Have you any experience with Groupcall Xporter ...?

[JB7]

I work alongside an Academies Trust and I have been asked to look in to Groupcall Xporter as a way of getting information from our academies centrally (All but 1 using SIMS)

I have not had any experience of this at my current work so just wondering if edugeekers could help me out with experiences and thoughts

 

I have already been on their website and looked in to case studies and testimonials but obviously these will only talk about the good things so looking for help with:

 

 

• Pro's and Con's of this product
  
• Competitor Products - to analyse pros and cons of other providers in comparison to Groupcall Xporter
  
• Reasonable Pricing ?
  
• Good Support/SLAs ?
  
• Any thing else worth knowing regarding this
  

 

 

Thanks in advance !

 

James

[fiza]

We use it but it was set up as part of our install for Cashless Catering. Installed by the company but we have never had any issues with it.

[localzuk]

We've got it set up for 2 systems - Library software and Parents Evening software. Never really have any issues with it!

 

I think your usage scenario is a little different to most schools though to be honest. Have you looked at something like "Capita One"? Its the sort of thing that Local Authorities use to pull in the information from all their schools.

Edited February 11, 2015 by localzuk

[Steve21]

Use it for most stuff tbh, had it for Emerge, Parent emailing, custome VLE, Vivo miles etc

 

Always good support, helpful remote work done from engineers.

 

Steve

[JB7]

I think your usage scenario is a little different to most schools though to be honest. Have you looked at something like "Capita One"? Its the sort of thing that Local Authorities use to pull in the information from all their schools.

 

They have sent some documents through like this pdf I have attached to the post, explaining how it is useful to academies groups and I have read the case studies/testimonials from Local Authorities which are requiring similar data sets as ourselves

 

 

I think I will look in to Capita One as you suggest though as the Academy Trust budget holders have a 3 supplier policy so they know that they are getting the best value/service for the money

[Linfit]

We have used this for Emerge in the past, we use it for cashless catering and a number of other things still - it seems to be the most common app for third party companies to extract data from SIMS. Once set up, it seems pretty much trouble free, just works, which is exactly what you want I suppose from that type of application.

[matt40k]

I wouldn't recommend Capita ONE, the B2B process is pretty flaky and is limited to basic student details and everything is an extra - attendance, personnel. How many academy do you have? It'll be worth having a word with Ark - I can PM you the details of their data guy if you want.

[LiamH]

We used it for payroll stuff, was pretty much set and forget, only issue we had was when they messed up the pass keys on their end.

[sonofsanta]

I've always had it on my MIS server for one reason or another (county, or sync to an external system) and it's always just sat there and got on with its job. I only have that experience of it as an end user, but it's been painless for five years.

[truebluesteve]

Same as everyone else here really - it's used to extract data for a number of different applications and it works just fine.

[JB7]

Thanks for everyone's responses, all these comments are great as it appears they are a reliable company, providing reliable services which will definitley keep the budget holders and people higher up happy !

 

We are looking specifically at the moment at taking the information from the Academy's MIS but then possibly in the future we will look at what other products it links in to nicely and speak with the individual academies about the further implementation of the chosen reporter tool

[JB7]

I wouldn't recommend Capita ONE, the B2B process is pretty flaky and is limited to basic student details and everything is an extra - attendance, personnel. How many academy do you have? It'll be worth having a word with Ark - I can PM you the details of their data guy if you want.

@matt40k - 20 in total (10 primary, 10 secondary)

A PM with his details will be great as we will have to look at other products/companies to determine who is the chosen supplier of this service

[GREED]

@JamesBanks7 I work for Groupcall (in case there was any doubt for regular posters too!), I would be happy to answer any questions you have about Xporter. However my fellow forum members have done a good job already, thanks to all of you! Just to give you some specific reassurance, Xporter operates in around 17,000 schools all over the UK, in a lot of those situations this pulls information to many local authority or academy chain central systems.

 

One other thing to mention is Xporter pulls from all the key MIS' in the UK (9), not just SIMS. A key thing for you if you have your one school not on SIMS, and a consideration when you are talking with the Capita One chaps.

