Changing from SIMS

[kinster]

What does everyone think of SIMS? I'm looking at alternative systems and am wondering if other people have changed over to an alternative?

[Bananas]

Just going the other way from CMIS to Sims and it's a refreshing change, Sims is soooo much better, faster and easier to use.

[kinster]

Just going the other way from CMIS to Sims and it's a refreshing change, Sims is soooo much better, faster and easier to use.

 

In what areas? Never used CMIS

[Bananas]

IMHO in just about every way possible lol

[kinster]

IMHO in just about every way possible lol

 

Nothing is 100% perfect. I know some people have issues with certain parts of the system. It's also an old system that needs upgrading instead of patching up.

[abillybob]

I like Sims and it works very well. ALTHOUGH, it's a nightmare to setup here as it's centrally hosted, I need to make sure that the Hosts file is changed and replace and then I need to set up a static IP address as county will only let a specific IP range access the Sims servers, plus all the la-dee-da with upgrades and having to make sure staff can read/write to the C: drive makes it all a bit silly! Nothing's perfect I suppose though and it works well for the end users isn't that the most important thing!?

[kinster]

I like Sims and it works very well. ALTHOUGH, it's a nightmare to setup here as it's centrally hosted, I need to make sure that the Hosts file is changed and replace and then I need to set up a static IP address as county will only let a specific IP range access the Sims servers, plus all the la-dee-da with upgrades and having to make sure staff can read/write to the C: drive makes it all a bit silly! Nothing's perfect I suppose though and it works well for the end users isn't that the most important thing!?

 

Is there an alternative Web MIS out there so you don't have to do all those things? In which you can access from an device PC, Mac, tablet, phone, etc? Also, that can write to the "standard" formats?

[abillybob]

Is there an alternative Web MIS out there so you don't have to do all those things? In which you can access from an device PC, Mac, tablet, phone, etc? Also, that can write to the "standard" formats?

 

I don't know, if anyone knows of any please feel free to give me a headsup!

[jamesreedersmith]

scholarpack is cloud based i believe

[abillybob]

Thankyou although, it does worry me having all that data and information about students, staff etc... and it's out of our hands. County I can pretty much trust but can we trust company's like that with the horror stories of data mining going around?

[kinster]

Thankyou although, it does worry me having all that data and information about students, staff etc... and it's out of our hands. County I can pretty much trust but can we trust company's like that with the horror stories of data mining going around?

 

Web based doesn't mean the data be stored in the "clouds". It could be stored directly at the LA but the interface be a Web application.

[Ephelyon]

So is Progresso, though quite a few people have had issues with it so far.

[elsiegee40]

This one for @GREED to comment on... and I challenge the MIS sellers who are not forum sponsors to refrain from pushing their products in this thread.

 

The best MIS for your school very much depends on the type of school and the age range of your students. SIMS is fantastic at some things and less good at others. Schools in the independent sector have different needs to their maintained equivalents. Primary Schools have different needs to Secondaries... Do you want the finance package to be integrated or are you using a third party package such as SIMS because you are an independent school are part of a Multi Academy Trust?

 

And Early Years provision is whole new ball game. Put it this way, the other settings I have spoken to about this seem to come up with the answer "Well we have some very good excel spreadsheets for registration" as none of the providers effectively covers the needs of pre-schools... yet.

Edited May 8, 2014 by elsiegee40

[kinster]

This one for @GREED to comment on... and I challenge the MIS sellers who are not forum sponsors to refrain from pushing their products in this thread.

 

The best MIS for your school very much depends on the type of school and the age range of your students. SIMS is fantastic at some things and less good at others. Schools in the independent sector have different needs to their maintained equivalents. Primary Schools have different needs to Secondaries... Do you want the finance package to be integrated or are you using a third party package such as SIMS because you are an independent school are part of a Multi Academy Trust?

