Classter CEO Nikolaos Nikou recently gave an interview to Annie Karolidou for GRTimes.gr where he analyzed his aspirations and the company’s success story. He referenced the fact that Classter tries to “technologically educate…education” in the sense that the platform fits every educational institution and takes education further than before. Classter is a modular, easily configurable and adaptable to different educational systems platform, it is multilingual as it is localized in Greek, English, French, Spanish, German and Arabic.
Mr. Nikou also said: “The methods of teaching in schools are almost the same as they were 30 years ago. However, education is geared towards implementing a new approach that proposes tailored curriculums for each student, and the transformation of the teacher’s role to the student’s coach. To apply these new concepts in practice, technology is here and has the solution. Now, the use of IT solutions is fragmented and has been applied to a limited scope and this approach has created islands of technology in an environment without any strategic organization”
Classter is an All-in-One system, with a cloud-based architecture (SaaS) supported by Microsoft Azure infrastructure, integrates features of 5 different management systems:
- SMS (Student Management System),
- SIS (School Information System),
- LMS (Learning Management System),
- ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and
- Educational CRM (Customer Relationship Management).
Classter philosophy is based on three pillars, it is developing: adapted learning, unified system and open school as it wants to communicate with parents, mentors, student communities, etc.
Classter has a strong team of 20 people, an international network of 11 resellers and a clear strategic development plan, as explained by Mr. Nikou.
He further explained the company’s goals about expanding internationally: “Our international development targets three major geographical zones. The first is in North America and Canada where we primarily target cloud solutions at colleges and training centers. They have taken the first steps in a huge market in which large US players do not provide cloud solutions.”
“The second zone is Europe. In Europe, we are targeting private schools, for example in Scandinavia and gradually in Germany, we are applying the system of education vouchers”.
“The third zone is the Middle East wherein countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Dubai there is huge development of private education for International students.
“We are also looking at Latin America, but for Classter the most challenging market to penetrate in the next phase will be Asia” Mr. Nikou explained.
Concluding Mr. Nikou also talked about the next steps for Classter, when the platform will gradually become a content provider, reseller and broker of educational information, hardware and applications. He said: “Incorporating and editing data will give us secondary information that will allow us to propose specific learning tools in order to support learning through Classter, this will be our next step,”
Classter has been recognized by the market and most recently rewarded for its performance by being placed in the top 5 Greek Startup companies by the Greek Association of Information Systems & Telecommunication Companies.
Classter has also been nominated as a National Finalist for the Startup of the Year award by the South European Start-up Awards.
