Paying Capita for SIMS support

[PhilNeal]

Grommit, I will willingly investigate any complaint that you have if you would like to identify yourself to me.

[Muhaimin]

Grommit,

 

is not possible to find a supplier who has a client support team that is backed up by a technical support team who you are able to speak to directly?

 

its fair to say that most organisations have a hierarchichal system. However, the efficieny of that system is dictated by the policy that the supplier is willing to take when resolving calls.

 

The most efficient supplier (and there are some available) will work in the following way where a call is taken by the client support person (1st line) - if this person is not able to resolve on the call then they will speak to the supervisor for the client support team (2nd line) - This should resolve most data issue's. This call should take no longer than 10-15 mins in most cases. If it is any longer then a technial suppport person (3rd line) should be involved. Email does not allow the proper communication for technial support issues.

[Bromcom_John]

Muhaimin - Its precisely for the reasons that you have highlighted in your post that we (Bromcom) endeavour to have technical personnel on our 1st line helpdesk.

I personally hate phoning any support line with a technical problem only to be confronted with someone who is in essence a answer phone with some scripts to follow.

That being the case I have a support team who can all design and execute SQL script, have an in depth knowledge of not just our own products but to a large degree those products we interface with (SIMS, Phoenix etc.) and as a result its only the most extreme data issues or actual honest to goodness bugs that ever get escalated beyond the helpdesk team.

[DMcCoy]

Apart from Letter designer and generator, which no one can tell me what it's trying to do when it runs that needs admin rights.

[Bromcom_John]

Apart from Letter designer and generator, which no one can tell me what it's trying to do when it runs that needs admin rights.

I'll get you the proper answer to that one.

Its on my list of things to chase the software department for an answer to

[jenny_urey]

mattpant; not sure which school in Shropshire you are. Do you ever speak to Christine Kerry EWO?

 

I do work with may schools in Shropshire as Training Officer for a particular company. If you want to 'share experiences' please email me and I will put you in touch with schools in the area who we work with you can advise you.

[DMcCoy]

I've had quite enough of capita now :|

 

I've been given the SAME solution that doesn't work 3 times now over the last few weeks

 

Once on the phone. This was logged as it made the situation even worse *and* even if it did was an unacceptable fix (as in it wasn't a fix at all!)

 

I have since had the same solution faxed

 

Then the case was closed. I reopened the case, now it has been emailed. The case was about the be closed again.

 

What exactly am I paying for apart from the privilege of repeating myself to numerous helpdesk drones?

[jenny_urey]

............................. Edited February 8, 2008 by jenny:urey
put it on twice.. user error :)

[jenny_urey]

As a premier partner of SIMS, I would like to comment on the fact that our helpdesk and support is fanblinckintastic (a technical term obviously). I work at many schools in the UK who obviously have SIMS; negative comments regarding SIMS support is very rare.

Jenny Urey - PARS Training Officer (oops name dropped)

Edited February 8, 2008 by jenny:urey
cus i spelt fanblinckintastic wrong!

[Linfit]

We use PARS and I have had to ring their tech support from time to time.

Never had any problems getting through, and I they have always had a solution straightway. That aspect of PARS is very good.

 

The software has an automated error reporting system and we have a number of reproducable errors which have been reported via the automated error reporting and these never seem to be followed up.

[jenny_urey]

will get this checked out. Please can you email me your school name so I can sort it for you.

Thanks

Jenny

[Heebeejeebee]

I wouldn't mind the cost, since SIMS is such a mission critical application and regularly updated, if the service wasn't so bad.

 

Ditto - appalling support for vast amounts of cash.

 

When one of their (seemingly inadequately tested) updates introduces a bug, on more than one occasion I've called the helpdesk to be told our anti-virus is the cause of the problem!

 

Never had that one - they wouldn't dare!

 

Imho, they need to release more individual bug fixes when an update really screws something important. I appreciate that this involves yet more testing, but I don't think it's acceptable to leave schools hanging for 'the next update', whenever that may be.

 

Absolutely!

 

I've found that logging calls online to be semi-effectively, as others have said it takes a while for a response. But when you choose to subsequently add notes to the case, these seem to go ignored.

 

Ain't that the truth!

 

Although, all that said, they do dial into our server and try and fix the issue where appropriate. The FMS and Nova-T support people are very good. I also think the participation of Capita staff on these forums is encouraging.

 

Agreed - it's a shame the rest aren't as efficient.

 

Well said that man.

 

HBJB

[enjay]

Comments like this make me proud on the fact that my technical support are fantastic as they are all programmers which means they have an answer to an issue straight away.

