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Boardingware + Clever: The Best Way To Integrate With Your Schools SIS

Kurt Meyer

December 21, 2015

Technology is rapidly changing the way schools operate. But when it comes to making the decision to adopt new technologies, there are a few things you must consider beforehand, and one of those is the implementation process.How will introducing new technology affect your existing school environment? Will it be difficult to get others on-board? How will it affect your current workflow? Does it integrate with your existing software systems?When you're introducing new technologies, the implementation phase should be smooth, seamless and an enjoyable process.That's why I'm proud to announce that we've partnered up with Clever to help us seamlessly integrate Boardingware with over 70 different Student Information Systems (SIS).In this post, I'd like to take the time to tell you about Clever and what our partnership with them means for you and your school.

What is Clever?

[caption id="attachment_871" align="aligncenter" width="770"]

clever

Integrate your schools existing SIS with Boardingware as well as 200 other applications[/caption]Clever is a software service that connects your schools SIS (Student Information System) with other educational applications like Boardingware. It's basically the middle man that takes any relevant information from your SIS and automatically syncs it with a third party application.Say goodbye to double data management and timely information transfer, and say hello to automatic integration and seamless implementation.Used by over 44,000 schools in the US, Clever integrates with most SISs including Senior Systems and BlackBaud Education Edge. Here's a full list of all the SISs that Clever can currently integrate with:[caption id="attachment_880" align="aligncenter" width="580"]

SIS

Clever can integrate with over 70 different SIS's[/caption]Clever also has its own marketplace, which gives you access to more than 200 educational applications. So, aside from being able to use Clever to integrate with Boardingware, you'll also have the opporunity to just as easily integrate with any other application listed on Clever's marketplace.Click here to view Clever's app galleryClever makes it easy for you to use and integrate technology into your school environment. They open the door to a whole range of possibilities. It's like having a key to access a secret collection of resources.Clever's marketplace has apps like "Share my lesson," which provides educators with resources to help improve your teaching skills or Google's apps for education which help you to collaboratively work on team/class projects.Additionally, Clever also offers a secure and FERPA compliant (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) data encryption service. This means you can retain full control of your student information whilst also benefiting from Clever's industry-leading encryption.Clever's rigorous audits and leading security infrastructure will give you the peace of mind that your students data is in the safest of hands.On the whole, Clever makes it easy for you to keep all your applications rostered and up-to-date. But perhaps the best part about integrating with Clever is the price. It's 100% FREE for you and your school to use.It won't cost you a dime because they only charge third party products (like us) who choose to integrate with Clever. So there's no reason why you shouldn't be excited about Clever.

How Does It Work With Boardingware?

Our partnership with Clever allows us to seamlessly integrate with your schools SIS, and automatically load all of your student information onto the Boardingware platform.Your IT department will love using Clever, because now, they'll only have to manage one data system. All that's required from them is to setup your schools Clever account (which only takes a matter of minutes), select the data you'd like to sync and let Clever take care of the rest.

Automatically Sync Your Student Information

Our seamless integration with Clever, allows your school to sync the following information from your SIS to Boardingware:[caption id="attachment_874" align="aligncenter" width="580"]

info

Automatically sync your student information to Boardingware[/caption]Any changes to this information will automatically be updated in Clever, and then synced to Boardingware.Boardingware will check for updates and sync every 5 minutes through Clever's API. Alternatively, you can also sync the data manually with the click of the button if you want it updated instantly.[caption id="attachment_875" align="aligncenter" width="580"]

manual sync

Manually sync your data from the "school management" page[/caption]

Access All Your Apps With Single Sign-On

Have you ever forgotten your login password, ended up having to reset it, and then forgotten it again a few weeks later?If you do, then you'll understand this pain of having to remember numerous different login details for all your different software applications.However, there's a 'Clever' solution to this (see what I did there). Clever's "Instant Login" feature allows you to sign-in to all your different applications (that are compatible with Clever) with just one username and password.You only have to remember one password! And you only have to login once![su_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxbl982ty7I" width="580" height="460"]Furthermore, you can use login details from any existing identity provider you use on a regular basis. This means you can Log in with your Google Account or Your existing SIS log in details.This makes it even easier for you and your team to remember your login details and it'll also integrate seamlessly with your current workflow.This is an extremely useful feature for when you're inviting new students and staff to use Boardingware. Instead of spending the time to create each new user a Clever account, you can simply get them to use their existing login details, like their Google username and password or their existing SIS login details etc.Choose what other identity systems to allow and alternatively, you can choose which ones to deny. Clever works with most internet providers but here's a list of popular services that are used with instant logins:

  • Google Apps
  • Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)
  • Clever Username and Passwords
  • Synced Passwords from your existing SIS

Other means can be worked on with a Clever representative on a case by case basis

Logging In Through Clever

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Instantly login with your Clever account[/caption]Logging in to Boardingware through Clever is pretty much the same as before. On the normal Boardingware login page, there's a Clever Button which will prompt you to enter your "Instant Login" details.Simply enter your Clever, Google or whatever login details you use and it'll take you directly to your Boardingware account.[caption id="attachment_892" align="aligncenter" width="750"]

homepage5

Easily access Boardingware from a simple link on your schools website[/caption]To make signing in even easier, you can also set up a Boardingware link on your schools website to take you directly to your 'Home Board' via the Clever login portal. This makes Boardingware incredibly simple for your staff and students to access.Side Note: Although Clever's instant login feature is a great tool for your staff and students, it's not quite as ideal for parents. This is because your parents contact information can be shared amongst other schools that they're also involved with.For instance, some parents might have a daughter who boards at an all girls school and a son who boards at an all boys school.So in order to keep their information safe and secure, it's important to keep them separate on our current parent system which allows parents to easily access Boardingware across a network of schools.Click here for more information on how parents use Boardingware

When Can You Get Started?

Boardingware's integration with Clever is now LIVE.You can get started today, all that's required from you is to complete an initial setup process.For new and existing Boardingware schools, the setup involves creating a Clever account and matching all your relevant data channels from your schools SIS to the Boardingware Platform.The setup is simple and straight forward and your IT department should be more than capable of doing it themselves. However, if you do have any issues, both Clever and our expert support team will be here to help you every step of the way.If you have any troubles with your setup process, feel free to contact us directly at support@Boardingware.comIf you have any problems, questions or suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment in the section below or Tweet us @Boardingware.

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Kurt Meyer

Kurt is one of the Co-founders of Orah, currently based in Japan. He manages the product team to deliver the best possible experience to our users.

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