Facility CMIS 2.8 build 34

[CheeseDog]

Thought I'd start a new thread so we can list our probs together.

We've had a whole host of problems with Facility over the 3 years we've had it, but no more so than the SIMS mess we moved from.

Thier implementation was shocking, but Facility has settled down for us of late. We've just upgraded (earlier today) to the latest and greatest version, and its certianly different. Thier support is not too bad, although when we had SIMS (as a former GM School) we dealt direct with CAPITA, rather than the LEA support unit - but Serco's support generally seems better than CAPITA's did.

I expect as we've just upgraded, we'll now exprience a whole host of new and more frustating problems.

Kyle

You willl indeed.

Other than early on when CMIS was new the implementation could've been better but most of the time the upgrades go smoothly.

However, this new implementation is really bad (2.8 b34) I can't actually believe how bad it is.

To put it in a nutshell most of your existing reports now won't work. Including some of facilities own system reports.

Non of the finance reports report the correct data.

Luckily it seems like it's just the reports that are shafted as the data appears to be fine.

I've heard today Birmingham LEA have refused to install it.

2 High Schools within our LEA are running school census from a different database at the moment so they can still use the other system.

[tech_master]

well this is a optimistic thread
dont think we have upgraded yet (perhapse cause am in birmingham ?) an perhapse i wont will till you guys are pleased with it
although the business manager will probly go over my head an install it herself without talkin to me so we'll have to wait an see ..........

[tosca925]

We were gonna install it tomorrow, think I'll wait.

[john]

We've had lots of issues with it so don't bother, its been borked since the Nov / Dec update that they pulled within a day or two of posting. Its not a good couple of months for updates.

[SpuffMonkey]

Yeah - after reading the Serco forums - I've told our lot to hold off and wait and see if it gets better...Shame really.

[kylewilliamson]

I was under the impression at least that the upgrade was required prior to this week's census. We don't use the finance bits so we should be OK there. I notice some improvements from build 33 which was really forked - I had a nice demo at BETT last week.

The new eportal is "different" - apparentley its a rebuild from the ground up according to the guys on the Serco stand. What's worrying, however, is the list of "faults" with the build on the serco download site.. I don't believe in general that we have many custom reports, so I hope thats ok too.

[CheeseDog]

The upgrade is required for school census. Hence 2 high schools running 2 databases side by side should've mentioned the reasoning earlier sorry.

IMO b34 is b33 with a few issues fixed.

It's not just Finance attendance is reporting wrong figures as well. (Allthough this may be limited to primary schools with mixed year classes figures)

ePortal doesn't look much different in itself. The skin is different but you can change it back. I personally didn't like the new colour scheme. (red text on white background)

Personally if I were to do it again I'd install the new version on a standalone and run school census from that.

You have been warned.

[Lee_K_81]

We installed yesterday afternoon, had a few calls instantly from people asking how to get in? Answer, click "file --> open --> then select admin1.cdb". Grrrr, do i have to do everybodies thinking.....

Another issue we have found instantly is in ePortal. Something in the code causes some builds of IE to crash during log-on. Not good when you have e-registration and assessment.

[danIT]

We are still running version 2.73.51.0

based in Birmingham the update was due to be released before xmas in time for the school census, but it was delayed due to problems, and is still yet to be released across birmingham. We still have no news of when it might be available. We hope the creases can be ironed out before we get our hands on it.

[Lee_K_81]

We are still running version 2.73.51.0

based in Birmingham the update was due to be released before xmas in time for the school census, but it was delayed due to problems, and is still yet to be released across birmingham. We still have no news of when it might be available. We hope the creases can be ironed out before we get our hands on it.

it was released yesterday, and very BIG creases:

http://www.bgfl.org/services/itcmis/latest_software.htm

[CyberNerd]

Page Restricted

Unfortunately the page you have tried to visit is restricted to use from within Birmingham Schools and Centres only. This may be for copyright reasons, or you may be trying to access a page which includes confidential information that cannot be released outside Birmingham schools.

[Lee_K_81]

Page Restricted

Unfortunately the page you have tried to visit is restricted to use from within Birmingham Schools and Centres only. This may be for copyright reasons, or you may be trying to access a page which includes confidential information that cannot be released outside Birmingham schools.

Will only work for Birmingham Schools. You will have to contact your own LEA for your software.

[ranj]

For Bham Schools, I have done the update to Build 34 and it seems flaky.

In one of the notes under security considerations it suggests that all users who use eportal to upgrade adobe reader to the latest version which is 8. Do you think this is neccessary. We currently run adobe 7 at the moment so its not too old.

Has any school upgraded their readers if so do you have Adobe reader 8 in an msi or does anyone know where I can download it from.

Thanks

[limbo]

I do not know but I am guessing Adobe is only an issue if you use the document archive section of eportal/CMIS that stores reports as PDF's.

This is the only way in which I can see any interaction with Acrobat Reader other than the install notes (which were pretty spot on this time around!)

[kylewilliamson]

We've not had any problems yet, but we'll see. Not looking forward to this.

Kyle