Electronic Classroom Solutions Welcome to ECS, a startup that provides retrofitting software and services to existing student management systems. We have a successful beta version of our platform that bypasses BCesis’s interface and that of other SMS’s. We pride ourselves on bringing aesthetics, usability and efficiency to existing platforms– all while saving education systems millions. Elevator Pitch […]
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Brian H
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troos
Claudio Erba founds Docebo
Claudio Erba is the founder and CEO of the Italian company called Docebo (dō-CHAY-bō), an e-learning company that has developed an open-source LMS. It can be run on the cloud as SaaS on a fee per-user basis or it can be purchased and installed locally. Docebo differentiates itself from competitors by having small and medium […]
Continue reading Claudio Erba founds Docebo Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp-
Deborah S
Great summary! Your comment about the continued growth of the company despite competition is consistent with a report I read from Bersin & Associates. The author of the report, David Mallon, suggested that the number of LMS providers continues to grow fuelled by the entrance of smaller companies.
Deborah
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troos
Yes, there does seem to be many small but successful ventures in the LMS, CMS, SMS and TMS markets. It also seems, however, that for every new idea that makes these ventures successful, another one is bought out and absorbed by the larger corporations such as Blackboard. For example, a company called MoodleRooms, providing online hosting and technical support for the Moodle platform was recently bought by Blackboard so now Blackboard has invested in Moodle. It all seems rather strange to me but I guess if you can buy out the competition, that is one way of maintaining a market status.
Tim
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mackenzie
It’s interesting to see a product, originally created for education being specialized for businesses. Usually it’s the other way around. It’s also great to see they are succeeding by becoming specialists in business training. I wonder what might happen if other LMS providers get wind to the market potential for business. Although, my experience tells me that these companies are slow to shift (Moodle creators agree) and therefore may never catch up to Docebo, especially if the company continues to evolve to meet the needs of its customers. I wonder what Docebo offers that Blackboard and Desire2Learn don’t?
Cheers, Steve
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troos
Steve
I think Docebos main catch for the business market is their willingness to adapt their technology to suit the needs of their clients. They even offer to provide full course development and learning object creation for their clients. This is very attractive for businesses since they do not need to hire educational experts to do this development.
Tim
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gillian
Tim,
I am curious how the company can refer to itself as “open source” if it requires user fee for web-based users or a purchase price for downloaders?-
troos
Gillian
Open source just means that the source code that the software is developed with is made available to the clients. There is no patent or copyright on the particular programming of the software. In this way, if they so desire, the clients can redesign the code to fit their personal preferences. Docebo does offer a free version for up to five users; essentially to try it out. There are also several examples of companies who offer Moodle, also an open-source product on a per-user fee basis (MoodleRooms and Lambda Solutions to name two).
Tim
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troos
A Review of the NMC Horizon K-12 Report
The NMC Horizon Report is a publication from cooperation between the New Media Consortium (NMC), Consortium for School Networking and the International Society for Technology in Education. The authors indicate the report “identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within education around the globe” […]
Continue reading A Review of the NMC Horizon K-12 Report Posted in: Uncategorized-
gregcamp
Great post,
Sounds like there is lots of useful information in this report that a technology company or entrepreneur would find useful to stay current with trends and to keep their product or service appealing to the market. The problem with technology is that it is a 1 time purchase for the most part and constantly needs upgraded. This is especially true from a public education standpoint where budgets don’t exist that allow technology to be upgraded and maintained properly. If a venture can come up with a low cost solution to this problem or atleast put lots of thought into it as they develop their product or service their chance at success will increase substantially.
Regards,
Greg Campbell
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Deborah S
A really informative summary! As Greg pointed out, it appears the report has a great deal of information that would be useful to educators. I think it’s very helpful that they explained how the items were chosen (a shortcoming of the report I reviewed). Including a prediction about the timeline for general implementation would allow educators to remain close to any new developments with the emerging technology.
Deborah
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janetb
Thanks for the review. I had looked briefly at the Higher Education Edition and it looked promising. I also had noticed the timeline and thought it would be helpful as a rough outline for planning ahead.
I appreciated your comment about the bias in the report. Big business, funding and politics certainly all play their role in educational technology.
Janet
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HJDeW
Tim, when looking at the short list for the NMC K-12 2012 report (http://k12.wiki.nmc.org/file/view/2012-Horizon.K12-Shortlist.pdf), there are significant differences between items identified for K-12 educators and those found in the Horizon Higher Ed report. I found that an interesting anomaly but think that it a reasonable response to varying technological needs and issues at each level of education.
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Denise
HI Helen,
I too looked at the NMC reports and noticed the difference. I actually thought it was less an anomaly and maybe more of a recognition that K-12 is different to higher education? Just reflecting on the UBC cube – K-12 is a different market focus, has different buyers, and maybe different market status and competition.I thought that there were 3 different NMC reports (including museum education) was a strength of the reports.
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Meggan Crawford 6:32 pm on July 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Brian,
As a potential investor I am very interested in your venture. There are often platforms that need adjustments made, rather than replacement, and I am curious to see how ECS would manage those daunting tasks.
I think that the key to your venture is keeping the retrofits of the platforms simple – if these new tools require a great deal of training or cause a lot of frustration ECS is not likely to thrive. If, however, these retrofits improve access to and use of existing tools they are worthwhile. At the same time, there is likely to be some negative reaction to these retrofits, as some teachers will likely balk at the idea of having to learn a new interface. My key question about your venture is how a new ‘face’ for a program can make it into something that meets the needs of schools, governments, etc. For example, you give the example of BCesis and how it has not met the needs/goals of any party, but how will a retrofit make it suddenly work? This may be my lack of programming knowledge, but I am curious nonetheless!
