[sims] Oh Cr@* spring release will not work with office 2003 (i know i know) anyone still

[round2it]

Anyone still runing office 2003 with the spring release what is broken in the reporting.

 

 

cr@* cr@* cr@* cr@*

 

if have some licences for 2010 but need time to get it installed

 

i only just realised that i needed to upgrade omg monday is gonna be hard

[PhilNeal]

We haven't done anything to cause it not to work as far as we know. We just aren't testing against it any more.

[Jamman960]

Thanks for mentioning it on here, still using 2k3 for profiles and individual reports here as 2k10 mucks them up... will have to start looking at ways of resolving it or put the spring release off till summer

[round2it]

we have to do the census shortly, so i have to have this upgrade done according to the LEA

i have some licences to install office 2010 but obviously i need to get gpos etc in place i thought it was the next release that required 2010 or above.

 

i am going to have to suck it and see.

 

Thanks for replying guys rep given

[round2it]

Sat at home watching the f1 practice trying not to think about the upgrade

[Cache]

We still have 4 machines using Office 2003 and SIMS quite heavily and not had any issues crop up yet, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

Anyway, I thought Spring was the last release to support Office 2003, so in theory the Summer release will be where you should start to worry?

[round2it]

That was my understanding hence why I have not moved up but let's see what happens it either works or it does not, I will address the issues as they come up.

[round2it]

That was my understanding hence why I have not moved up but let's see what happens it either works or it does not, I will address the issues as they come up.

 

Touch wood everything is working ok at the moment.

 

Now i need to move up to server up to 2012 and get office up to atleast 2010.

[Sheridan]

We've got quite a few older PCs and laptops with office 2003 still working happily with the Spring release.

[Rawns]

Anyway, I thought Spring was the last release to support Office 2003, so in theory the Summer release will be where you should start to worry?

 

Nope, no longer support from the Spring release. Autumn 2012 was the last upgrade where Capita provided support.

 

We were informed by Jon Wood at a S/W Technical seminar back in march that "technically", nothing was introduced into the SIMS Spring release that will have any effect with the reporting engine in SIMS and should therefore not stop reports working with Office 2003. However as it is now unofficially supported, Capita won't be able to help you with any problems, if your lucky, your LEA my offer "best endeavours" support.

 

Therefore, I'd take this opportunity between the Spring and Summer release as a possible "get out of jail free" card and get office upgraded before the next release!

Edited May 16, 2013 by Rawns

[round2it]

Yes that is the plan looking at ess licence now we have had our money's worth with server 2003 and office 2003

 

Thanks for the reply.

[GazN]

We have a few schools which are still using 2003 and they haven't reported any issues since the upgrade

[LeMarchand]

One of my sites is still mainly 2003 and has yet to report any problems with SIMS. Primary, though - so they don't tend to be doing anything too fancy. Their server is still 2003, too...

[vikpaw]

It's not that there's a problem, it's just that if there was a problem it wouldn't be supported. Plus they won't test on those versions any more.

[Rawns]

Like @vikpaw says, no more support if you're using 2003 and no more testing in 2003 from Capita.

 

It's either a case of a planned, controlled upgrade for SIMS users to Office 2007/2010 with minimal disruption/downtime to your end users, or wait for the calls from them to flood in from them saying "My reports don't work any more!" which will result in you having to rush about to get licences bout and get Office upgraded ASAP so your colleagues can run reports again!

 

I know which option I'd rather go with...

[vikpaw]

I know which option I'd rather go with...

Cross your arms in a gruff and mutter under your breath about how 'teaching & learning' is being affected.

[round2it]

plans being put in place as i type

 

thanks for all the help

[edutech4schools]

Have we not had years to get these updates done. Next you will all be saying your still running server 2003 and Sims is on an XP machine.

 

Oh wait

Their server is still 2003, too...

[LeMarchand]

It's not always a question of us having time (though if a school only has 5 hours a week and a bunch of teachers who insist on being allowed to install every piece of malware infested rubbish, sorry vital software to enhance their teaching...); it's often down to funding/SMT willingness to accept change and many other factors. Last time that school bought Office machines Capita still hadn't approved W7, so they're still running XP. At least they now have an EES, but getting the users to give up their machines isn't easy and there are no "spares" they can use in the interim.

[round2it]

No money no upgrade thats how it is these days .slt have no idea