MIS to Microsoft 365 sync for schools
Your MIS, kept in step with Microsoft Entra ID: users, groups and passwords, from a team that has supported UK schools for over 15 years.
Entra Sync
Realsmart connects to your tenant and keeps users, passwords and groups in step with your school MIS. Nothing is switched on by default, and you see a full preview before anything changes in your tenant.
Connect, then choose what syncs
Turn on only what your school or trust needs, from one control panel:
-
Users and passwords: Staff and pupil accounts, passwords and details kept in step with your MIS.
-
Photos: Staff and pupil photos copied to their Entra ID profiles.
-
Security and distribution groups: Created and kept up to date from roles in your MIS.
-
Microsoft 365 groups: Year groups, houses, registration groups, role groups and subjects, with a live preview of who is in each before you switch it on.
Groups, passwords and admin units
Once connected, you decide what your MIS sends to Microsoft Entra ID:
-
Passwords and account changes: Updates to existing accounts flow through from your MIS automatically.
-
Seven group types: Teachers of, houses, registration groups, role groups, year groups, subjects and custom groups. See exactly who will be in each before anything changes.
-
Administrative units: Entra ID administrative units that match your school or trust, kept up to date from your MIS.
Passwords and naming, your way
Set how accounts and groups are named in Entra ID to match your school or trust’s IT standards:
-
Default passwords by role: Set starting passwords for new staff and pupil accounts.
-
Prefixes: Give staff and pupil accounts and groups their own prefixes, so names stay tidy.
-
Built for trusts: Keep each school distinct, or use one naming standard across the whole trust.
Built for multi-academy trusts and central IT teams
Run one tenant for the trust without losing each school’s identity:
-
One tenant, many schools: Run several academies in a single shared Microsoft 365 tenant.
-
A subdomain per school: Give each school its own subdomain, so staff and pupil accounts stay distinct.
-
Trust-wide rollout: Apply sync rules, templates and security settings to every school in one go, rather than one school at a time.
Email addresses and single sign-on
Clean accounts and one sign-in for everyone:
-
Usernames and email addresses: Standard UPNs and email addresses created from your MIS.
-
Single sign-on: One Microsoft 365 sign-in for your connected school apps, so fewer password resets.
-
Consistent records: MIS records, Entra ID profiles and email addresses stay matched.
See exactly what’s happening. Fix things yourself. No ticket required.
Every sync runs on a schedule, and you can trigger one on demand whenever you need to. Before Entra Sync goes live for the first time, you can preview it and test the connection. Once it’s up and running, nothing happens to your data without you being able to see it, understand it, and put it right.
-
An honest status dashboard: One screen tells you exactly what’s syncing, what’s healthy, and what needs a look.
-
Errors, grouped and prioritised: Clear error messages, ranked by what to fix first.
-
A full activity feed and logs: Every change is logged and explained, so you can trace exactly what happened and when.
An honest status dashboard
One screen tells you exactly what’s syncing, what’s healthy, and what needs a look.
Errors, grouped and prioritised
Clear error messages, ranked by what to fix first.
A full activity feed and logs
Every change is logged and explained, so you can trace exactly what happened and when.
Getting started with Entra Sync
To connect Entra Sync you’ll need a Microsoft 365 Global Admin to set up an app registration and enter your credentials into Realsmart. We’ll guide you through this as part of onboarding.
Users, groups & passwords
Synced to Entra ID, kept in sync with your MIS.
7 group types
Choose exactly which reach Entra, with a live preview.
Administrative unit sync
Structure mirrors your school, automatically.
Default passwords & prepends
Set once per school, or share across a trust.
Group email, your domain
Via Exchange Online, set up together with our team.
SmartLogin single sign-on
Federated SSO matched on immutable IDs.
Trust-wide rollout
One action, every school on the tenant.
Test before you trust it
Preview and connection-test before anything goes live.
Run Google Sync and Entra Sync from one web application.
Use Google Workspace as well? Google Sync gives you the same preview, live status, plain-English logs and self-service for Google.