data cleansing of your SIMS site has been completed

Note: A guide on how to make the most of your first week in Arbor can be found here. This gives you the steps to follow once you have access to your live Arbor site. Consider printing a simple "how to take a register in Arbor" guide for teachers to ease their first day.

Week 5: Go Live – Your First Day with Arbor!

This week you will begin using Arbor for all your MIS needs, starting with attendance. This is known as your 'go live' date. Once your Arbor site is ready, the Digital Onboarding team will send you a 'site release email'. This will include instructions on how to log in, any issues we have noticed with your migration, and any key steps you need to take action on.

Your Actions:

• Review your site release email and log in to your new MIS - Share the URL with any staff who will be using Arbor and ensure they bookmark it in their browser for quick access.
• Take attendance in your new Arbor MIS!
• Check your migrated data - You must ensure the accuracy and avoid any discrepancies in the migrated data. This is a critical step before you can sign off on your Data Migration Report and switch the Groupcall endpoint from SIMS to Arbor, enabling you to connect any third-party applications. 

Note: If you are migrating over a holiday, you will receive your site release email during the holidays. If you are migrating over a weekend, you will receive your site release email before Wednesday.

Week 6: Sign Off on your Data Migration Report

Your focus in week six is to ensure your Data Migration Report is signed off. Once you are confident the data has migrated correctly, the sooner you can switch your endpoint from SIMS to Arbor, allowing any third-party applications connected through Groupcall to sync correctly. 

Your Actions:

• Sign off on your Data Migration Report - a vital step to ensure you are confident with the data that has been imported into Arbor.
• Once you have completed all your checks and any issues have been resolved, you are ready to disconnect Groupcall from SIMS and reconnect to Arbor if used to link other third-party systems.
• Ensure all third-party integrations are functioning as expected.
• Check in with staff to ensure they understand using their area of Arbor. Remind them they can always use the help centre, the Arbor Bot, or contact Support using one of the methods here.
• Continue your post Go Live training to build confidence now that you have access.

Weeks 7 & 8: Configuration, Training & Handover

This week marks the end of your onboarding journey. You should continue configuring Arbor to your specific requirements and complete any remaining training on your Training Hub.

Your Actions:

• Continue to check in with staff to see if there are any recurring issues. Remind them they can always use the help centre, the Arbor Bot, or contact Support using one of the methods here.
• Complete Post Go Live training on your Arbor Training Hub and configure Arbor to your specific requirements.
• Onboarding completes and the Digital Onboarding Team will hand over to Customer Success Managers.

Note: If you are supported by a partner, you will transition from Onboarding to your Partner's support process rather than to Arbor's Customer Success Managers. Your Partner should have explained this process to you.  

What if you need help?

The Onboarding team is available throughout this process to talk to if you get stuck. You can email them at myonboarding@arbor-education.com. If you would prefer them to call you back, please mention that in the email and leave the best number to contact you on.