Major new acquisition plus new strategic partnership by Smoothwall brings a market first to digital safeguarding in education

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  • New acquisition is set to further improve visibility of safeguarding trends in schools that may otherwise go unnoticed
  • Tightly integrated Monitoring and Record Keeping will improve student safety and wellbeing as safeguarding incidents are flagged quickly and efficiently
  • Exclusive Partnership announced with National Online Safety to provide best-in-class training for teachers, parents and student in e-safety.
  • Smoothwall strengthens its market leading position in digital safety with market first.

Pioneering EdTech brand, Smoothwall, has announced the acquisition of digital record keeping company, Safeguard Software. It’s a move that sees the market leader further strengthen its position as the UK’s number one provider of digital safeguarding solutions. Already a well established and respected brand in schools across the UK, Smoothwall’s acquisition of Safeguard Software is the latest in a wave of strategic improvements the company has made in pursuit of the mission to become the most trustworthy digital safeguarding provider across the globe.

The acquisition builds on the technical integration between Smoothwall’s Monitoring service and Safeguard, announced last year, which revealed the strong demand from customers for better integrated Record Keeping to fulfil statutory requirements. Schools, education professionals and DSLs (designated safeguarding leads) can now benefit from a fully integrated approach to digital safeguarding. Users will have greater visibility of children at risk and a more holistic insight into specific issues and incidents impacting individual students.

Existing Safeguard customers are also set to benefit from the acquisition, as Smoothwall pledges to develop the software’s features and functionality over time using its UK based software engineering team, now joined by Safeguard founder, Steve Morrissey. 

Furthermore, Smoothwall and National Online Safety (part of the National Education Group) are announcing an exclusive partnership whereby Smoothwall will offer its customers access to NOS’s rich training content designed to support Designated Safeguarding Leaders, Teachers, Governors, Parents and Students.  From powerful, engaging videos to practical lesson plans and parent guides, National Online Safety is the UK’s leading e-safety training organisation.

Georg Ell, CEO at Smoothwall, commented on the acquisition and its anticipated impact on Smoothwall’s significant growth:

“We are delighted to have acquired Safeguard Software. It is a well-respected product, with a rapidly growing customer base who greatly value its ease of use and affordability. Bringing together Monitoring and Record Keeping under one roof means we are now the only provider to offer both, strengthening the value in our Optimum digital safety suite of products. Schools can have integrated digital record keeping to fulfil their statutory requirements with a holistic safeguarding picture. Combining online and offline record keeping means DSLs have a better chance of getting the right support, to the right student, in the right way, at the right time. 

Naturally we understand the world of education technology is heterogenous and we will simultaneously continue our work to integrate with other leading record keeping providers.

Smoothwall’s partnership with National Online Safety is a very natural fit for both companies. Their expert training resources combined with our market-leading technology solutions means we can educate and support not only school IT professionals but parents, teachers and students. It’s a unique mix of resources and a powerful and holistic approach to digital safeguarding.

For more information on Smoothwall please visit www.smoothwall.com.