Free School MIS Choice Follet or ScholarPac

[Minimanwill23]

Hi all we are a new Free School to open up. Has anyone got good bad experiences of Follet or ScholarPac as my boss has said we have to go to a cloud system. The SIMS presentation I went to they said their Learning Gateway is cloud but I am not sure it really is looking at their website?

[zag]

SLG isnt cloud based. It can be hosted but it still requires links to a sims server.

 

If I was starting from scratch I would go with ScholarPack, it looks really good.

[rikcoz]

Hi Minimanwill23,

 

We currently use Pearson as our MIS provider, but they are pulling the plug on us from next year, which to be honest gives us the oppertunity to look at other things. I have been advised that Pearson have struck up a deal with RM, which lets us move to Integris (cloud based) for free. This looked like a good idea to us, as we have Kaleidos in place. I've visited a school using Integris, and the whole system is pretty basic, and to be honest its missing loads of things that are key to us, such as document storage (you'd think that this is a must in this digital age!).

 

I've since heard that Kaleidos is going end of life...... we must be a jinx!

 

Taking a look at Progresso in a couple of weeks. From what I've read the software has had its challenges, but Advanced Business Solutons have purchased the software from Serco, and by all accounts seem to appear to be getting it right.

 

I've planned to look at Follet and S'pac at BETT. I don't really know much about either solution, and don't know any schools using them. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

In reference to SIMs, my brother in law is a techie in Birmimgham, and told me a funny story....... he was at a demo and a primary raised the question about SIMS being cloud hosted, and was told "well you can access it via VPN, which offers you a cloud based experience!". What won't they do / say to sell! Maybe Mr Neal will have a word with his sales team about bending the truth..... but he probably won't ;-)

 

Keep in touch, and I will let you know how I get on with my demos etc

 

 

RikCoz

[localzuk]

Here in lies the rub - define cloud.

 

Is it PaaS? SaaS? Web based? What exactly?

 

Many people seem to mean 'cloud' to be synonymous with simply outsourcing. Others define it as 'web based' and hosted outside the enterprise.

 

Then there is having a "private cloud" - basically having a virtualised server infrastructure which hosts everything without needing specific hardware, etc...

 

So, what do you want when you say cloud?

Edited October 3, 2013 by localzuk

[rikcoz]

Hi,

 

I mean hosted by the provider, with all the relevant fail over provision. Not a box sat in my server room, that we can dial into!

 

I want someone else to take care of back up, updates etc...

[Minimanwill23]

I have just been told cloud apparently by EFA. I want IPAD access for students and no servers onsite. dont mind as long as its secure like Office 365.

[john]

I have just been told cloud apparently by EFA. I want IPAD access for students and no servers onsite. dont mind as long as its secure like Office 365.

 

Follet are a sponsor on here and I am sure @GREED will be happy to assist

[GREED]

Time to make good use of our sponsorship money (eh @Dos_Box).

 

Let me fill you in on the history here:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/96205-little-about-follett.html

 

Let me also point you to this thread where there have been many questions already asked about what Aspen MIS can do.

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/aspen-mis-direct-support/102468-quick-fire-aspen-mis-questions.html

 

As an E1 customer, see here and you will see an exclusive offer to move to Aspen, should you so wish

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/123945-pearson-e1-customers-exclusive-offer-migrate-aspen-mis.html

 

Can I suggest you have a quick look at these and see if this answers your queries about what Aspen MIS is and can do, and I am more than happy to follow up with more information, publically or privately, and indeed we can have one of our sales team contact you for a demo or answer anything else you might want to know.

 

Sorry for the links, but writing the profile of Aspen MIS out takes a little while (and I was rather proud of the first!)

 

FYI our schools have been using Aspen for a whole school year now, launched officially just over 18 months ago in the UK (10 years ago worldwide).

[vikpaw]

I've seen good about both offerings. What age range is a Free School? I have the impression that scholarpack is much better for primary, but, things are always changing and improving, so they may well have added more to their suite in the interim year or more since i had a look.

I'd ask both for some example schools that you can talk to / visit.

The thing i like most about Aspen is the customisable platform and flexibility, it's like an MIS on speed, so you will get an intranet/VLE/workflows etc. all in one. There is an academy in Birmingham i've seen using it well.

[rikcoz]

I've seen good about both offerings. What age range is a Free School? I have the impression that scholarpack is much better for primary, but, things are always changing and improving, so they may well have added more to their suite in the interim year or more since i had a look.

I'd ask both for some example schools that you can talk to / visit.

The thing i like most about Aspen is the customisable platform and flexibility, it's like an MIS on speed, so you will get an intranet/VLE/workflows etc. all in one. There is an academy in Birmingham i've seen using it well.

