Please tell us about your company and the idea behind it?
School Canvas (previously known as Parentsalarm.com) is one of the leading ed-tech firms in the country. We are recognized as a leading ERP provider in the ed-tech space. Headquartered in Chennai, we have been in the market for over a decade and have grown exponentially ever since. They are a multipurpose platform that provides a user friendly, innovative and transparent school management system and mobile application that bridges the gap between the school management and the parents in real time.
What type of services are you providing to the schools?
School Canvas offers an All-in-one cloud application to manage your school online & communicate with parents in real-time. In short, we provide 360-degree solutions for everyone from School to Parents. We host lots of services such as attendance tracking, homework notifications, fee reminders. We also help schools with notification/notice circulation, bus/GPS tracking, e-content, performance updates, and much more. In the initial 5 years of Schoolcanvas existence, our associations were providing services only in Tamil Nadu but for the past few years we have expanded its reach across India, majorly in Andhra Pradesh, North East, Delhi ,Bihar, Jharkhand and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Along with it, we have expanded our footprints into conferences and conclaves.
How does School Canvas empower parents of students through ERP solutions?
We offer instant communication about all academic activities of your child using SMS & IVRS. Parents need to download the app of School Canvas, where they can access everything related to the school announcements and students’ performance. Parents can receive homework circulars, monitor their child’s academic performance on a day-to-day basis, know the location of school bus through missed calls, can pay fees using credit or debit cards, and much more. We can say that the security of the students is just a few clicks.
How beneficial are the ERP solutions for schools and parents at this trying time?
Technology is playing a vital in these trying times.ERP Solutions has become a nerve for the administrative world. As parents can monitor their children’s performance on regular basis without stepping out from home. Through these solutions online test and online integration capability go hand in hand.
In an interaction with Mamta Maity, indiainfoline.com, Mr. Kanhaiya Kumar, Founder & CEO, School Canvas said "In the initial 5 years of Schoolcanvas existence, ourassociations were providing services only in Tamil Nadu but for the past few years we have expanded its reach across India, majorly in Andhra Pradesh, North East, Delhi ,Bihar, Jharkhand and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
_School Canvas
Tell us about your competitors if any?
When it comes to our competitors, there are no such direct competitors who provide complete ERP solutions. Some companies are there but they are limited only to few modules. We differentiate from others because of our two USPs. First, every school operate differently and have their own set of process that can’t be changed because they are operating with it for a long time. Being a company, we can change or modify our solutions according to their process which nobody provides in the industry. School can opt any module according to their requirement. Being a one stop solution, all the modules are integrated so the dependency on multiple vendors is minimum.
Why are you planning to re-branding after 10 years?
When we started the company 10 years ago, the idea was to bridge the communication gap between parents and teachers virtually Hence, we kept Parentsalarm.com as a company name. Slowly, when we grew weadded new modules and solutions in our software and become a full-fledged cloud based ERP solutions provider company. Earlier, we were providing only one module but today, we are offering 55 modules to the schools from admission to results, from school bus to homework.
We all know the canvas is a piece of paper where everything is written. So, parents can get each & every information from school announcement to student’s performance in just a click and started customizing our services according to the requirement of the schools. Hence, we chose to rebrand ourselves and keep a name which is more suitable according to our services.
Please share the growth of the company till its inception.
We started this company when I was in college; I saw a huge gap in technology in schools. They were using the old methods. So, I thought what if I can innovate a technology through which parents can get an update on a daily basis of their child and schools can opt for minimal paper use. We started the company with just one module today, we are offering 55 modules. We have incorporated a lot of changes in our solution to provide customization to the schools and become a full-fledged cloud based ERP solution provider company in India. We were growing at a slow pace in the beginning but we took a leap in the year of 2015 when we added customization, 24/7 customer support and expanded our services in different regions. Today, we are providing our services to more than 550 schools across India.
What are your future plans?
School Canvas aspires to provide educational institutions with the excellent software experience possible through technological innovation. We are on a mission to give schools a 360-degree IT solution, regardless of their level of technical expertise. They envision leveraging the power of innovation, expertise, technology, and advancement to bring all stakeholders in the education system closer together.