Sometimes an information system used in School Districts will not include toolsets for data integration out-of-the-box. Oftentimes the prohibiting factors include the cost of development and limited support due to homegrown or legacy software. Our developers work with software vendors, using varied skillsets and tools, to develop SIF® agents and data connectors, enabling their application to provide or consume school data without the additional need to rewrite the application code or change the application in the process.
- Schools and districts use data that comes from many different applications and sources. The problem is that the data must be re-entered many times into each application via manual data entry. Without some way to integrate the data, keep it up to date, and check it for accuracy, the data the teachers and staff use every day becomes stale and inaccurate. This wastes time in the classroom for teachers, extra tech support tickets for IT, and frustrated administrators who are trying to analyze and report on the data.
- Districts and vendors need to work together in order to make data integration a success. For many districts, this means implementing SIF®, Student Interoperability Framework. Typically, vendors are expected to supply a SIF® agent for their applications but this is often times difficult for vendors to provide due to the cost of developing and supporting SIF Agents. In other situations, districts use homegrown software or legacy software that does not have a SIF® Agent.
- Integrity Schools has developed and certified SIF® Agents for many different types of software applications. If you are a software company interested in developing a SIF® Agent, we can provide various types of services ranging from education to complete outsourcing to consulting on SIF® Agent architecture and design. Integrity can also provide comprehensive SIF® support services for your SIF® Agent.
- If you are a school district with an application that needs a SIF® Agent, we recommend that you first ask your software vendor about potentially building a SIF® Agent for you that could also be put to use at any other districts. Given the right set circumstances, we can also build SIF® Agents directly for schools.