Nowadays, bookings systems for schools, wraparound childcare, after school clubs and out-of-school club are being more and more used to take payments, communicate with parents, manage paperwork and much more.
There are two main approaches when it comes to choosing the right system for your organisation;
The first is to hire a software development company to build a bespoke booking system to meet your specifications, the second is to subscribe to an existing cloud-based solution. Each option has its advantages and issues, read on to find out more:
Bespoke booking systems
A bespoke booking system is built from the ground up specifically for your organisation. With your chosen development company, you will need to put together a list of requirements that you want your system to be able to do. This will most likely be completed in consultation with the developers, who will advise you on what is possible, how long it will take and any other aspects you need to be aware of. The developers then get to work designing, building and testing the system before delivering the solution to you. The process is very similar to having an architect design your house; you hire a set of professionals to build something to your specifications.
Advantages
- Bespoke: Whatever specifications you request, providing they are achievable, should be met by the developers. This means that if you have a particular way of doing things, then your system will be able to match that.
- Integrated: another advantage of a bespoke system is the ability to be built within your website, therefore parents are not redirected to a different URL to access your booking system.
Disadvantages
- Expensive: Software development is very costly because of the highly skilled nature of the work, you'll have to pay for a full team of developers, testers and a project manager which drives up the cost of getting things done dramatically. Cost will probably be running into the tens of thousands of pounds.
- Slow: Development is a slow process, often requiring many hours of work, testing and iterations. This means the time between signing a contract and going live is typically measured in months rather than in days or weeks.
- Ongoing expenses: In addition to paying for any modifications you might need, you are also likely to have to pay for some kind of support fee to maintain the system and fix any bug that may occur.
- Stuck in time: Everything evolves with time, and technology is no stranger to this natural course of life, if anything this is one of the most rapidly changing industries. Therefore, however good a system is when it goes live, it will be dated in 5 years' time, some technologies are abandoned altogether or replaced by newer ones and to keep-up your system will eventually have to be updated, costing again more money.
Subscription booking systems
Cloud-based subscription booking systems are built for a specific purpose or industry and are managed by a company devoted to that system. Clients pay a subscription fee to access the system as a service, where they have their own environment.
Advantages
- Quick: Subscribing to a cloud-based booking system will be ready to go, right out of the box. Bar any initial set-up and training, the system can be up and running in 24 hours or less.
- Cheap: The cost of development is shared over many clients, rather than concentrated on one. This has distinct advantages since it means the cost that you pay is extremely low compared to the system's capabilities.
- Supported: Because subscription systems rely on having many clients, they also by necessity must have an efficient support system active. This will include tools and personnel ready and able to help you when things go wrong. This is further helped by a large number of clients finding and reporting issues if and when they arise. As a consequence, a subscription system is constantly improved and polished, rather than built and delivered, with further improvements costing more.
- Flexible: Cloud based system often allow flexibility in the way things like permissions, activities, payments, and much more, can beset-up. Instead of being built to suit one specific scenario they tend to be designed to accommodate different individual needs.