dhm83 Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 Hi, I manage a small primary school network with a pupil count of 210 in the Birmingham area. We currently use Advanced Learning Facility CMIS as our MIS system. I have just had my renewal quote through from our IT provider and the price for Licenses and relevant support has gone up another £121.00. I have been looking around to see what my options are MIS wise. In previous jobs I have used Capita SIMS quite happily with minimal problems, but I have looked into a CMIS to SIMS conversion and whichever way I look at this it is going to cost me upwards of £10K either using my LEA or Capita. The other product Advanced Learning are offering is Progresso which is cloud based, sounds good on paper but can't find a lot of evidence to suggest it is a good way to go. The other possibility I have is RM Integris G2 which I know is already in over 2,000 schools in the UK and is also cloud based, again with Integris I am struggling to find any credible testimonials for it. Looking for some honest feedback on solutions and other products. Any input greatly appreciated.
GREED Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 There are 14 offerings out there currently all with pros and cons. There is a sticky post in this forum talking about the MIS Challenge I put together which will have plenty of details of a huge research project on all MIS products in the UK. Worth a look. Specifically, have a look at Scholarpack, they are a primary only product, growing at speed and really liked by all their users. @scholarpack is on here too. Certainly worth checking out all of what is on offer before making a decision and happy to talk more directly if the Challenge doesn't give you enough to go on. Graham
GREED Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 (edited) http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/131286-mis-challenge-market-analysis.html Edited January 30, 2015 by GREED
matt40k Posted January 31, 2015 Posted January 31, 2015 cost me upwards of £10K Seriously? 210 pupils? I'd print everything and type it in for that amount!! Heck, I'd still do it for half that!!
GREED Posted January 31, 2015 Posted January 31, 2015 Seriously? 210 pupils? I'd print everything and type it in for that amount!! Heck, I'd still do it for half that!! Didn't spot that... what a rediculous amount of money for data migration :-/
NotSoFast Posted January 31, 2015 Posted January 31, 2015 I like Progresso. A lot of it comes down to how comfortable you are with SSRS as your report engine.
scholarpack Posted February 1, 2015 Posted February 1, 2015 (edited) We are here indeed! Like Graham says there are many different options now for Primary schools aside from SIMS and CMIS. Graham's site is a really good place to start to compare your options. I think you'll find the newer providers have a lot to offer in terms of functionality compared to the traditional options. I was excited at BETT this year to see more entrants to the MIS market. Don't be fooled into thinking that you only have a limited set of options. Edited February 1, 2015 by scholarpack typo
Banjo Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 I'm guessing a lot of that £10K is licencing costs for Sims in year 1. Year 2 you will just be paying Annual Maintenance of around ~£3.60 per pupil. The actual cost of migrating the data should not be more than £1000 for that many pupils.
mark80 Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 Progresso is a simple and easy thing to use for Primaries. From my experience Primaries are interested in registers, assessment and reports and that's pretty much it. If you can get a bank of SSRS reports suitable for the Primary environment i would certainly go that route. Data Migration is always tricky whichever route you go as 99% of the time you are trying to migrate incomplete/wrong/duplicated data and in the instance of 210 students i would personally start from scratch
GREED Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 Progresso is a simple and easy thing to use for Primaries. From my experience Primaries are interested in registers, assessment and reports and that's pretty much it. Really???? I would be wary of lumping all Primary schools into that group of limited requirements. I know Primary schools who use everything bar Exams modules (obviously), even using limited functions of the timetable engine.
mark80 Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 (edited) @GREED - from my experience that is what i have found, yes there are exceptions to the rule and you may even find some Primaries who do use the internal part of exams module to create mock SATs. My point was a general one and in general that is what i have seen. I probably should have added the Behaviour module as they would find that useful. And yes i have found Progresso in a Primary setting to be sufficient enough for their needs and easy enough to navigate as long as performance server side good. Edited February 2, 2015 by mark80
dhm83 Posted February 5, 2015 Author Posted February 5, 2015 Here is one of our quotes for SIMS conversion: SIMS LA License - Paid by LA SIMS Annual Entitlement inc. FMS & Attendance - £1,065.52 SIMS Training and Migration Package - £6,000.00 (including £1,800 conversion fee by Capita) FMS database structure and training (for 2 people) (to set up finance in SIMS) - £1,200.00 Assessment Tracker Set up and training - £1,100.00 Photo Importer (batch upload school photos) - £70.00 Facility Right to Use Licence (5 years) - £1,398.43 All this seems very expensive, especially the training and conversion elements. It is a case of bankrupt ourselves converting or stick with an inferior product in CMIS. I have had talks with RM re Integris G2 and the costs are a lot more favourable with no additional conversion charges while having similar functions to SIMS & SIMS Discover. I have also spoken with our LA regarding Progresso and they have said that it has its advantages but there are not many takers for it. I will look into Scholarpack before I commit myself to anything in mid March. Will also have a look at the MIS comparison links posted above.
vikpaw Posted February 11, 2015 Posted February 11, 2015 @dhm83 We recently converted away from SIMS to DoubleFirst Engage - it's amazing and our primary school love it. If you were an independent school, I’d say Engage is superior and better value – but if you’re getting a license effectively for nothing, you’ll find that tough to beat. There's always going to be a cost element in transition. I think ours was mostly included in the initial licensing, and over a projected 5 years we stand to make significant savings which will offset the initial outlay. The real benefit is that we're now on a more stable platform with more scope for expansion and doing what we want. If you've got an inferior product, i wouldn't stick with it just because of costs. You need to think bigger/longer term, and move to a better platform.
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