Tech giant Microsoft recognized U-Planner as its global Partner of the Year 2017 in Education to innovate and use data to drive impact and insight for institutions to help students in classrooms of today create the future of tomorrow.
Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Microsoft Worldwide Education, highlighted the importance of this work. "We are proud to be aligned with U-Planner on the work they are doing every day to drive impact and value to institutions around the world," he said.
Microsoft Worldwide Education business partners help the company work with institutions, educators and students in the technological transformation of education in regions where it has a presence, said Alberto Bustamante, Director of Microsoft Education for Latin America and the Caribbean.
U-Planner CEO Juan Pablo Mena emphasized the company’s pride on receiving this recognition and referred to its close relationship with Microsoft. "We are actually tackling the main problems and challenges of education, especially in Latin America," he said.
Among these challenges is student drop out; Microsoft and U-Planner are using Artificial Intelligence to detect at an early stage students at risk of dropping studies.
Other important issues are efficient resource management, such as schedules and infrastructure, to improve the allocation of schedules, teachers and classrooms, and curricular management by competencies and monitoring of student outcomes.
Solving these operational and administrative challenges with the help of a technological solution is possible, said Cristián Espinoza, Research and Development Manager at U-Planner. "Education is a social promise and its management should be efficient. It is important to take decisions based on facts with the support of data analysis," he added.
Microsoft’s vote of confidence in U-Planner’s solutions in this area also demonstrates the company’s ability to compete at the level of ideas, added Espinoza. "This recognition indicates that we are capable of selling and generating changes worldwide and that U-Planner’s ideas are competitive," he said.