Schoolwires Brings School Districts Up to Speed on the Web
Some school districts have been slow to embrace evolving web technology. Of the approximately 16,500 school districts in the United States, many are running on antiquated platforms and have only the vaguest notion of how to use their sites strategically.
Schoolwires provides interactive online communication, community management and productivity solutions for school districts.
Yet parents, teachers and our “digital-native” students rely heavily on smart phones, sophisticated websites and web-based applications for nearly everything—to access information, to blog and tweet, to shop, to search and to come together as communities to talk about issues that matter most to them.
Part of the adoption problem lies in strapped budgets, but there’s also a dearth of far-thinking providers in the software solution sector. The market is so fragmented that Ed Marflak did not cross paths with competitors for several years after launching Schoolwires in 2000. Since then, Marflak has expanded the State College-based venture into a business that builds online communities and provides strategic assistance for schools K-12 and embraces the needs of teachers, parents, administrators and students alike.
Social Media Strategies for School Districts
Schoolwires provides interactive online communication, community management and productivity solutions for school districts. The system enables regular contact between all parties and makes it easy for important messages to get through quickly. Schoolwires also sells software that lets K-12 school districts manage their website content, from student registration and online tuition payment to homework assignments and athletic schedules. The company also hosts these sites on its servers.
Schoolwires’ Centricity solution, a website and community management platform, allows school administrators and teachers to create personalized websites, post homework and extra credit assignments, develop blogs, photo galleries and podcasts. This allows users to share ideas and information with students, parents and each other. Schoolwires prides itself on being user-friendly, and novices to technology can quickly adapt and learn to use their programs.
This kind of growth doesn’t happen by accident. —Ed Marflak, CEO and founder, Schoolwires
Presently, Schoolwires serves more than 4 million users in more than 4,000 schools and 1,000 school districts across the United States and Mexico. The positive impact of Schoolwires is seen across all aspects of a school, district and community and has made Schoolwires the leading provider of strategic solutions for K-12 education. Schoolwires is on a mission to create a holistic K-12 community that transcends the boundaries of individual districts.
Recognizing the Vision
Schoolwires became involved with Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern Pennsylvania (BFTP/CNP) in 2000. BFTP/CNP recognized the potential of Schoolwires’ vision and invested $224,000 as startup funding over a three-year period.
“When we first met Schoolwires, they wanted to leverage Internet technology to bring students, parents and teachers together online,” says Liz Wilson, BFTP/CNP’s director of marketing. “And that’s exactly what they’ve done—Ed Marflak and his excellent team have made it easy for schools to create powerful, customized Internet sites that help parents become more involved in their student’s academic progress and extracurricular activities. After all, studies consistently show that increased parental attention and involvement boosts student academic achievement.”
Since then, Schoolwires has experienced unprecedented growth. By the end of 2008, Marflak says the company saw an opportunity to scale up. After securing $12 million in outside investment, Schoolwires is now moving forward with expansion plans that include hiring an additional 60 employees and finding more office space. Schoolwires expects to add approximately 25 of its new hires to headquarters in State College and the balance to its newly opened Asian office and remote sales force across the United States.
Growth by Planning—Not by Accident
“This kind of growth doesn’t happen by accident,” says Marflak, who credits many aspects to growing his business, including involvement with BFTP/CNP and efforts such as adding more market research to stay ahead of trends.
Schoolwires continues to expand its customer base and services that manage and support the website and community management platform within a school district. As a result, Schoolwires has doubled revenues on average each year since entering the market in 2003 and expects to end this year above $10 million in sales, exceeding $50 million by the end of 2012.
The future is bright for Schoolwires, which was ranked as the 328th fastest-growing private company among the Inc 500 and third fastest-growing in the education industry in 2007 and 2008. Schoolwires recently opened its first international office in Asia with about 10 staff members. The time zone difference between the U.S. and Asia will accelerate the product cycle by allowing continuous 24-hour development of software projects.
Tags: education technology, software, filed under Central & Northern PA, Client & Alumni News, News 