The Alpha Plus Group, formerly the Davies, Laing and Dick Education Group, placed an order for 16 of its schools and colleges, valued at £355,000 in February this year.

‘We had been struggling with a well known MIS product for many years,’ said Alan Holden, Alpha’s Support Services Manager. ‘Everybody was thoroughly fed up with it.

‘The stage had been reached where we just had to find a replacement MIS which did what we needed it to do instead of being limited and constricted.

‘Whilst each school needed to be able to run itself, Alpha HQ needed to be able to see group performance as a whole.’

Why Engage

‘After researching the market,’ said Alan, ‘we had a short list of three products. Everybody liked Engage. In particular, the fact that Engage had been created from scratch separated it from the rest.

‘Double First’s business model and attitude was so refreshing. They felt like our type of company.’

It had to be Engage

‘The front end of Engage is so simple,’ added Alan. ‘We had a group of Teachers, Bursars, and Users who all reached the same conclusion. It just had to be Engage.’