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A decision by the country's biggest education system, NSW, to abandon a single IT platform for managing schools and open a tender for smaller companies to offer a range of platforms has significantly boosted the outlook for Compass Education.

Since 2012, Compass has worked with a wide variety of schools across Australia to support them in reducing unnecessary administration and create an environment where teachers and principals can focus on their core jobs.

Education-technology entrepreneur John de la Motte says the pandemic has forced schools to rethink how they report on student progress, paving the way for more detailed feedback and an end to "pass or fail" results.

Compass sent all its staff home early in March and since then has changed its priorities, employing staff in remote locations and letting employees relate to users of its services at a more granular level.

Compass helps school managers handle enrolments, student attendance, academic results, communication with parents and processing of payments for things like excursions or canteen orders.

It was early days in the pandemic but founder and chief executive John de la Motte says it was impressive how quickly they moved once a decision had been made to clear out the offices in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Balwyn.