Developed by MGM Wireless Limited in Adelaide, South Australia, School Star is a secure mobile phone app that keeps parents in the loop about attendance, functions and other school news.
MGM Wireless invented the world’s first SMS based automated communication solution for schools in 2002.
Almost 1300 schools from around Australia use MGM’s communications system and half of them will be active users of the new School Star app within the next six months.
MGM Wireless CEO Mark Fortunatow said the company plans to take the app internationally after its success in Australia.
“We are formulating plans and strategies and hope to move in to the United States and Canada by the end of the calendar year,” he says.
“We also have partners and people in Shenzhen and Singapore that we have been working with for some time and have a network in place there already.”
School Star has a Facebook-styled news feed that can be regularly updated and is the only school app that allows direct two-way messaging between parents and schools with an SMS failover.
“Parents need a feedback loop. School Star does that and a number of other things that no other school app does,” Fortunatow says.
“Communication through other school apps gets to about 40% of the intended recipients at best.
“School Star will automatically send messages and content by SMS instead if parents run out of mobile data or don’t have access to Wi-Fi – so schools will reach almost 100% of parents.
“It is also unique because it promises a secure environment where only approved users can access school information.”
Schools install MGM’s content management system and enter in relevant news and information for parents.
Parents and students then register themselves using a secure two-factor verification process and once complete will allow users access to school information.
Only registered users from the current school database can use the school specific School Star app. It also allows the schools to ‘lock out’ unwanted users.
MGM ensures that sensitive information like names, photographs, dates, and places are kept secure at all times.
“Schools are loving School Star – they can publish news and send messages with a smooth interface and easy integration path,” Fortunatow says.
“News articles are easy to create, and parents love keeping in touch with what’s going on at the school.”
“School Star includes an engagement dashboard with state-of-the-art analytics so schools know which content is working best.”
School Star is available to download for free in the App Store and Google Play in Australia and will be available in the United States and Canada later this year.
– Caleb Radford
This article was first published by The Lead South Australia on 27th April 2016. Read the original article here.
