Self Migration from Facility CMIS to SIMs

[Trapper]

Hi Folks,

 

Our LEA want just over £10,000 to move us from CMIS to SIMs. There are two large expenditure pots to get this figure:

 

1) Licensing

2) Having to buy another server so Facility runs until the end of the school year/FY depending when the migration was. I was tempted to virtualise our live CMIS server after migration and run it in Hyper-V.

3) They want about £5000 to export from CMIS to SIMs. Baring in mind that it is the school who has to do the most time consuming job - manually verifying all the data!

 

Has anyone exported by hand? Is it possible?

[Paul_Fielder]

Speak to Capita, if they want your business, they may be able to provide a better price.

[NotSoFast]

Or go to Progresso and AL will migrate you. Much cheaper than SIMS. But I assume you've already decided SIMS will better meet your needs.

[Michael]

Immediate thoughts come to mind -

 

- Why do you need to do this? Facility is still being supported for a good numbers of years to come.

- If you migrate to SIMS.net now, you'll need to do the same/similar again for when SIMS goes online.

- The issue with Progresso is it still has no finance package, so your choices are to continue using Facility (which would be pointless), or look at a third party finance package - again pointless in my view

 

Wait until Progresso has a finance package and Capita release their online versions of SIMS and FMS. Then your school has a real choice and makes the move once rather than twice in a short period.

[PhilNeal]

It's quite a bit of work to convert & I doubt if our quote would be less. If you only want the basics the CTF will give you that but if you want to avoid having to keep data on your old system convert the lot.

 

We can run SIMS in Azure today. When we do move to 8 for secondary transfer will be automatic. That is quite a few years away!

[matt40k]

I assume your not actually going to migrate till the end of the school year?

 

Capita should be able to give you a list of what can and cannot be migrated - if anyone says "everything" then your probability taking to a sales person and they're talking rubbish, you'll always have some manual work and you'll want a clear "them" and "us" To-Do list - Capita is normally pretty good at doing this.

 

As for cost - SIMS is like buying a house, you get whacked with a giant bill then the on-going costs are low - however it's an old house and to really get the best out of it you need to spend more money - like double glazing (parental engagement - inTouch\SchoolComms etc). Cloud based is more like renting - its easier to move, everything is (normally) included, its mainly smaller houses (primary schools)

[PhilNeal]

I disagree with the "easy to move" cloud bit!!

The reason people want to move everything is to avoid ongoing charges from the previous supplier - this isn't a salesperson statement.

[matt40k]

Well from a procurement side its easier, you don't have find the large pot of money for starters - even if you have already purchased the licenses you generally get hit by a consultancy bill. Cloud providers often absorb it as they want your business.

 

From a end user point of view it doesn't matter. Whatever system you use, it'll change, the same general process remains. You still take a register, submit a census return.

 

From an actual migration point of view, they do all the hard work. There is actually a pretty good example on YouTube of a school switching and the supplier migrating them over the weekend already for them to go live on the Monday.

[advanceduser]

Hi Trapper, please do speak to us about either staying with Facility or moving to Progresso, PM this user and we will set up a call for you as soon as you can do it. There are many benefits to your learners from having your data in the cloud, and lots of schools have made the move. PM this user if you would like us to set this up.

 

Advanced Learning

[Michael]

Hi Trapper, please do speak to us about either staying with Facility or moving to Progresso, PM this user and we will set up a call for you as soon as you can do it. There are many benefits to your learners from having your data in the cloud, and lots of schools have made the move. PM this user if you would like us to set this up.

 

Advanced Learning

 

Why haven't Advanced Learning released a cloud finance package as yet? Progresso has been out for years now. It doesn't really make any sense

[Michael]

Watch this space, we currently have three schools in pilot phase for a new cloud-based finance solution.

 

Progresso should have had it from the start. I'd stick my neck out and say if it had a finance package from the start, more schools would have migrated by now

[advanceduser]

Watch this space, we currently have a solution in pilot phase with three schools.

[Banjo]

Hi Folks,

 

Our LEA want just over £10,000 to move us from CMIS to SIMs. There are two large expenditure pots to get this figure:

 

1) Licensing

2) Having to buy another server so Facility runs until the end of the school year/FY depending when the migration was. I was tempted to virtualise our live CMIS server after migration and run it in Hyper-V.

3) They want about £5000 to export from CMIS to SIMs. Baring in mind that it is the school who has to do the most time consuming job - manually verifying all the data!

 

Has anyone exported by hand? Is it possible?

 

Why do you need another server?

 

Install a new SQL instance on the same DB server as Facility (as long as it's currently SQL2012 or above) at no extra cost.

 

You can install SIMS on the same server as facility and it will work quite happily. At some point after you have migrated you will want to turn Facility off. That will be a case of disabling the eportal/data services and unsharing the application folder. You also need to factor in that Advanced Learning will try to sting you for about 40% of your current Facility Licence in future payments after you have migrated away from SIMS to access Facility for "historical data".

 

The migration isn't something you can do by yourself and takes a lot of planning around statutory returns and exams to ensure you have what's needed in full.

[matt40k]

Why do you need another server?

 

Install a new SQL instance on the same DB server as Facility (as long as it's currently SQL2012 or above) at no extra cost.

 

I twitched when I read this. Rather build a fresh VM, it'll make the decommission process easier for starters. SIMS will work on the Express edition if you're worried about cost - this will be OK for a while, but really the cost of SQL Server Standard is pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things.

 

 

You also need to factor in that Advanced Learning will try to sting you for about 40% of your current Facility Licence in future payments after you have migrated away from SIMS to access Facility for "historical data".

 

If you're hosting it, its not live and your not getting updates, why would you have to pay a "license" fee? I thought the fee was for if you have it hosted - to cover the fact servers aren't free? :S - Can you confirm @advanceduser?

[Scott_L]

I believe the cost is because you're still using the software and it needs to be paid for.

 

An RTU licence can be used it you want to continue accessing the software.

 

Moving to Progresso allows you to continue using CMIS with read only access included.

 

I can find out more information for you if you PM me.

 

Scott

[Banjo]

I twitched when I read this. Rather build a fresh VM, it'll make the decommission process easier for starters. SIMS will work on the Express edition if you're worried about cost - this will be OK for a while, but really the cost of SQL Server Standard is pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things.

 

I was thinking of hardware costs. You can VM the exisiting facility server, then rebuild it as SIMS server on the same hardware You will need another Server and SQL licences and possibly backup???

 

I've seen plenty of schools that have moved to/from SIMS/Facility where this solution works fine.

 

If you're hosting it, its not live and your not getting updates, why would you have to pay a "license" fee? I thought the fee was for if you have it hosted - to cover the fact servers aren't free? :S - Can you confirm @advanceduser?

 

Even though you are no longer subscribing to their service/products you are asked to pay around 40% of the full licence fee in case you need to access old data using the your old application. This is very much a 12 months licence arrangement rather than Capita's annual maintenance.

 

I always backup and restore Facility into an MS Access DB to make looking up the odd student record easier along with plenty of csv files of student attendance records.