 

And Early Years provision is whole new ball game. Put it this way, the other settings I have spoken to about this seem to come up with the answer "Well we have some very good excel spreadsheets for registration" as none of the providers effectively covers the needs of pre-schools... yet.

 

I see the current systems as bloatware. Doing too much that is needed. Be good to have a system with the barebones and a base to add on to.

[matt40k]

I don't mean to be rude @kinster but we've seen alot of MIS suppliers floating around and you look alot like one. If are a school, then apologies, could you give a bit more info on your school, like @elsiegee40 said, you choice will depending on your setup. If your a simple primary then yes, SIMS is pretty bloated and something like ScholarPack would be better. If you're a secondary then ScholarPack isn't the way to go, they are primary focused. Also, like @elsiegee40 said, @GREED has pull together some data that you can download as a spreadsheet, for free, which will give you a list of schools and their MIS - so you can find out who has actually changed from SIMS to whatever MIS your interested in AND more importantly completed the Autumn Census!

[kinster]

I don't mean to be rude @kinster but we've seen alot of MIS suppliers floating around and you look alot like one. If are a school, then apologies, could you give a bit more info on your school, like @elsiegee40 said, you choice will depending on your setup. If your a simple primary then yes, SIMS is pretty bloated and something like ScholarPack would be better. If you're a secondary then ScholarPack isn't the way to go, they are primary focused. Also, like @elsiegee40 said, @GREED has pull together some data that you can download as a spreadsheet, for free, which will give you a list of schools and their MIS - so you can find out who has actually changed from SIMS to whatever MIS your interested in AND more importantly completed the Autumn Census!

 

No need to apologise @matt40k. I've read your posts and know you are rude. Just because I know about technology doesn't mean I am a supplier. The schools I am involved with are in Leeds and I hear a lot of complaints about certain systems that need updating.

[pcstru]

I don't know, if anyone knows of any please feel free to give me a headsup!

Bromcom MIS.

[kinster]

Bromcom MIS.

 

This looks good with both Cloud based and LA storage

[matt40k]

No need to apologise @matt40k. I've read your posts and know you are rude. Just because I know about technology doesn't mean I am a supplier. The schools I am involved with are in Leeds and I hear a lot of complaints about certain systems that need updating.

 

I prefer "direct". Interesting you say you a lot of complaints from your schools in Leeds - they are accredited support team, which means that a independent company has surveyed the LA's schools and they have received something like 90% positive feedback from the end user. Perhaps you've been listening to the technicians moaning about upgrades rather the actual users who spend their days working in the MIS?

[GREED]

Very kind of you @elsiegee40 to invite me to respond specifically here (despite the fact it seems to be veering off topic!). @elsiegee40 has nailed it really already. You have a range of systems on offer that are often specific to one sector (Primary, Secondary, Independent) while a few serve all equally well.

 

Love it, love to hate it, SIMS is the dominant player because it does what it says on the tin. If it didn't 18000+ schools would not be using it and have been for years (See the mentioned stats at: Market Statistics | Eduware Consulting)

 

If you want cloud, as in true cloud, then most of the other players enter this arena, but SIMS will be there in 2-3 years with SIMS 8.

 

If you have a sector you are procuring for, then look specifically at that. Primary you have Scholarpack, Wauton Samuel and SchoolPod I believe. Secondary you can view the rest that include Progresso, Bromcom, Arbor, iSAMS, Integris.

 

The big players are Capita with SIMS, Facility from Advanced Learning and Integris from RM. There are some new boys entering the market soon too, most interestingly from Ireland VSWare. There are also newer but established players like Arbor who are really going well with their adaptive analysis driven MIS offering.

 

Very soon I hope to be able to publish the results of the MIS Challenge which has surveyed every supplier out there to respond with detailed pieces on their product's capability, and this should allow you to see what the capabilities are. Obviously this does not give an impression on usability nor customer experiences (that comes later!) but is a starting point and is an objective study. The statistics (linked above) also shows trends across suppliers, across LAs around the country (So check out Leeds!) and even between individual schools so you can see who has changed within the last 4 years.

