| | December 201519CIOReviewBloomz Inc. (http://bloomz.net)Increasing Parental Engagement in Every SchoolParental engagement is a key element in the success of students. However, a recent research by Gallup found that only one in five parents engage with their kids' schooling, leaving 80 percent opportunity out there to get them involved and engaged with their wards academic en-gagements. But, the problem is further aggravated by the chang-ing trends in the way parents consume information--which is through social and mobile technologies. Redmond, WA based Bloomz is addressing this challenge for schools--increas-ing parental engagement with less effort. Bloomz focuses on three dimensions that drive better parental engagement--com-munity building, streamlined communication, and simplified coordination. "We help teachers and schools create a bridge between the classroom and home keeping parents in the loop of what their kids are learning," says Chakrapani Appalabat-tula, CEO of Bloomz. "This helps the parents connect with the school and class community."Bloomz provides all the communication, coordination, and community building tools they need, in one powerful, yet easy-to-use app that is intuitive and engaging. "In addi-tion to replacing five to seven tools for teachers with one app that saves a lot of time for both teachers and parents alike, Bloomz is providing teachers with a new level of connection to today's social and mobile parents," adds Appalabattula. The app consists of different tools including quick updates from the classroom, to photo sharing, event scheduling and two-way messaging, to volunteer and parent-teacher conference signups. "We do all these in a simple de-sign, helping people nav-igate easily. It is avail-able in all PC, Mac and iOS and Android devices, making it easier for peo-ple to access the informa-tion anywhere," explains Appalabattula."It is impor-tant to note that, because the teacher is always in control of who sees the informa-tion, parents can only access if invited, through a unique code."Earlier this year, the company assisted St. Catherine La-boure School in Glenview, IL adopt the unique app for its nu-merous positive effects on the schools and parents. Taking a measured approach, they started testing the app with a couple of teachers and classes, asking those who were tech savvier to try the app for some time and report the results. After two months of testing, the results were very positive and the rest of the teachers quickly embraced the new technology--replacing the dozens of parent emails and endless paper newsletters and flyers in student backpacks. Since its public launch in April 2015, Bloomz has rapidly spread to over 8000 schools with teachers sharing the app virally through blogs and social me-dia.According to Appalabattula, the rapid adoption of Bloomz is because it is the only app that has taken a very comprehensive approach to parental engagement. "With Bloomz, teachers are not just sending messages home, they can have actual conversations with parents­so, come parent-teacher conference time, both par-ents and teachers are on the same page," asserts Appalabattula. Bloomz wants to be the force that addresses perennial pa-rental engagement challenge faced by schools and ensure better outcomes for every student. They have also released beta ver-sion of Bloomz for Schools to provide the same level of commu-nication and coordination as in the classroom, but at the school level. As Appalabattula states, "We foresee Bloomz in the hands of every teacher and parent. We have a very robust product, with rich feature set, saving both teachers and parents a lot of time." The company has made the app accessible internationally based on requests from many users worldwide including Canada, Aus-tralia, UK, India, South Africa, "we encourage schools to in-novate themselves and transform their schools and communities forever through our app," concludes Appalabattula. 20 MOST PROMISINGBloomz is providing teachers with a new level of connection to today's social and mobile parentsChakrapani Appalabattula
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