SIMS.NET and mobile devices

[Sheridan]

We're looking to run SIMS.net on some netbooks to allow wireless access to lesson monitor/attendance etc for more remote areas of the school (pe department etc!)

 

Has anyone got any recommendations for this? Ideally I'd use tablet PCs but they'll be too expensive and we have a few older netbooks lying about spare. They still have 1Gb RAM and flash based drives (the older original netbooks!) so they should be alright in theory

[Steve21]

We recently got Emerge and are using it on iPod touches/iPhones. Not exactly a cheap solution, but found it a lot smoother than our old netbook system that struggled with SIMs at the best of time.

 

Also allows offline cache, and 3G etc on our trip/visits phones.

 

Do you have any sort of rough figure for spend?

 

Steve

[Sheridan]

As usual the spend cost is as close to Zero as possible! I've looked at some Windows 7 tablets which might work better, and a couple of those would be around £800-£1000

 

I haven't looked at Emerge - does that plug into SIMS?

[Steve21]

As usual the spend cost is as close to Zero as possible! I've looked at some Windows 7 tablets which might work better, and a couple of those would be around £800-£1000

 

I haven't looked at Emerge - does that plug into SIMS?

 

It's a full link in to it by GroupCall/Capita.

 

Basically full mobile app that connects to SIMs etc.

 

Groupcall Emerge - How it Works

 

Everything like timetables, registers etc can be done, and has a nicer mobile UI which is easier on small screens. (Unless you want tablets etc?)

 

Steve

[Sheridan]

Actually that looks a lot better - the only thing that would put off SMT is the fact its a yearly sub rather than a one off payment, but the mobility of it is far better than a standard tablet.

 

Time to get the begging trousers on.....

[TheydonBois]

Steve, do you know the rough cost of this?

[WithoutMotive]

We're looking at Emerge. Recently got costs from Capita:

 

1) Site licence @ £2950 p/a - this allows an unlimited number of devices to use Emerge in school.

 

OR

 

2) Licence the number of devices you wish – you start with the first device licence at £299 and then build up the number of devices you need using a combination of Singles, 5 or 10 bundles. For example if you needed 12 devices you would purchase as follows:-

1 x 1^st Device @ £299

1 x Single Device @ £125

1 x 10 Bundle @ £890

 

TOTAL - £1,314 p/a

[Steve21]

I don't know if it's still the same, but we also got 25% discount on first year as we have other groupcall products.

 

As WithoutMotive said those prices, but there's always a 5 bundle pack:

 

1st Emerge Device Licence & Server console Licence £299

 

2nd and subsequent Emerge Device Licences £125 each

 

Additional 5 licence pack (equivalent unit price of £99) £495

 

Additional 10 licence pack (equivalent unit price of £89) £890

OR

 

Secondary School Site Licence (unlimited devices) £2,950

 

Steve

[maark]

If you are on MS schools agreement then you could setup sims as a TS remote app fairly cheaply Terminal Services RemoteApp (TS RemoteApp) bit of a faff to setup but works ok - we have it on staff laptops.

[WithoutMotive]

We currently use the iTap app on iPads for remote access. Works well until we get Emerge.