 

If any of you have have had experience using TASC Software helpdesk (PARS) your posts would be appreciated.

I take it you work for PARS, jenny:urey? It would be polite to state that in a signature somewhere, just so we know to get out the proverbial pinch of (e-)salt out while reading your posts...

[Bromcom_John]

Well it does say "PARS Training Officer" under occupation on her profile

Personally I have my company affiliation posted over here

<=======

under location

[moggy]

In dealing with the last problem I raised, it seems that the support desk at Bedford is trying to improve its 'call-to-fix' times.

 

I opened the call and was given a call-ref number, but every time I called back to say the fix they had given me had not, or had only partially, resolved the problem, they closed that call and gave me another call ref.

 

So although it took 3 days to resolve the issue, each call would only have been open for a few hours! Nice trick!

 

Like an earlier contributor, I would love to see an upgrade mechanism which advises who is logged in and locks the system whilst doing the upgrade.

 

SIMS - Simply Impossible to Maintain System

[enjay]

Well it does say "PARS Training Officer" under occupation on her profile

Personally I have my company affiliation posted over here

<=======

under location

And that is fine, as I can see it without specifically going in to your profile, and it is visible every time you post. Having to go in to someone's profile to check for any affiliation every time someone says something positive about a company is simply not practical.

[DMcCoy]

I have 2 cases still open at the moment

 

Six weeks for one, now a confirmed Nova-T bug, no ETA

 

Now in week 4 for the one I keep getting sent the non fix for.

 

A total of 10 cases in October.

 

Thanks go to the LEA and Capita for turning sims into something that can make me miserable constantly instead of frequently. It was nice when there was a sims team here :|

[enjay]

Now in week 4 for the one I keep getting sent the non fix for.

Perhaps we should have a competition to see who has the oldest open case? I've got one which was raised on 7th March!

 

I logged it on 7th March and had a few exchanges with one of their support guys over the next few days before it went quiet. Then, on 6th August I was contacted with a "solution" which I had tried in March and is specifically mentioned in the notes as being unsuccessful. The last meaningful contact from Capita was 1st October when they told me they would fix it in "a future release"; questions regarding timescales were, of course, evaded.

[DMcCoy]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

 

I get a call from capita today to get some more information. They also took a copy of my data.

 

I have just recieved and email giving me the same non working solution!

[PhilNeal]

DMcCoy this is unacceptable and I apologise. I have asked the service manager to investigate what is happening here.

 

Nick it is not a recognised process to close a case and open a new one to make the stats look better. The process is to close a case if there is no response to a solution from you within 3 days. If you come back and say a solution hasn’t worked the case should be reopened and the clock still ticks.

 

It would help us to help you if you complained to the service manager or me [email protected]. when things like this happen. We want to provide you with a good service.

[Muhaimin]

i think we should be realistic, step back and take a look at the situation everyone is discussing here.

 

most applications do the same things whether that be recording attendance, dinners, updating pupil information. What makes an application special is the support that you recieve when things go bad. Let's face it, your not paying for the application because you can an application that does the same thing from a number of suppliers. What you are actually paying for is the support and if you are not getting that support isn't it time to think about alternatives?

 

The market is opening up through several BECTA initiatives and hopefully this will filter down and improve the support that schools recieve. At the end of the day a school needs to think about what benefits itself which is not a desicion that should be made centrally or even locally.

 

If you are unhappy with the service you recieve, there is no reason to stay with your current supplier. Look towards the other suppliers on the MOU, contact them and ask for a Demo - whats the harm in spending 1 hour of your time listening to something that may improve the way you work, make you more efficient and enable to talk to the right people you pay money to for support.

 

ps. If you are worried about data migration - don't be. Transfers files and export files have come along way for this.

[Zorro_Slot]

Sims is poo. 'Nuff said.

 

.... Useful comment, i know...

[zag]

Sims is poo. 'Nuff said.

 

.... Useful comment, i know...

 

Its actually becoming quite a good program, its just the constant updates and lack of planning for the future in their initial programming that holds it back.

 

The end user experience isn't too bad, but for us IT people its an absolute nightmare just to keep running.

[StArbiter]

@Muhaimin - I see from your posts you are not a fan of some of our MIS suppliers - is there anyone in particular you would reccomend ?

[Ravening_Wolf]

@Muhaimin - I see from your posts you are not a fan of some of our MIS suppliers - is there anyone in particular you would reccomend ?

 

Were it not for the training costs of teaching staff how to write again, I would suggest pen and ink.