[sims] Sims change request for MSI please vote

[free780]

That's when you need sccm.

[sparkeh]

As an ex employee - nail hit on the head.

 

Anyway on topic I have to ask "what for". People don't bat an eyelid when software doesn't come MSI'd and they spend an hour or so doing it themselves. Why is it different for SIMS? (That's rhetorical, it isn't different, but I'm asking why people think it's any different)

SIMS isn't special, msi deployment is preferable for all software. Its the standard created by MS to deploy software to MS OS's. why wouldn't you follow it?

Some advantages:

• Standard install/uninstall/upgrade procedure including handling permissions.
  
• Standard patching procedure
  
• Management and reporting - you can easily collect install state, features/versions/patches installed.
  
• Rollback if install failure
  
• Logging to windows logs
  
• Self heal for damaged installations
  
• Can be advertised for on demand installations
  

[synaesthesia]

That's when you need sccm.

 

Not much good without the MSI (Already use SCCM to good effect)

 

It's not so much "why don't they do it" which we all believe including myself would be nice, it's just the amount of hate people levy towards Capita for not doing it that I find odd. There's been far worse after all, I'm sure many of us remember trying to package any crap from Pearson-Heinemann back in the day before they realised the error of their ways.

[sparkeh]

I think its that this particular issue sums up Capita's attitude.

We asked for an msi, they looked at it, said they would do it, then u-turned and told us they knew better than us and came out SOLUS 3, which has generated no small amount of stress among us, and refuse to comment on the msi thing.

[localzuk]

Not much good without the MSI (Already use SCCM to good effect)

 

It's not so much "why don't they do it" which we all believe including myself would be nice, it's just the amount of hate people levy towards Capita for not doing it that I find odd. There's been far worse after all, I'm sure many of us remember trying to package any crap from Pearson-Heinemann back in the day before they realised the error of their ways.

 

The hate is down to the refusal to listen to their users. Unless its in the form of a CR, which is impossible to find on their site for other people to vote on, and if you leave it a while, it disappears through inactivity.

[SYNACK]

The hate is down to the refusal to listen to their users. Unless its in the form of a CR, which is impossible to find on their site for other people to vote on, and if you leave it a while, it disappears through inactivity.

 

That and I'll bet that you aren't paying Pearson-Heinemann an exorbinent yearly fee not to listen to you. Our MIS systems here are similar, huge bill for support which never comes or is that useless you may as well not have bothered. Ours is still using an Access DB. They did eventually release an MSI for their system files but it needed to be installed remotely on a certain patch level of XP not to drop out with an error so you still need to do it manually anyway.

 

From what I have heard on here is very much the same, they demand money for support and development then they only do what they want to anyway. You just end up paying people to be mean to you which is generally not pleasant to the majority of the bell curve.

[vikpaw]

That's when you need sccm.

 

I first read that as scorn and didn't think anything of it!

[synaesthesia]

Some good points there, can't really argue with them.

[vikpaw]

I think its that this particular issue sums up Capita's attitude.

We asked for an msi, they looked at it, said they would do it, then u-turned and told us they knew better than us and came out SOLUS 3, which has generated no small amount of stress among us, and refuse to comment on the msi thing.

 

With regards to commenting on the MSI thing, i did ask the question of them at BETT 2012, and for a variety of reasons the report it was going to be published in was delayed and unfortunately still hasn't made it to your screens. It was due to come out before the last BETT but again was delayed.

 

I should have extracted useful info and just posted up certain extracts directly on here, apologies for not doing so sooner.

 

Bear in mind this response is dated Jan 2012 and was from an interview I had with Graham Cooper, Head of Product Management and Jonathan Wood, Product Manager Deployment and Technical at BETT 2012

 

When asked about an MSI this was Jonathan's response:

 

With regards to SOLUS 3 and some of the issues, members have requested an MSI, can you tell us

if that is on the cards?

It’s fair to say, that the rollout of SOLUS 3 hasn’t been as smooth as we wanted unfortunately. We have extended the support date for SOLUS 2 that has moved to Summer 2013 so there’s a greater time span to move over now.

 

What people are really requesting is a package that they can deploy themselves, whether that’s by Group Policy or using third party tools to push out. We normally find that’s the case with secondary schools that have their own IT budgets, like many of the EduGeek members. The vast majority of other schools around the UK do not have that budget and we think SOLUS 3 is the right tool for them to ease the upgrade of SIMS throughout their site.

 

Specifically regarding those schools with IT teams who can competently address the issue of upgrades for a number of systems around their school, SOLUS 3, we believe will do the job, however, an option we’re considering is to enable SOLUS 3 as a downloadable option as well. That’s not confirmed, but it’s an option we’re considering and that would allow you to download the update package which you can distribute yourself. The form of it, whether it’s an MSI package or another type of file, has yet to be decided, but that’s something we’re looking at.

Edited May 6, 2013 by vikpaw
layout

[Meldrew]

Ok, so again how is that different? You still can't deploy to machines that aren't physically there/on with MSI. You can redeploy them at your leisure with either solus 3 or MSI. If you're having that level of difficulty then can I assume you've yet to install solus 3.5?

 

We do have SOLUS3.5 installed, if thats the most recent update? I think it broke scheduled deployment here actually - anyone else been using it to deploy scheduled updates, which never actually happen? The scheduled time occurs, but the deployment doesn't trigger.

 

We but gave up with SOLUS3 ages ago and haven't tried since (I was happy to get rid of the bloatware that is the solus3 agent too). Might be better now (anyone know?), but Capita released it in a state that was awful and it would appear forced our LEA (presumably others) to install it in schools despite them knowing it was absolutely full of holes. Once bitten twice shy I think is the saying that fits.

 

Meldrew