[JB7]

@GREED thanks Graham, I have seen you post many times but I wasn't aware you worked for Groupcall

 

At the moment the project is in it's very early stages as I have only just been asked to look in to yourselves as a result of some information being sent through from BETT which is relevant to a recent project that has been discussed. I then will also have to look in to other suppliers as a matter of comparison. But it's great to know I have a contact here on edugeek to answer any questions that may crop up along the way

[GREED]

@GREED thanks Graham, I have seen you post many times but I wasn't aware you worked for Groupcall

 

At the moment the project is in it's very early stages as I have only just been asked to look in to yourselves as a result of some information being sent through from BETT which is relevant to a recent project that has been discussed. I then will also have to look in to other suppliers as a matter of comparison. But it's great to know I have a contact here on edugeek to answer any questions that may crop up along the way

 

It is a contentious subject, given I have worked for a number of suppliers over the years and am very active on here both personally and professionally, and even then wear 2 hats when it comes to professional! Which is why I like to make clear what my intention is each time to be clear and honest :)

 

I completely understand what you are doing, sounds very sensible and wish you luck with your research. Anything further you need you know where I/Groupcall are.

[vikpaw]

Some things to consider:

What is your 1 non-SIMS system? It could be very problematic for you.

Used Xporter in a couple of schools and for different systems. All fine with SIMS, but integration with current MIS isn't as solid or well developed yet.

I have experienced slow support in the past, but recently it's been very good.

It might also depend on what info you need to eXport as if it's not part of the already defined set, it might take time to modify the routines.

[JB7]

Some things to consider:

What is your 1 non-SIMS system? It could be very problematic for you.

Used Xporter in a couple of schools and for different systems. All fine with SIMS, but integration with current MIS isn't as solid or well developed yet.

I have experienced slow support in the past, but recently it's been very good.

It might also depend on what info you need to eXport as if it's not part of the already defined set, it might take time to modify the routines.

1 non SIMS academy is progresso but at the end of contract this will be then changed to SIMS, so there will be 100% coverage of SIMS

if progresso has any compatibility issues then that specific academy can keep extracting data the way they currently do until the new MIS is in place

 

The exact data required hasn't been specified yet but I know an idea of what is required, there is upcoming meetings to discuss the full requirements

[vikpaw]

100% SIMS is a good place to be. The Groupcall team are good bunch, they even sent me out a massive box of sweets for Xmas a couple of years back.

[GREED]

100% SIMS is a good place to be. The Groupcall team are good bunch, they even sent me out a massive box of sweets for Xmas a couple of years back.

 

Just not this year... I came in a changed all that! ;-)

[vikpaw]

Just not this year... I came in a changed all that! ;-)

 

Hmph, where's the neg rep button...?

[GREED]

Hmph, where's the neg rep button...?

 

Don't you remember, we removed it for exactly this reason!! ;-)

[Roger_vfcss]

We use Groupcall Xporta and it works really well, very reliable compared to other MIS extractors. We use for LGFL & WisePay online payment systems

It does support most MIS systems

Would recommend

[ITGuyNW]

Sorry to drag up an old thread...

 

We use Xporter to get data from SIMS to MLS. Now MLS hasn't picked up the new year 7s. If I run the file in xporter, it says running but nothing seems to happen. Has anyone had any experience with this?

[vikpaw]

Log a support case, ours just went down a few days back and they needed to put in a new API key.

Though, you'd expect an error straight away. After it's run, you should get an idea of what happened at the bottom with a clue to the error.

Other causes might be, it's taking too long as there is a lot of data, this happens to us a lot due to poor internet connection.

I'm assuming the Year 7 have started now haven't they?

 

Doesn't SIMS have an in-built link to MLS? I didn't realise it was an Xporter link.

[ITGuyNW]

We have a scheduler in xporter, which should have run overnight but failed. Same happens when its run manually.

 

We are giving them a ring later in the day so let's see what fun this brings!