In the Fall of 2021, a Canadian education technology company faced a problem common to many small to mid-sized student information system {SIS} vendors. Edsembli had a great product and a desire to expand their customer reach by integrating with the Ed-Fi technology suite. Two issues stood in the way.
How to:
• Make their data conform to the Ed-Fi API format for real-time interoperability, and
• Allocate a limited staff to learn a completely new software platform.
They were given a recommendation and reached out to ESP Solutions Group. Having worked with the Ed-Fi technology since before it was defined by the name Ed-Fi, ESP was the perfect choice.
The first step – accomplished in three months with their senior data analyst – was to create a detailed mapping to assure that all 43 data resource groups required for SIS certification could be identified within the Edsembli data schema. This was slightly more challenging than usual. Since their SIS was developed in the Canadian market, some of the terminology was different.
ESP also provided a fixed-price cost proposal for the work required to develop and certify the agent.
By this time, it was the holiday season and everyone went off to eat and sleep more than normal.
In February, Edsembli made the decision that they would proceed, but there was a catch. For the investment to make sense they would need to attend the Fall Ed-Fi Summit to announce that they were the first foreign company to achieve certification with the Ed-Fi Alliance. This would require ESP to develop an agent in about six months. The certification process alone takes weeks to complete.
ESP began the certification process with a fully interoperable agent in September 2022. The exhaustive certification process requires coordination between Edsembli’s data analyst, the ESP development team, and the Ed-fi Alliance. Each resource, one by one, must be created within the SIS, specific fields updated with any changes, and then deleted. The Alliance watches the user interface within the SIS to verify the data action and then inspects the Ed-Fi ODS to assure the change has registered. This alone takes four to six weeks for most vendors.
Edsembli was able to attend the Summit and was presented as the latest vendor to certify and the only vendor from outside the United States to certify on the Ed-Fi platform. After closing out the official paperwork, Edsembli was awarded certification on December 12, 2022.
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