 

 

I've sent you a PM.

 

Many thanks

[Minimanwill23]

Thanks for the comprehensive update and profiles. Our Free school is Primary initially but hopeful to expand to all through, I get the impression Follet is focused on secondary and scholarpac on primary? Is that fair... We need something simple. Does anyone offer a free trial of their MIS, someone from ISAMS has done this with my mates school in Wakefield who look like moving to ISAMS for their Academy Trust. Not convinced it is good for a small free school though.

[vikpaw]

I wouldn't say it like that, but you might easily think that. Both can suitable for either, but the look gives certain impressions. I think it's fair to say Scholarpack is easier on the eyes

Aspen was supposed to be working on a revamp - probably mentioned in one of those threads linked above, i saw some very nice primary pages set up though, very easily. I'm sure @GREED can chuck up some snapshots if they're not private.

[GREED]

Yes I will see about putting something together a few interesting snaps.

 

I would very much NOT say Aspen MIS is just for secondary. It contains the features for secondary as well as primary, and is equally balanced for both.

 

Perhaps in visuals it is more secondary in terms of an administrative feel in some areas (some areas), but then unfortunately that is necessary. You can't have pretty icons for everything! Well, you can...

 

We released in August our dedicated mobile interface which offers a very clean, crisp, simple look and feel which we are also able to roll out to users as their main interface for the day to day work, particularly for parents and teachers (and students if you really want!).

 

And yes, we include a VLE Intranet aspect called Pages which you can easily make and look however you want, simple controls mostly drag and drop that any staff member can learn in minutes. Through this comes some very nifty document management features too that our schools have really taken forwards.

 

Currently we do not offer a free trial of the software, if you are looking for a demo that is one thing, but being able to have your data in there and you start to use it is very much different. We can set up a live demo for you in person of via Webex. Our sales team can talk more though this if you want more.

[scholarpack]

There's a certain irony about Aspen advertising like mad in a thread entitled 'ScholarPack'

[GREED]

1) responding to the mid thread point questions both our companies.

 

2) because we can

[scholarpack]

Oh yeah, I'm not blaming you, comrade. Brothers in arms etc. We are all for more supplier in the market.

[GREED]

Sure comrade sorry that previous message didn't come out how I meant it. It's good to have more players in this market

[vikpaw]

So how has the @scholarpack assessment area developed? Is there a teacher's mark book they can customise? Can you easily apply formulae or RAGing to data?

[john]

Mod Note - These posts have been moved from another thread as it warrants it own thread really

[scholarpack]

So how has the @scholarpack assessment area developed? Is there a teacher's mark book they can customise? Can you easily apply formulae or RAGing to data?

 

We are just concentrating on Primary schools for the foreseeable future and the assessment area has a huge amount of functionality across EYFS, KS1 and KS2. Teachers enter grades (customisable: levels, fine grained levels, APS etc) into their markbooks and marks are instantly colour coded according to the child's target, or NC expected if no target is set. In the reporting section there's a ton of data heavy and graphical features to analyse the data, ranging from dynamic groups (e.g. low attenders on free school meals) to normal cohort average (EAL, SEN etc). For EYFS and development matters, we have a special target based markbook where evidence can be uploaded and portfolios developed. Vikpaw, we would be happy to spend 30 mins on Skype with you if you wanted a run down of how the assessment now looks. Otherwise, see you at BETT!

[PhilNeal]

Just for the record 1000s of UK based schools use SIMS with no server based in their school. We can host it and so can LAs and organisations like SCOMIS (Devon's support unit) who offer services outside their boundary.

 

As far as I'm concerned that it cloud based.

[CAM]

Hi,

 

I mean hosted by the provider, with all the relevant fail over provision. Not a box sat in my server room, that we can dial into!

 

I want someone else to take care of back up, updates etc...

 

This actually rings alarm bells. Is your boss aware that having a fallback doesn't stop at the provider's end? You will also require a backup Internet connection routed through two different exchanges to ensure protection against Internet failure (which is far more likely then the provider screwing up). This is nearly always overlooked and scrimped on by management teams to save money then subsequently run into all manner of connection issues down the line.

[winng]

What about having a look at Bromcom's cloud-based MIS solution which is gradually picking up its market share and is included in the latest IMLS Framework (whereas Advanced Learning has been removed due to legal issues)?

[PhilNeal]

Advanced is not on ILMS because no provision was made in the tender for a product being bought. This is a weakness in my view of the ILMS framework.

[number34]

I have just been told cloud apparently by EFA. I want IPAD access for students and no servers onsite. dont mind as long as its secure like Office 365.

 

A bit off topic but as to IPad access for students we are having general problems in locking down the devices so that they cannot alter settings etc.