Primary Week by Week Onboarding Guide (Bromcom Schools onboarding with Spaces)

This guide is designed for primary schools that are moving to Arbor from Bromcom. 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 when you receive your invitation email to use Spaces. Please see more information about what this looks like and how to get logged into Spaces here.

After you have logged into Spaces and watched your 'How to use Spaces' video, the next step will be watch your kick-off video which you can find within your Onboarding Tasks Success Plan on your Spaces dashboard. 

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:

• Log into Spaces
• Look out for your Arbor Training Hub login email - Log into the Hub and start your training!
• Watch your Kick-Off Video - You will be able to find this within your Onboarding Tasks Success Plan on Spaces, make sure to tick off the task once this has been completed.
• Download your Data Cleansing and Counts Pack - You can find a link to this at the top of Spaces.
• Let Bromcom know that you are migrating to Arbor and request a copy of your data. Instructions on how to do this are found here.
• Ensure all key staff have registered for the Arbor Training Hub and have started their Primary Self Paced Pre Go-Live training.

Week 2: Data Cleansing and Training 

It is important that you complete your data cleansing in your current system to ensure the data migrates to Arbor as expected. This week you should also let Bromcom know you'll need them to provide a backup of your data on your migration day.

Your Actions:

• Data cleansing - Information on how to complete your data cleansing can be found in your data cleanses and counts pack that you can find at the top of your Spaces dashboard. 
• Contact any Third Party Applications you plan to use alongside Arbor and let them know that you are changing MIS.

• Continue training via the Training Hub.

   

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 by following the instructions in your Data Cleanses and Counts Pack
• Ensure Key staff are completing their training - You can see this via the training progress report in Spaces. 
• Share the Teacher Essentials training videos with any teachers that will be logging in and taking attendance on your Arbor Go Live day.  
• Receive confirmation from Bromcom that they can provide your backup on migration day. After contacting Bromcom in week 1, requesting a backup of your data and informing them of your move to Arbor and your migration day. Please get confirmation from Bromcom of the date and time your backup will be created by and sent to you. This is so that you know when to stop using Bromcom, as any data entered after the backup.

Week 4: Migration Week

This is your migration week! You should complete your data cleansing and pre-migration training, and on your migration day, upload your Bromcom backup to us.

Your Actions:

It is 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 site has been completed
• You're ready to upload your backup to us on your booked migration day. Instructions on how to do this are here. 

Note: A guide on how to make the most of your first week using 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' which will include instructions on how to log in and your site URL. 

At the same time, site release tasks will populate on Spaces within the task called '12 - Site Release Tasks'. Please follow through the site release tasks and begin using your Data Cleansing and Counts pack to ensure your data has migrated correctly.

Your Actions:

• Review your site release tasks on Spaces 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 using your Data Cleansing and Counts pack - 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. For a full guide to using the Data Cleansing and Counts pack to check your data, please see here.

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: Complete your Data Checks

Your focus in week six is to ensure your data checks are complete. You should continue to check in with staff and how they are progressing with their new Arbor site and identify any potential training needs.

Your Actions:

• Tick off Task 14 'Complete Data Checking in Arbor' - This is a vital step to ensure you are confident with the data that has migrated across into Arbor.
• 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.