@vikpaw sorry i missed you, was it the SIF Association Stand that you went to?
We were really busy at bett as with were either on the SIF stand or supporting LUNS who were demonstrating ZiLink to integrate schools MIS and moodle via SIF.
We also spoke to a lot of companies that are now seeing SIF as a way to reduce development costs, this is mainly down to progresso coming out and serco are pushing sif as the interface to use.
What is your perception of suppliers looking at SIF?
That's why I get fed up with suppliers of for example cashless catering that link with certain mis systems via direct links rather than sif.
Ben
TO be fair, there are not that many mainstream MIS suppliers so is not a massive task for them to like with them all... but I agree that SIF is the way forward.Originally Posted by plexer
Slightly off topic, but what did you think of it anyway? It seems to be a nice all-in-one solution personally, rather the Capita's bolt-on model. Also it'll keep @penfold_99 happy as it's got SIF out-of-box, still it is from the US so I'd be worried if it doesn't!!
I'm biased so pretty much barred from answering Matt...
@plexer Please can you PM the name of the cashless catering system and i will try and use my position within sif to start a conversation?
@matt40k well i have been beating the sif drum for a long time and it seem now suppliers are taking notice. For a new entrant into the uk on the MIS side sif is a no brainier if you make it cost effective for supplier to integrate with you.
I came to the SIF stand. Took a couple of handouts (big flowchart type one looks useful) and spoke to a gentleman that was there. I'll let you know my views later, once i've heard from the various companies doing our survey.
It is indeed a good model, in fact a lot of suppliers provide extra functionality as standard, most being web based access now. Aspen was the only one with a VLE integrated in. I say integrated, because technically, it's an extra module so you can take MIS without it, but the tech / platform is all the same. [Fully open source
Come on guys, play nice ; ) It was going off-topic anyway.
We're supposed to be discussing successes of SLG and / or alternatives if appropriate.
I've cleaned up the last few posts.
Good shout
It may technically not be a big task however they understabably tend to mainly develop for the mis used by the majority.
Ben
That is very true. SIF really needs to come on board in the next year. Translate your concerns to a US market with 15 major players, not 2/3 in the UK! Our partners have it easy!
I guess there is a good amount of lock in when Suppliers do that, better revenue dare I say... Not that anyone would want to do that anymore...
Rather customers are more wary of this now.
Last edited by GREED; 22nd January 2012 at 03:55 PM.
I have to say SLG is a pita for us. We are part of an Lea hosted setup and the front end is awful. But we are now dropping the LEA (wan connection) which means no SLG. But due to the cost in purchasing it for ourselves it's way to much. We are therefore looking @penfold_99's offering ad although the webanywhere system was nice the cost was huge.
Therefore we will probably be going with that option when I'm back from sunning myself in Bali.
penfold_99 (23rd January 2012)
I'm happy to say there is mixed reaction to the school I used to work and and 2 I worked closely with after that.
On the one hand SLG does the job, the school has put a lot of development in to make it decent but it does what it says in the tin.
One other ditched it in favour of moodle front end connected to SIMS and are well happy with what they have as an overall solution.
The third are very happy with SLG, no complaints and their parental engagement is good.
I personally don't think SLG is the problem, but rather SharePoint is. SP is flexible but because of that very basic and vanilla. You have to put the work in to get it anywhere near decent, and even then it is limited in what it can do. I spent months and months researching SLG and SP for my previous, and eventually advised against it due to long term limitations.
We also tried it (hosted version as we don't use Sharepoint anywhere else) in our high school and also found take up pretty poor and so have virtually given up on it.
We are now using a product called Go4schools as we really needed a way to improve our student data collection, analysis and dissemination (to teachers primarily). Previously assessment data was collected through various methods and generally presented in Excel ... now it is all in one place online and available, in real time, to all. OSTED highlighted some of our teachers poor knowledge of student assessment data and so we use Go4schools to address this.
The key for me is for each school to decide on a strategic 'map'. Some schools use Sharepoint as the main platform, and build their website, VLE, parental engagement tool etc all round this. Others have seperate platforms/tools for each ... or somewhere in between.
Nowdays all suppliers try to make their product the answer to everything ... VLE's can include partental engagement tools and attendance reporting, websites can also be a VLE etc etc ... but the problem is that each element tends to be weaker as this is is an 'add on' to the core product ... developed for sales development only.
All schools need some form of VLE, a website, a tool for engaging with parents, a way of recording/assessing attendance etc etc ... and each needs to decide the best way to deliver each of these.
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