Lao Digital Award 2026 · Category Private sector

First Online Solutions Co., Ltd.

School management that teachers actually want to use

First IMS runs attendance, grades, safeguarding, invoicing and parent communication in one place. Built in Vientiane for schools across Southeast Asia.

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1 · Introduction

Why we built it

We are teachers and school leaders. We saw the same problem in schools around us. Records live in separate spreadsheets, reports take weeks, and it can be hard to tell who changed what.

Scattered data

Attendance in separate files, grades in others. No single view of a student.

Lost time

End-of-term reports take up to two weeks of manual work.

Real risk

Anyone with a link can open medical and safeguarding records. When the person who built the spreadsheet leaves, the knowledge leaves too.

The alternatives are either expensive foreign systems or spreadsheets. There is little in between.

2 · Product

One platform for the whole school

A 70-second tour of First IMS, from the dashboard to the tools schools use every day.

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Core modules

Students

One profile per child

Attendance

By class or by course

Assessment

Categories and weights you set

Reporting

Report cycles and a statement bank

NEST safeguarding

Incidents, evidence and alerts

Timetable and calendar

One calendar for the school

HR portal

Staff records and leave

Invoicing

Fees, invoices and payments

Also includedAdmissions and registration, Reception and fire register, Seating plans, Parent and student portals, Notifications routed by category, Roles and admin panel

Add-onsParent mobile appWhatsApp communicationFirst Enroll

A school day, connectedMorning registerAbsent student flaggedParent notified on WhatsApp

3 · Innovation

What makes First IMS different

Built around your workflows

Roles, rules and branding are fully configurable. Schools use only the modules they need.

Changes in days, not months

A local team that answers quickly and ships requests fast.

Made for this region

Lao language support, British curriculum structure and safeguarding built in.

How it compares

FEATURES / 07

Feature	First IMSBuilt in Vientiane	iSAMSUK management system	SeesawElementary learning platform	Google SheetsSpreadsheet
Built for international and private schools	✓	✓	×	×
Lao-language school management UI	✓	×	×	n/a
Safeguarding module	✓	✓	×	×
Parent app and messaging	✓	✓	✓	×
Full white-label branding across modules	✓	×	×	×
Affordable for a 200-student school	✓	×	✓	✓
Local support in Laos	✓	×	×	×

Compiled from the public vendor pages listed in the judge appendix. Seesaw is an elementary learning platform rather than a school management system, which is what most of this table measures.

4 · Security

Enterprise-grade security

Secure infrastructure

Hosted on DigitalOcean in Singapore with automatic restart and replica scaling for high availability.

Single identity layer

Every permission is managed from one secure source, with role-based access for every user.

Safe development process

Separate test and production environments, automated deployment, fast rollback, secrets never visible to developers.

Data protection

Designed in line with GDPR and ISO 27001 principles, with audit trails showing who changed what and when.

Deploy on our cloud, your cloud, or on-premise.

5 · Market

Starting in Laos, built for the region

01 / MARKET0

international schools across Southeast Asia

ISC Research, January 2023

02 / MARKET0%

growth in the region since 2020

ISC Research

03 / MARKET0%

enrolment growth in four years to 2026

ISC Research

First target markets in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

LaosThailand · Malaysia

Target customers

International schools, private schools and language centres.

Traction

Schools in Laos, and an international school in Hong Kong.

Growth path

Laos and Hong KongThailand and MalaysiaWider Southeast Asia

6 · Business Model

Simple, sustainable pricing

01 / 03

Value

A complete school system at a fraction of the cost of international platforms, with support that responds in days.

02 / 03

Revenue

Subscription per student per month. Paid add-ons (First Enroll, WhatsApp communication, mobile app). Setup, data migration and training services.

03 / 03

Sustainability

Recurring annual subscriptions, low hosting costs per school, and service revenue that funds product development.

From$0.75per student per month

A 200-student school pays$150a month

7 · Team and contact

The team behind First IMS

Zayne Essop

Founder

Works directly with schools, and what they run into becomes the roadmap.

Nikita Shportko

Product Lead

Turns what schools ask for into the modules the team builds.

The wider team

Engineering, marketing and support

Engineers, marketing managers and support staff working from Vientiane.

We are building the school system we wanted to use ourselves.

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Scan to open First IMS pitch page

FIRST IMS · 2026

Judge appendix

Supporting material for questions after the pitch.

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