Rebranding Boardingware to Orah

Today we are announcing the rebranding of our company and the launch of our platform, Orah. These changes are a part of a multi-year company evolution that is elevating the way we serve schools, like yours. 

With the introduction of Orah, we’re committing to building elegant software for departments outside of just Residential Life, or ‘boarding’ as some of us refer to it as.

We’re excited to share this moment with you and invite you to experience Orah.

Over the years, we have received hundreds of thousands of requests from our schools to build more and more features, which has given us the opportunity to help many of our schools both inside and outside of the residential department. 

Due to the expanding footprint of our product, in 2020 we decided to segment Boardingware into multiple products to allow for us to provide more specialisation in each area, and to give our clients the option to adopt the products that suit their needs.

By witnessing the impact we have had on operations for our schools, we have decided to redefine our purpose and broaden our horizons. 

We have seen a shift that has fundamentally changed a school’s role in education, towards an approach we’ve coined Student Enablement. 

Boarding schools have known this forever, but now, regular schools are beginning to see that it's important to understand the full picture for each students and glean valuable insights that help to clarify how a student is progressing. 

We want to be the catalyst to this movement.

Why Orah?

The word orah derives from the Māori word ‘Ora’ which is defined as;

1. (verb) to be alive, well, safe, cured, recovered, healthy, fit, healed.

The added 'h' was simply an adaption made due to the inability to secure the domain www.ora.com as it is owned by O'Reilly Media. We attempted many times to get in touch with the owner but unfortunately we were unsuccessful.

We believe that this new name is in line with the direction we would like to take the company - it’s more than a rebrand. This is the launch of our platform, the industry’s first Student Enablement Platform.

The New Logo

Our logo was designed by our dear friends in New York, Grace Kim who works as a creative at Red Antler and Steven Lin who works as a product manager at Square, both originally hailing from New Zealand, they understood the ethos of the company and the idea of disrupting a global industry. 

By absorbing our new direction and name, the final design is a simple adaption of the ‘koru’ which is a symbol for growth, new life, and peace commonly used in Māori art.

Introducing the Orah Platform

Orah is for schools that are determined to help each and every student reach their full potential. This is a collaborative process that requires the input and assistance of students, parents and staff and it means eliminating the tedious (but necessary!) work and spending more time enhancing relationships and experiences on and off campus.

Here are some of the benefits to the Orah Platform

1. Organises and centralises student information and daily work into one place

Currently schools struggle with using fragmented systems and data ends up all over the place. By using our suite of products you can be confident that the data from each will end up in the same location for you to view at your convenience.

2. Modern platform made to easily integrate with other systems across campus

Orah was born in the cloud and built with the latest web technologies which results in the ability to integrate with almost any system your school might use. If we don’t have an integration out of the box, your team can access our Open API which allows you to create custom integrations  for other systems on campus.

3. Consistent experience across multiple products and departments.

With the existing landscape, schools use different products that come with a different User Experience across each system. This results in needing training across multiple platforms which overcomplicate things. Using Orah’s platform gives you access to using our range of products which come with the same user-friendly experience, customer service and knowledge base for learning and development.

4. Multiple products one invoice

Your finance and legal teams benefit by dealing with one company for multiple products which reduces complexity in the payments office and in your dealings with your account manager.

5. Empower all departments with real-time insights

Each department can gain the power of real-time information in order to provide a consistent and uniform approach to each student.

What this means for you

From July 1st 2021 Boardingware will become Orah - The student enablement platform. 

For our existing users, your experience will remain the same, however you will now access the product through the www.orah.com webpage and your apps will be updated with the new name and logo.

If you have any questions, concerns or feedback, please contact your Success Manager.

We look forward to you joining us on the next leg of our journey.

Paul

Co-CEO @ Orah

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens to Boardingware?

The Boardingware name and logo will cease to be used on all of the key assets, and it will be replaced with the orah name and logo. The following assets will be updated:

• School App
• Student App
• Parent App
• Checkpoint App

Will my service stay the same?

Your service will stay the same and continue to get better. This move will help our company dedicate specialised resources to each product within the Orah platform.

Will this impact what my school is paying?

No, all schools that are already on the platform pricing will remain the same with your existing contract terms and conditions. We will be adding more tiers to existing products and more products to the platform, but it will be your decision as to whether or not you would like to adopt those products/features and the resulting fee changes.

This new structure will also allow you to more easily 'downgrade' if you decide you don't need as much of the platform as you initially intended.

Will you neglect boarding school requests now?

Definitely not, our company is dedicated to enhancing our existing products which boarding schools all over the world are already benefiting from and we will continue to build products that focus on life outside of the classroom thus benefiting both boarding schools and regular day schools.

Why don’t boarding schools keep Boardingware and day schools use Orah?

Our company is still small, therefore we need to be efficient with the resources we have in order to maintain the level of service we have been providing to date.

How will the new pricing work?

The Orah platform will be priced based on multiple factors, namely;

• Which products your school uses
• Which tier of each product your school uses
• Number of students

This provides each school with the flexibility to adopt and change your plan to suit the speed in which you would like to scale.

How do we become involved with the development of your new products?

We are always looking for champions to help us build the future of Student Enablement and school operations software. If you are interested in being a part of this in a more influential way, please email me at paul@orah.com

What happens if my school has custom branding through School Pride?

Your experience on the web and your smart devices will remain the same with your school colours and branding. The only difference, will be when you login as the web will be through the app.orah.com web address and your mobile apps will be using the orah apps.

Do we need to download a new app? 

No, the name and logo for the existing boardingware apps will transition to orah without the need for downloading a new application.