This guide is designed for primary and middle schools who are migrating to Arbor from either SIMS or Bromcom. It outlines the key stages and support you will receive during your 8-week onboarding journey.
Your onboarding timeline & what to expect
Your onboarding journey to Arbor is a structured process, typically spanning 8 weeks, with a focus on preparing your school for a successful "Go Live".
This journey is designed to ensure your data is accurately migrated, your staff are trained, and your new Arbor MIS is configured to meet your school's daily operational needs.
The process can be broadly divided into distinct phases:
You can find more information on 'Spaces' and via our specific week-by-week guides that go into more detail depending on the MIS you are migrating to Arbor from.
Your Partnership Manager should have already told you when your onboarding journey starts and explained to you when you will 'kick off'. The onboarding team will only reach out to you if you're actively onboarding!
Specific week-by-week guides for SIMS or Bromcom
If you would like to understand your onboarding journey in more detail, we have week by week guides that explain what to expect from your onboarding journey depending on your current MIS.
SIMS - Primary Week by Week Onboarding Guide & Timeline
Bromcom - Week by Week Onboarding Guide & Timeline
Please note that you can find more information and resources on 'Spaces' our onboarding platform, the project lead for your school will automatically be invited when you begin your onboarding journey.
What is data cleansing & data counts?
Data Cleansing: The process of tidying up information in your current MIS (e.g. SIMS or Bromcom) before migration. The goal is to ensure data is accurate, formatted correctly, and stored in the right fields so it transfers to Arbor as expected.
Data Counts and Checks: Comparing your current MIS data against the data in your Arbor site following migration, you’ll have the help of in site Arbor reports to check whether everything arrived correctly.
You can find more information on how to properly cleanse your data here: How to use your Data Cleansing and Counts Pack (SIMS/ Bromcom Spaces schools only)
Understanding roles & responsibilities while onboarding
You can find information on various roles that you may hear about during your onboarding. Everyone has an important part to play in order to ensure the school's success therefore it's important to assign these roles carefully to the most suitable individuals.
School roles
Project Lead
Your school should appoint one Project Lead and their responsibilities will include:
- Becoming our key contact during the onboarding and migration process
- Coordinating and communicating the training plan and ensuring that the correct staff are trained on Arbor.
- Managing the end-to-end migration of your school’s data and ensuring the data has been checked before launch.
- Reporting back on the status of your implementation to the wider school team.
- Help ‘champion’ the benefits of Arbor across the teams.
- Identify and control any resistance to change across the school.
The project lead should be someone who has a good knowledge of the school’s processes, workflows, and people and someone who is a great communicator. This is a key role, so it is important to ensure that this person has the capacity to take on this project.
Data Uploader
This will be someone who will be familiar with the IT systems across the school. Their responsibilities will include:
- Producing the data migration backups and sending them to Arbor (where applicable).
- Contact any third-party applications that you wish to continue using on Arbor and notify them of the change.
- Ensuring that any third-party applications are set up on Arbor for launch.
Arbor Champions
Arbor Champions are the individuals appointed in your school, group or MAT who will help to support and drive the transition to our MIS.
- They will become Arbor experts in the school. They will be able to support their wider team with any ‘how do I’ type questions.
- Helping the team across the school to drive success.
You can find more information on how to choose your Arbor Champion here.
If you need to change a role or assign it to someone else within your school please contact the onboarding team and let us know!
Arbor roles
Digital Onboarding
The Primary Onboarding Team will be your main contact during your first 8 weeks of onboarding onto Arbor, they can offer support and any non-technical related guidance regarding your move and migration.
You can reach out to them by emailing myonboarding@arbor-education.com
Customer Success
The Customer Success Managers will pick up from the Digital Onboarding team after your eight week onboarding journey. You might not see them much during your onboarding period, but they are responsible for the following:
- Ongoing contact once your onboarding is complete
- Long term success on Arbor
- New developments, events and news.
Note: The team only works with customers who take their support from Arbor. Any customers that are supported by a partner, will receive a similar service from them.
Partnership Manager
Your Partnership Management team is here to help ensure you have the best contract and subscription for your MAT/School.
MATs are offered a regular review with your Partnership Manager to look at your contract and the opportunities across our wider products and services for both you and your schools.
Contact this team if you would like to speak to them about purchasing additional modules, upgrading your Arbor package or investing in training. This team will also work with you during your renewal or re-procurement.
How do I get help during my onboarding?
You won't navigate your onboarding journey alone! You'll have the whole Primary Onboarding Team as your main point of contact throughout your entire 8-week transition. They're here to make sure your move to Arbor is as smooth and successful as possible by:
Outlining your onboarding tasks and weekly targets through our new onboarding platform 'Spaces'!
Connecting with you when you need support by monitoring your progress in the background and contacting you directly throughout to keep you moving forward!
- Working closely on your data migration to ensure everything runs smoothly!
Your onboarding team are happy to go through any questions you have regarding your move to Arbor. Please email them at myonboarding@arbor-education.com.
The team does not have a direct telephone number to call, therefore if you would like a call please email us and we'll be able to get in touch with you directly!
Please note: While your Onboarding Team is on-hand to guide you during onboarding, they don't provide technical Arbor support or answer specific 'how-to' questions. For these queries, including any questions that come up during data checking, you should reach out to your dedicated Support Team!
Additional Support
Arbor Support Team
For any 'how-to' questions about using Arbor, or if you have a question about how your data has migrated, your go-to is our Support Team. They are available throughout onboarding and beyond if you are directly supported by us.
🚀 If Arbor provides your support directly, you can find out how to contact us here. We're available via web chat, email or phone and even have a dedicated Secondary School line!
🚀 If you receive support from an accredited Arbor support partner, please get in touch with them directly.
Arbor Help Centre
Think of this as your go-to resource, packed with articles, videos, and webinars designed to help you learn about every aspect of Arbor. You are on it right now!
We even have a dedicated section of the Help Centre specifically for schools like yours who are onboarding to Arbor, ensuring you find the most relevant guidance whichever stage of the journey you're in.
Arbor HQ
Arbor HQ is our online community where you can connect with fellow Arbor users. It's the ideal place to network with your peers, ask questions, share best practice, and be the first to know about new features and product updates.
Plus, join exclusive Arbor HQ meet-ups and webinars to really boost your Arbor skills!
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