 

All of this is designed to give you a flavour of what is on offer. You need to carefully think about your requirements and pose these to the suppliers who initially look to fit your requirements, get them in, see and play with the software. Talk to their existing happy and also not so happy customers (important that, the statistics spreadsheet should help you there) and then make up your mind. Do not be swayed by pushy beliefs that one system or one technology is better than the other, such as cloud (ie just because a system is cloud means it is instantly better than non-cloud), but your own requirements are what is most important.

 

The difficulty in what you have asked is very few people, let alone users on here, have enough experience of the multiple currently available systems to be able to give an honest opinion (ie I love SIMS or I hate SIMS because...), so you need to take many opinions and viewpoints into consideration and ensure your requirements are being adequately met.

[GREED]

No need to apologise @matt40k. I've read your posts and know you are rude. Just because I know about technology doesn't mean I am a supplier. The schools I am involved with are in Leeds and I hear a lot of complaints about certain systems that need updating.

 

I would not call @matt40k rude. He like many others knows his subject matter and so should be considered an expert in (certain ) fields, therefore he speaks with authority... he just doesn't know when to pipe down sometimes!

 

The question is valid because of some recent tactical posting by a certain MIS supplier that is trying to subvert forum advertising rules, and while a coincidence I am sure, your instant praise for said company just lends itself to speculation. It is our wish to promote impartiality both here and to those reading this thread that trepidation has wandered into our approaches.

[kinster]

I would not call @matt40k rude. He like many others knows his subject matter and so should be considered an expert in (certain ) fields, therefore he speaks with authority... he just doesn't know when to pipe down sometimes!

 

The question is valid because of some recent tactical posting by a certain MIS supplier that is trying to subvert forum advertising rules, and while a coincidence I am sure, your instant praise for said company just lends itself to speculation. It is our wish to promote impartiality both here and to those reading this thread that trepidation has wandered into our approaches.

 

I only praised the certain company because they offer both options.

 

TBH I think there could be something better available

[pcstru]

Very kind of you [MENTION=1561]You need to carefully think about your requirements and pose these to the suppliers who initially look to fit your requirements, get them in, see and play with the software. Talk to their existing happy and also not so happy customers (important that, the statistics spreadsheet should help you there) and then make up your mind. Do not be swayed by pushy beliefs that one system or one technology is better than the other, such as cloud (ie just because a system is cloud means it is instantly better than non-cloud), but your own requirements are what is most important.

We are in the process of doing almost exactly that and are hopefully about to arrive at a decision of which MIS to choose as a successor to CMIS/ePortal. I'm agnostic in that the technical issues while different are all serviceable. All offerings are imperfect to someone's requirement - some of the users prefer X when championing their requirements while others prefer Y. It's not just about functional requirements either. Support, serviceability, the stability of the company (one of the suppliers invited to tender pulled out of the market during the process - which kind of focuses peoples mind on that kind of risk), stability of the product, price - all weigh in on the scales. One of the most difficult aspects is how to weight/prioritise requirements - is price as important as support, is personnel as important as assessment - who makes that cal;? And having done all that, at some cost, I wonder if our decision making process will really be much better than a roll of a die.

Edited May 8, 2014 by pcstru

[GREED]

Do you believe it would be worthwhile to have a basic template for scoring and or weighting to guide schools. Not to say that it is binding but suggestive based on expertise and experience in this market. I'd be happy to chat to you in more detail about your ideas and would be as interested in your perspective to guide my own efforts. PM if interested!

 

That aside you are tight that technology alone is not the only consideration however it along with service and support should be the top three considerations.

[matt40k]

I wonder if our decision making process will really be much better than a roll of a die.

 

One of the things I was looking at was using (Arbor) API to extract the data then see if I could, at least some of the data anyway, get back into SIMS .net using the API in attempt to find out how difficult it would be undo that dice roll.