Other than that, it was great to see your short and long term goals as it clearly laid out the direction that ECS hopes to take. It might help to give a bit more context for how these goals will be met (i.e. how do you overcome competition to become the leader!).
Great work – thanks for sharing the ideas!
-Meggan
p.s. You probably want to check the spelling of opportunity at the 15second mark of your venture pitch 🙂 (Now Fixed–Brian)
Donna Forward 11:04 pm on July 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hello Brian,
You really have a great idea here. I know that BCesis is not well liked by many teachers and you offer a good money saving venture that is very convincing. I believe that you could actually make a go at this. You have really done your homework and researched this topic well. Your argument for the company is truly credible.
If I had to be picky, there was one point during your presentation where the music was louder than your voice and I had to strain to follow but otherwise, a very professional presentation.
I would invest in Electronic Classroom Solutions!
Donna
(Typo fixed in Video)
gregcamp 8:33 pm on July 31, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Brian, as an investor and teacher I am interested in learning more about your product as it sounds like you have a great idea that has real merit. The difficulty I see if having the ministry or school boards by into your idea. Great job
Greg
Allan 11:50 pm on July 31, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Brian,
As an investor, this is a very impressive presentation, and I am interested in investing in your product!
I like the concept and business plan of ECS as a startup that provides retrofitting software and services to existing student management systems. Your elevator and venture pitches is really convincing in showing ECS as a successful platform that bypasses BCesis’s interface and that of other SMS’s.
The presentations were very energetic presentation – music is important – and you brought out the best of your slides and statistics. Your argument is also convincing — the fact that you did some really hard good research on the BC Government is fantastic – I’m glad you touched on its need for an alternative – the government is a good buyer.
Your technology is also a great validation — open source. It’s a low-cost effective technology, and efficient with low overhead costs. I especially am impressed by your 3-5 year picture. As an investor, knowing that ECS has a chance to prosper in a $7.5 million dollar market, as you pointed out, assures some of my hesitations and piques my curiosity as an investor.
Well done!
Allan
Denise 10:25 am on August 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
HI Brian,
I too was impressed with your elevator and venture pitch. Both were punchy and the music really did generate a passion for the venture. I enjoyed “meeting” you in the elevator pitch and so felt really comforatable watching the venture pitch without seeing you again.
I thought you answered painpoint, solution, differentiation and really provided a clear idea of ask and return as well as convincing about the team.
I am not from Canada and so don’t know a lot about BCesis, but your pitches made me very keen to learn more and considering investing. You emphasised partnerships and opportunities that made the venure seem less risky too.
Denise
Kenton Hemsing 12:30 pm on August 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Brian,
You have put together a fantastic, effective and well researched pitch for your company. I am interested in learning more about how you are going to retrofit and make the student information systems more user friendly and intuitive for the end users. I thought that you did a great job in creating a rock solid reason, solution and expansion opportunity for your company. Well done.
However, as this topic is a bit out of my expertise, I feel that I could not invest without doing a lot more research myself and totally understanding the market you are venturing into, nothing to do with any weaknesses in your pitches.
Thanks,
Kenton
Danielle Dubien 6:51 pm on August 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Brian,
The quality of your pitches is amazing! Great use of music, pictures and narration!
You’ve convinced me that there is a financial need for your service.
You differentiated your own venture well from the others. How do you manage to keep your costs so much lower than those of Pearson? Is it all because of your use of open source products?
Once your services are used by different clients, what ensures ongoing viability of the venture?
I wish I knew more about your topic to be able to make more comments. All in all, I think your pitches are extremely done and definitely worth an investment! I would have little, if anything to contribute to your company because I know nothing about the topic, so the only contribution I could make would be financial. It would better serve you to have someone else invest.
Cheers,
Dan
Brian H 8:00 am on August 3, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Danielle wrote “How do you manage to keep your costs so much lower than those of Pearson? Is it all because of your use of open source products?”
Thank you for your questions. We can keep our costs low as our interface is open source and the retrofit software is a simple program that logs the new interface into school’s existing management system. Schools really only pay for a small adapter between the old and new systems rather than a complete overhaul. Training costs are less as the new system is based on web 2.0 standards with the usability consistent to social networking sites.
Great question!
Brian
mariefrancehetu 3:54 pm on August 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hello Brian,
Well done! I think your elevator pitch was well done, you chose your words carefully and rendered your message clearly. Your use of images, video and screen captures was very well-balanced and well-suited to your subject matter.
Your venture pitch was equally well done, it looked quite professional. The only improvement I could note was the soiund quality, sometimes it sounded as if your recordings were of lower quality, thus providing a less homogenous presentation.
Your message was clear, your subject well researched. If I were an administrator within a school board I would certainly consider investing in your venture. You cleverly outlined the need and solution and convincingly outlined the gap left by competition.
I would definetely be interested in meeting with you for further discussions and possible partnerships.
Cheers!
Marie-France
HJDeW 8:16 am on August 3, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
David, this venture has merit and potential within a BC educational environment, with growth into other SMS locations (eg. Ontario). The look and feel of the product appeared user friendly and intuitive, but I wondered if market research or beta-testing on the ECS environment was conducted?
Within the elevator pitch, your passion and commitment to the product was evident and compelling. It was good to have your visible presence as a lead-in to the venture information. Nicely done.
Helen