Trends in K-12 Enterprise Management: Are Districts Ready to Cross the Chasm?

The ability to accurately collect, manage and report against various data streams is of paramount importance to states and K-12 school districts. Moreover, as part of a gradual industrywide transition from a compliance orientation toward a performance orientation, school districts are under increasing pressure to efficiently link student information directly to assessment outcomes and other types of academic and administrative data.

Over the past decade, corporate America has managed the implementation of integrated, comprehensive IT systems with a common data infrastructure - termed "enterprise management systems" - which are designed to promote alignment of strategy and operations for improved efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity. To date, adoption of this type of integrated technology environment has been slow in the K-12 market segment. While most agree that school systems ultimately will move in this direction, there remain many unanswered questions about districts' demand for enterprise management systems and of providers' ability to effectively deliver them, including:

• Do school districts recognize the potential value of enterprise management systems?
  What are districts' top investment priorities?


• How much can they afford to spend, over what periods, and through what types of financing structures?


• What are districts' purchasing preferences, and who drives the decision?


• Are districts comfortable with a single vendor or will they prefer a mosaic of best-of-breed solutions?


• To what extent do answers to these questions vary based on district size?


• What other factors may be influencing the overall direction of the market?

The answers to these questions represent the void this report addresses. In addition to summarizing market segmentation, size, and growth trends, the report provides a framework for understanding the rapidly evolving market environment for K-12 district enterprise management systems, including the opportunities and obstacles facing providers of business, student data, and instructional management systems.