Tribal Grp. Regulatory News (TRB)

06 February 2018

Tribal Group plc("Tribal" or "the Group")

Microsoft and Tribal collaborate to transform the education sector

Tribal Group, a pioneering world-leader of education software and services, today announces that is collaborating with Microsoft to enable the organisation to expand the number of educational institutions and students that can access its Student Information Systems (SIS).

Tribal is the market-leading supplier of Student Information Systems and services within the UK, Australia and New Zealand, offering SITS:Vision for Higher Education institutions and ebs for Further/Vocational Education. Since 2016, the company has been developing a next generation, cloud-based solution - Tribal Edge - and has selected Microsoft Azure as the underlying platform. 

To support the proactive development of Tribal Edge, Microsoft's Azure application development team will work with Tribal to accelerate the creation of new functionality, enabling the rapid development of an enhanced cloud-based platform and the conversion of the current functionally-rich applications of SITS:Vision and ebs to a cloud environment. As a result, Tribal will be able to provide a single engagement solution for students in all educational establishments, to enhance student experience and underpin their learning success.

As part of the agreement, Tribal will offer both SITS:Vision and ebs in the Azure marketplace as cloud ready solutions. Microsoft will also promote the Tribal portfolio in new geographical markets.

By taking an Azure-based solution, Tribal's customers will have access to a full range of complementary applications such as ERP, CRM, HR and other innovative solutions provided by Microsoft and its partners, that can be simply and easily integrated with the Tribal solutions.

Ian Bowles, Chief Executive Officer, Tribal said "We are excited to embark on this new, strategic collaboration with Microsoft and believe it will quickly reap significant benefits for our mutual and prospective customers. With Microsoft's support, we will rapidly deliver Tribal Edge and improve the offering to our existing customers, providing new student engagement and superior student experience functionality across all our solutions, and also allow significant enhancements to other providers' solutions.

"Microsoft is a clear leader with the breadth of its cloud offerings. That coupled with a focus on education made Microsoft the obvious partner for our next generation cloud offering. Working with Microsoft, we will be able to offer a host of new, complementary solutions to our extensive education customer base. By adopting Azure as our cloud platform, we know that our customers can deploy these innovative solutions quickly and with minimal effort. Working with an eco-system of partners, we are underlining our commitment to continue to provide our customers with the best Student Information Systems available and to maintain the pace of advancement that the cloud affords us."

Ian Fordham, Director of Education, Microsoft UK commented "It is important for us to work with an organisation that truly understands the education sector and the specific needs of this market and was aligned with our vision of 'empowering students of today to create the world of tomorrow'. We are delighted to be able to work with Tribal as the market leader in Student Information Systems for Higher and Further education, and its commitment to the Microsoft Azure platform is a further endorsement of Microsoft's cloud and application offerings.

"Jointly, we will be able to offer a significant advantage to education institutions that puts students at the heart of what they do, with technology that enables access at any time, from anywhere. This collaboration will truly deliver on the potential of cloud and mobile solutions to enhance the learning experience for all. We are looking forward to delivering exceptional value to our joint education customers."

Tribal has developed four new modules in Tribal Edge and these were made available to a select group of Tribal customers at the end of 2017. Tribal Edge is now being rolled out across all markets and geographies.

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About Tribal Group plc

Tribal Group plc is a pioneering world-leader of education software and services. Its portfolio includes Student Information Systems; a broad range of education services covering quality assurance, peer review, benchmarking and improvement; and student surveys that provide the leading global benchmarks for student experience. Working with Higher Education, Further and Tertiary Education, schools, Government and State bodies, training providers and employers, in over 55 countries; Tribal Group's mission is to empower the world of education with products and services that underpin student success.