Blog

From SchoolDude to Brightly: Building Brighter Futures

6 minutes
SchoolDude

Back in 1999, Brightly began as SchoolDude, a company with a funny name but serious mission: to revolutionize maintenance and operations in educational institutions with user-friendly, cloud-based software. We had a vision to make operations easier and more efficient while empowering that all-important person in every organization whose work is often unseen and unsung.

Schools and institutions face a lot of responsibility today, from making decisions about the future of their students and staff to balancing industry policy changes and fiscal responsibility. When it comes to your operations, you not only have to make sure the work gets done, but that it gets done within budget and supports the learning environment you're in charge of. That's not easy to manage.

For over 20 years, it's been our mission as SchoolDude, then Dude Solutions and now Brightly to help schools create better learning environments and brighter futures. With Brightly, we're your organization's partner – providing valuable insights into your operations to help you find a better way to work.

Brightly logo

At Brightly, we currently serve clients that represent over 60 percent of the US student population, with school districts ranging from just 10 students to over 600,000. Our clients range from large metropolitan districts to smaller rural districts, all with the common goal of educating students in the best possible environment.

Adams University

We provide K-12 schools, private and independent institutions, and colleges and universities with the future of asset and operations management, empowering them to work smarter, faster, and more efficiently and economically. Our cloud-based tools help you do the best work of your life, creating a way for you to transform your institution for the better while making more data-driven decisions. The advantages of SchoolDude and Brightly for your institution are numerous:

  1. The best run schools are using Brightly SchoolDude products. More than 7,000 public and private schools, colleges and universities have selected Brightly.
  2. Save time and money. Brightly removes the hassle of dealing with servers, strained IT resources and maintenance fees. Our clients save an average of 70-80% over 5 years compared to other systems.
  3. It’s the future. SchoolDude and the Brightly suite of products is the #1 solution in educational enterprise asset management. Expensive, time-consuming client server solutions cannot compete with our cloud-based model. Schools move at a faster pace. You need the technology that can move with you.
  4. Get fast ROI. Brightly’s solutions can be accessed 24x7, from anywhere there is internet access. Our clients report that this saves 30 minutes to 1 hour per work order cycle. Multiply that by your hourly wage and you’ll likely see a cost savings in excess of 10x the software subscription cost.
  5.  Improve customer service. Brightly’s cloud-based platform simplifies customer communication. Our solutions automatically notify end-users about the status of their request.
Energy Manager UI

Brightly’s suite of software solutions for education offers many ways to work smarter—from streamlining maintenance and operations management to managing energy, events and planning expenditures. We design operations software to help you:

  • Maximize productivity and save time and money by streamlining your day
  • Justify funding for capital projects and validate current and future staff and resources
  • Demonstrate your duty of care to Board of Education/Board of Trustees and constituents
  • Mitigate risk and stay on top of potential liability
  • Increase transparency using your operations data 
  • Measure your progress and benchmark your institution against your industry peers
  • Network and collaborate with other industry leaders through our community
Services

You need is a partner – a strategic tool in your toolbox to help you get the job done in a way you can be proud of, with less headache and more control. With proven success, constancy in values and unwavering commitment to our vision, we have been steadfast in our mission. Our industry expertise, tailored solutions and personal service are unrivaled.

See how our education expertise will help you better manage work, assets and resources to give students a safe, efficient learning environment. Schedule a demo today.

 

Two Decades of Growth. Ten Acquisitions. One Bright Future.

1999

SchoolDude Founded; education- focused SaaS EAM

2001

Launch of MaintenanceDirect for work order management

2004

Launch of Building Integration Suite

2007

Launch of FacilityDude to expansion beyond Education vertical

2010

Increased focus on Healthcare and Gov verticals

2014

$100M Outside investment from Warburg Pincus

2015

Acquisition: TheWorxHub; further expansion into Healthcare vertical

2015

Acquisition: Mobile311; further expansion into Gov vertical

2016

Formally introduced Dude Solutions as master brand for all markets

2017

Acquisition: Active Data; expansion into event management

2017

Acquisition: Smartware Group / Bigfoot Software for asset-centric EAM

2018

Launched New Brand Identity for Dude Solutions

2018

Acquisition: Paladin Data Systems; Government community operations

2019

Acquisition: New Energy Technologies; expansion into energy

2019

Dude Solutions acquired by Clearlake Capital Group

2020

Acquisitions: Assetic & Confirm; expansion into EMEA & APAC

2021

Acquisitions: EPL & FHI; further penetration into HC and Sustainability

2022

Rebranded to Brightly
Acquired by Siemens Smart Infrastructure