Are you referring to the funding of the Open Source Schools group? The group was there to support the agenda of interoperability, to raise awareness of the opportunities for using Open Source Software within Education, but was not tied in with the development of any specific tools to link MIS into VLEs. For more details on the group please visit Open Source SchoolsQuote:
Originally Posted by Banjo
The TES are running with this story as well IT company accused of 'excessive' profits - News - TES Connect
Not a good week for Capita with the outsourcing story as well http://www.birminghammail.net/news/b...7319-28811517/
Yer, already pointed it out to @PhilNeal about it, he's already seen, he point out the costs were a bit excessive, which to be fair, they are, I would have said about half that for a high school, and I doubt all 400 schools have choosen SIMS and where a large secondary. Still I don't think Capita have spent that much money on SIMS .net, FMS without a doubt, and it's still got a way to go to get FMS up-to-date, but the point is SIMS isn't FMS and FMS isn't SIMS. Doubt the support costs will go up either.
Looks like you get your wish Ed. Today we have moved forward and are officially working towards migrating to iSAMS. Yes, I know they are the leading supplier to the Independant sector but we aren't their first State school. It's going to be a busy term - watch this space.Quote:
Originally Posted by EdWhittaker
I didn't realise Isams did data returns to govt., is this the case or does your school not need to do these?
No, we still have to do returns (unfortunately!!). iSAMS are aware of the problem and have worked through it with their other state school.
:-)
Yay! Good for you, Anjelica!
I'm *personally* interested to see just how close those competitors can actually get. Having worked for them (but, I shall hasten to add, nothing to do with SIMS) I am probably one of the most Anti-Capita people around; but I've seen LOTS of competitive products, many of them are sniffing at C's heels but none of them are even close to doing it with the same ease and fluidity as Sims. The only gripe, which is definitely a shared gripe, is FMS for Windows 3.1. If that was dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, I really can't see how anyone can compare? Plus some of the people behind SIMS are some genuinely genius people. Sometimes it's just a shame to tarnish their name because of the company they were bought by.
However, there's plenty of x y z vs SIMS threads already and people will all happily make up their own minds.
Does it make it fair that schools are being charged £sillymoney for transfer rights from state to academy? Forget schools for a moment and think business.
Joe Bloggs Computing Company is in business for 30 years. They have various licenses from Microsoft such as volume licensing and technical subscriptions, Sage for their finance products, Canon for their printing costs. They have bills coming in from HMRC, British Gas Commercial Supplies, Anglian Water and Local Joes Pizza Co.
Joe Bloggs Computer Company goes out of business in January 2011. Their administrators manage to sell the company to David Jones Computer Recycling Ltd who start trading at that address in February 2011. They reappoint the same staff, the same MD.
What happens with all the licences and bills there?
I genuinely don't know, I'm not a businessman. But I would happily put money on them having to fork out for new licenses, pay for new commercial contracts for their bills, register their own rates with HMRC etc. For one, you wouldn't want the same name as a company that went bust, but that's not the point. It's a different company outright.
Why should it be different for the schools?
I'm NOT defending Capita's tack here - I just feel the need to question people's opposition.
Must be the first time I've seen the words 'ease', 'fluidity' and 'SIMS' in same sentence!
Take your point about the transfer of licence fees, however there are a few differences; schools are not businesses (though some think they are!!) and the licence fees are being paid out of public money - yours and mine. It really matters not one jot to Capita (or RM or Serco, to be fair) that a name has changed on a contract; they are still providing the same service to the same people in the same school. One reason why Capita feels able to charge so much is a) their domination of the market and b) the perceived difficulty in swapping from one MIS to another.
Also take your point about other solutions not being perfect, but there is a bit of a chicken and egg situations here; if no-takes these alternatives on initially, they are not likely to have the funds nor the resources to improve easily. Early adopters always pay a price, but if wasn't for those brave souls taking a punt we'd still be paying hundreds of pounds for a mobile phone and thousands for a PC.
Capita are claiming the other MIS would complain, and that getting SIMS Academy-ready has costs £££. Personally it doesn't add up. FMS however is a different matter, still think they should just buy someone out.
It is true that should Capita offer cut price offerings and free / cheap transfers of licences then they could very easily be accused of abusing a dominant position in the market. As for buying people out ... if you look at the other MIS providers out there with enough legal cahoonas to take this on ... the school MIS market is just a small bit of what they do ... and to buy them out would not be feasible.Quote:
Originally Posted by matt40k
Good Luck with the new venture Angelica!Quote:
Originally Posted by Anjelica
We'll miss you on SupportNet when you move over!
That is a statement that I could not agree more with. As an Nova user in a pre-SIMS life, I appreciate how much more advanced Nova was to SIMS, prior to Capita buying it out. Clive Stott was (still is?) one of those geniuses.Quote:
Originally Posted by synaesthesia
I wish they made Nova-T4 open-source, would love to see some the logic used. Pretty please @PhilNeal :)
@Anjelica - good luck, and keep us posted on how the returns process works with isams. Maybe you can increase the count of [isams] tagged threads :)
I'm all for competition in the market, but in this case, i think i'd rather Capita allowed the licence to move for free, or minimal cost, for the reasons given above. The same rule should apply to any school with any other MIS who needs to move to Academy. Presumably they have to do the same work ( or less if they are a more elegant MIS ) for the conversion. It's churlish to complain that Capita are abusing their position on this count IMHO.
Tricky isn't it, as the reverse could be argued, using their dominant position to charge excessive fees. I don't actually know the figures I understand from posts here that SIMS is significantly more expensive that its rival products. If the market was working, this would not be the case.Quote:
Originally Posted by GrumbleDook