SIMS Dec 08

[matt40k]

*** SIMS December Release - UPDATE

Dear Colleagues,

We had to withdraw the December update as we had issues with the performance of one component and there was a pressing need to make the new DCSF XSL validation files for School Census available to schools via SOLUS. A significant number of support units also felt that including the new Home page in an update was not helpful.


We are aware that the withdrawal has inconvenienced some schools and LAs as a number of issues were planned to be resolved in this release. We have now re-packaged the December update which includes these resolved issues but have removed the Home Page enhancements. We aim to release this via SOLUS to Local Authority teams and Independent Schools by COB on Monday the 12th January.


Please bear in mind that once a school has been authorised for this release, they will be required to complete the December upgrade before applying any subsequent patches via SOLUS.


The release dates for January are therefore as follows:


SIMS December Update Release (not including the new Home Page functionality):
This will be made available via SOLUS by COB on the 12th January


SIMS Learning Gateway 2 December Update:
This will be sent out on the 19th of January


Active Directory Provisioning Service 2 December update:
This will be sent out on the 23rd January


FMS Installable Release based on the November FMS release (for 64 Bit Server compatibility): This will be made available on request on CD on the 21st January


There will be a Field Trial of the new SIMS Homepage based on an enhanced SIMS December release which will be made available to a small number of schools and all LA test sites via SOLUS.


Please note that the SIMS installable release originally planned for January 2009 in order to make installing on Windows Server 2008 easier will now be based on the April 2009 Update release and be released towards the end of April.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me on jonathan.wood@capita.co.uk


Regards,

Jon

I think Capita needs a new PR guy. First, it should be called Jan 09, not Dec, it makes them look like they don't know the date.

Second, doesn't this sound like Microsoft talk, Windows 7/Patched Vista.
Surely by removing the new homepage it means you've basically got Nov 2b, which is alright, but with a few patches. Being this close to Census IMO I think this will be the most useless update ever.

I think Capita should have stuck to there plan and not release it.

Anyway, I wait for Capita to prove me wrong and change my own opinion of it.

[IanT]

I found out the other day from our SIMS guy who does the updates that a small update was applied to our server..................they didnt even tell us!!! i was very p@ssed off!

november 08 stats update / low profile update they called it

[PhilNeal]

We used to refer to version numbers but people couldn't remember those so we moved to using months. It is the December release but we are late! (I bet if we'd called it the January release someone would have said oh no this is the December release but late!!)

The only reason that we took the decision to release is because we were asked to by quite a number of schools and LAs to get the front end bug fixes out to them ASAP.

If you don't need the release you don't have to take it.

[matt40k]

What bugs are you referring to?

Still think it should be called Jan, I mean pulling it, then releasing it. It's difficult enough to communicate to just a few schools, but says Dec out in, then saying it's not, then saying it is, makes you look a bit stupid.

On top of that if you think about actual cost of deploying, nightmare. I take your point about take it or leave it, but we get told that important features, like the issue with backups is going to be resolve in March due to Dev costs\timescales.

Anyway, that's my two cents

[Mcshammer_dj]

We used to refer to version numbers but people couldn't remember those so we moved to using months. It is the December release but we are late! (I bet if we'd called it the January release someone would have said oh no this is the December release but late!!)

The only reason that we took the decision to release is because we were asked to by quite a number of schools and LAs to get the front end bug fixes out to them ASAP.

If you don't need the release you don't have to take it.

Have to be honest I prefered the old days when we used the seasons which allowed us more time to explain to the schools that an upgrade was coming out.

I have also been vocal before that if a month is used then it would be really helpful to have the release available at the start of the month!

[kiran]

Personally I was quite looking forward to the homepage updates!!!

[matt40k]

Just gonna have to wait till March, can't wait, not cause it's of the March SIMS release, cause it's my birthday!

[glensc]

I found out the other day from our SIMS guy who does the updates that a small update was applied to our server..................they didnt even tell us!!! i was very p@ssed off!

november 08 stats update / low profile update they called it

P@ssed off here too for similar reasons.
Without a by or leave they updated SIMS just after lunch and we had a plethora of calls from angry teachers as they got kicked out of SIMS programs ( mainly Assement Manager I think ) while they were desperately trying to get their reports done.

It took us a litlte while to diagnose what had gone on and after contacting the LEA people involved ( who incidentaly have been told 3 or 4 times now not to do updates without warning us ) claim that no other school had that problem and that Capita had told them that it would be "low impact" yeah right.

[matt40k]

That's not really Capita, but your LEA. You can schedule SIMS to automatically update overnight, just a question of giving people enough time to inform staff that will need to update. Unless you've got a thin client setup in which case your laughing.

[AyatollahPies]

Personally I was quite looking forward to the homepage updates!!!

Well that brings the total up to 2 then. You and Mr Finnemore.

[Mcshammer_dj]

That does seem to be a strange way of working

In my authority we have solus scheduled to run every night at different times for different schools to ensure that all database upgrades take place overnight. This means that any workstations upgrades will take place when the users login the next morning.

Matt40k is also right that a terminal server option make this even easier as the server is upgraded once and all users are then on the correct level

[dave20046]

So is it the january update? Sims have just send me a memo to update but it's not even the 12th yet, is it best not to?

[localzuk]

No, it is a late released December update

[matt40k]

Were not releasing it. Just because of our schedule and our deployment method vs the new features\fixes doesn't make sense.

If you'll thinking about installing it, go onto Supportnet, solution search and enter either nov 08 or november 08 (do both). It will list all the items it fixes, most have patches available. I only one that makes me even think about deploying it is the one with regards to duplicate marks in Lesson monitor. However you can just run dbDiag to resolve that issue.

Not sure if there is anything else... nothing makes Dec jump out and beats me until I let it out. Doesn't mean it won't happen tho.

[Mcshammer_dj]

We are going to have to release this to all of our schools due to fixes for Attendance, datafeeds and attendance reports.

Since the product is not now going to be released until COB on Monday 12th we will be unable to even spend time testing this due to the team constraints with Census and the limited time to allow census returns to be posted to collect.

We will therefore only have time to look at the December Release on the WB 26th January. We ussually then allow 5 days for us to test the effects of the rlease and make sure we are happy with the release before we distribute to our schools. Therefore we are now looking likely to be delivering a december release in February!!!!1