[pass] Experiences being sought with WCBS Pass and 3Sys

[jallsop]

Hi all,

 

The school I work at is currently seriously considering movement to WCBS Pass/3Sys for the academic and pastoral management. We are a small independent school in Switzerland, so some more normal UK options are not going to be suitable.

 

Does anyone have any hints, tips or experiences they'd like to share. Especially when it comes from setting this up from scratch, without importing data from any existing MIS.

 

Also any other ideas on successful implementation and daily use would be welcomed.

 

Thanks

[AngryTechnician]

A recent thread on this very topic: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/110843-wcbs-pass.html

 

If you do a search for WCBS you will find a number of other threads with comparisons and feedback.

[jallsop]

Thanks for the links. I had read this, and am attempting to find out about not just day to day running, as mentioned in this and other threads brought up by the search, but actual implementation process issues as well.

 

We don't have the option of choosing our MIS, as it is the one employed by the group of schools we are a member of.

[vikpaw]

So are you 'considering it' or are you already on a path to take it? If you really have no choice then there's nothing to consider, I would speak to them directly as they will be responsible for the implementation, it's then down to what you agree with them about how your final system should end up and what data is carried forward from any existing system.

 

What do you use now?

If you are able to consider other systems, there are some very good 'UK' based Independent systems that won't restrict you to the idiosyncrasies of the UK sector.

[ass17]

Every time pass releases an update, it always creates issues that needs to be fixed.

 

Don't expect any help migrating the data, we have had to do it manually.

 

Might be cheaper than most other MIS system but there us a reason for it!!

[AngryTechnician]

One thing I will say about switching to PASS is that you need someone in your school to lead the implementation - and I really do mean lead. WCBS could not have been less proactive if they tried with our switchover, and had to be frequently chased to action things they'd agreed to do at meetings. We also had no assistance with data migration despite this being part of the initial discussions.

[jallsop]

Hi all,

 

Thanks for the comments so far. As I said. We don't have the option of choosing our MIS, as it is the one employed by the group of schools we are now a member of.

 

We have a web based MIS, but will not be carrying forward any data initially, so we're going for a clean install. Interesting that you say we need someone to lead the process from our end. We were hoping they would be fully engaged.

 

 

[trekmad]

We have been a customer of WCBS for our accounts package for 15 years plus but are considering moving away at the moment. We use iSAMS as our academic database and they offer a fees billing package and integrate with sage who are one of the leaders in accounts software.

 

Development of PASS is slow and a recent sighting of their academic package provided that not much has changed over the last few years. They are not really interested in maintaining their existing customers either. A conversation with them today regarding licensing has just put another black mark against the in our books.

 

Feel free to PM me if you want more info.

 

Stuart