Sherston Support

[witch]

Sherston support are great! I have just had the most cheerful and helpful support call in the world!
They always seem to have time to just talk you through the issues and are really prepared to get to grips with your setup so that they can understand the issues you are having.
Thanks Guys

[seanmh]

Yes, I can confirm the few times I have used them they have been extremly helpful.

Other "educational" software compaines need to take a leaf out of Sherston's book and get people who know what they are doing/talking about and actually know about networks and even their own software, as more often than not their support is abysmal and you're left to solve problems on your own.

[speckytecky]

Me too - they answer straight away, always cheerful, always have the answer and no matter how dumb your query never make you feel like a muppet. Surely an example other support companies should strive toward.

[AngryTechnician]

Now if only they would take a leaf out of other companies' books and actually produce MSIs for their software... when I spoke to them at BETT they were convinced that people only needed MSIs if they were using RM Community Connect. I almost burst a blood vessel trying to calmly explain that MSI deployment was a standard feature in every Windows network since Active Directory was introduced.

[sted]

Now if only they would take a leaf out of other companies' books and actually produce MSIs for their software... when I spoke to them at BETT they were convinced that people only needed MSIs if they were using RM Community Connect. I almost burst a blood vessel trying to calmly explain that MSI deployment was a standard feature in every Windows network since Active Directory was introduced.

but most sherston runs of a network drive why install it locally?

[AngryTechnician]

but most sherston runs of a network drive why install it locally?

It is exactly this attitude that leads Sherston (and other companies) not to bother with a proper install program. One good reason is that running a large program off the network on a classroom full of laptops connected to 1 access point is not conducive to acceptable performance. Another is that if I wanted a thin client solution I'd have bought one. I didn't. I expect to be able to install programs locally without resorting to visiting each computer manually or resorting to scripting, and given that I know how easy it is (because I end up writing a lot of MSI installers myself) I resent the fact that some education publishers don't put the damned effort in.

P.S. Sorry to have derailed this thread slightly witch, but I haven't quite gotten over the trauma of a Crystal Rain Forest install early in my career, and any mention of Sherston sets me off rocking in a corner under the desk while occasionally blurting expletives.

[PiqueABoo]

when I spoke to them at BETT they were convinced that people only needed MSIs if they were using RM Community Connect

This was salesdroids right? As in what do they ever know?

I'm still a bit gobsmacked, but suspect the reality is that when plucked out of the RM package structure most of their CC MSIs are perfectly usable on a vanilla. It's only going to be a factor where there's some server-side component surely?

[witch]

P.S. Sorry to have derailed this thread slightly witch, but I haven't quite gotten over the trauma of a Crystal Rain Forest install early in my career, and any mention of Sherston sets me off rocking in a corner under the desk while occasionally blurting expletives.

Actually, it WAS Crystal Rainforest that I was struggling with - it came down to the fact that the software DOESN'T want a UNC path, it wants the mapped drive path, whereas most software is the other way around. However, I just needed to change the ini file and once it was done, voila!
Have to say though, there doesnt seem any reason why you would want to install it locally as it seems to run pretty fast, but I take your point.

[Techcare]

Just spoken with Pete at Sherston. Very helpful indeed, fast response and resolved my issue.

Thanks Sherston

[speckytecky]

With the redundancy of my Primary School ICT Tech job I no longer have that distinct pleasure of calling Pete and the rest of the superb Sherston Support team on the infrequent occasions when a component part of the Megadeal bundle played up.

Sherston technical support remains the gold Standard as far as I'm concerned.

[ptrmsn]

Hi - many thanks for such positive feedback. It's always really nice to hear from customers that are pleased with our service!