SalamanderSoft - Singing Praises :)

[Liam]

I always wonder what other shools are doing to help administration tasks.. I mean we all do the account creation and monitoring etc.. But how else do you use their fantastic software?

[ful56_uk]

One thing we do is age related content AD groups on our media server based on the dob in sims plus setting a load of setting in 365 group moderation etc.....

[howartp]

Stuart is the man, always helped me here when I've asked for a tweak.

 

Would be interesting to know what tweaks you've done @howartp in case others could use them too.

We've just started adding our ITT (Trainee) teachers to SIMS for the simple reason of automating their AD and Google accounts. Obviously I can't issue them a contract, but I've issued them a Service Agreement with the two mandatory fields set to "Do not include in statutory reporting" and the SWR tickbox unticked.

 

The best addition we've done is for iDoceo on the iPads - Salamander exports the class lists to CSV in a folder structure per teacher with one CSV per class, that they can then access via FoldR/WebDAV/ToolOfChoice and import straight to iDoceo - I've earned huge brownie points for that, both from the teachers who usually pester the data manager on the first day of term, and from the data manager who.... you get the picture! I've added PP, EAL and FSM columns to it as well, which is something they often add manually themselves.

 

Our parent's AD accounts are also created by Salamander and emailed to them automatically as soon as their child starts school (assuming x, y and z are true), and disabled when they leave/fail xyz.

 

Everything else, off the top of my head, is just tweaks to the filters as to who/how/when it pulls people out.

 

[TheScarfedOne]

Thanks for the lovely feedback guys. It is much appreciated

[howartp]

Thanks for the lovely feedback guys. It is much appreciated

 

Oi - get back to work!

[Soanage]

Stuart is the man! Always picks up my email when I need a change or if something isn't working quite right.

 

We have ours setup new Staff and Students, add the Membership groups in, setup Mailboxes and home folders. As well doing the opposite of disabling accounts and moving them to a leavers OU with the date of disabling in the description, removal of membership groups, disabling of Lync accounts and archiving of their home folder to a different area on the network. Its amazing and saves me so much time. Emails everyday telling me what accounts have been created/disabled. Couldn't work without it now!

 

We've just had it starting adding students to Office 365 and licensing the students when they get imported, truly amazing.

 

Stuart, thank you for all the help and apologise for the countless number of emails I send you in times of need. You guys do a cracking job though.

[mullet_man]

We've just started adding our ITT (Trainee) teachers to SIMS for the simple reason of automating their AD and Google accounts. Obviously I can't issue them a contract, but I've issued them a Service Agreement with the two mandatory fields set to "Do not include in statutory reporting" and the SWR tickbox unticked.

 

The best addition we've done is for iDoceo on the iPads - Salamander exports the class lists to CSV in a folder structure per teacher with one CSV per class, that they can then access via FoldR/WebDAV/ToolOfChoice and import straight to iDoceo - I've earned huge brownie points for that, both from the teachers who usually pester the data manager on the first day of term, and from the data manager who.... you get the picture! I've added PP, EAL and FSM columns to it as well, which is something they often add manually themselves.

 

Our parent's AD accounts are also created by Salamander and emailed to them automatically as soon as their child starts school (assuming x, y and z are true), and disabled when they leave/fail xyz.

 

Everything else, off the top of my head, is just tweaks to the filters as to who/how/when it pulls people out.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]38525[/ATTACH]

 

That sounds really tailored for your school, why do you give parents AD accounts if you don't mind me asking? What do they use them for?

 

I always wonder what other shools are doing to help administration tasks.. I mean we all do the account creation and monitoring etc.. But how else do you use their fantastic software?

 

What do you do with monitoring for example?

 

Thanks for the lovely feedback guys. It is much appreciated

 

No thank you Stuart.

 

Stuart is the man! Always picks up my email when I need a change or if something isn't working quite right.

 

We have ours setup new Staff and Students, add the Membership groups in, setup Mailboxes and home folders. As well doing the opposite of disabling accounts and moving them to a leavers OU with the date of disabling in the description, removal of membership groups, disabling of Lync accounts and archiving of their home folder to a different area on the network. Its amazing and saves me so much time. Emails everyday telling me what accounts have been created/disabled. Couldn't work without it now!

 

We've just had it starting adding students to Office 365 and licensing the students when they get imported, truly amazing.

 

Stuart, thank you for all the help and apologise for the countless number of emails I send you in times of need. You guys do a cracking job though.

 

We use it for AD accounts and email groups nothing really complex. We also have parents email groups created based on classes.

[howartp]

That sounds really tailored for your school, why do you give parents AD accounts if you don't mind me asking? What do they use them for?

It's not really tailored for our school, per se - anyone who uses iDoceo on their iPads could use this same functionality.

 

Our Parent Portal authenticates against AD so that students and staff have on set of credentials - we added parents into their own OU so they could a) login and b) make use of ADSelfService Plus to reset their own passwords.

 

Peter

[RLR]

We've just started adding our ITT (Trainee) teachers to SIMS for the simple reason of automating their AD and Google accounts. Obviously I can't issue them a contract, but I've issued them a Service Agreement with the two mandatory fields set to "Do not include in statutory reporting" and the SWR tickbox unticked.

 

The best addition we've done is for iDoceo on the iPads - Salamander exports the class lists to CSV in a folder structure per teacher with one CSV per class, that they can then access via FoldR/WebDAV/ToolOfChoice and import straight to iDoceo - I've earned huge brownie points for that, both from the teachers who usually pester the data manager on the first day of term, and from the data manager who.... you get the picture! I've added PP, EAL and FSM columns to it as well, which is something they often add manually themselves.

 

Our parent's AD accounts are also created by Salamander and emailed to them automatically as soon as their child starts school (assuming x, y and z are true), and disabled when they leave/fail xyz.

 

Everything else, off the top of my head, is just tweaks to the filters as to who/how/when it pulls people out.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]38525[/ATTACH]

 

Just emailed Salamander support for this Idoceo extract. Hope they can do it for us!

 

Salamander support is the best I've come accross. I've emailed them twice in the last week and they fix/tweak our AD extract the same day. Best tool we have and it does so much.

[howartp]

You might have to point them at "South Craven School" to get the workflow and map that we're using as this data isn't in the default installs.

 

Peter

[BKGarry]

Had this installed over Summer, it has been a lifesaver :-)

The class groups just added to impero, took 3 days of work down to 30 mins :-) (once you get in the swing of it)

Every time I have contacted support they have been amazingly fast at not only responding but fixing it too. It is so cool that it can cope with us being mid change of username conventions too :-)

[enjay]

I always wonder what other shools are doing to help administration tasks.. I mean we all do the account creation and monitoring etc.. But how else do you use their fantastic software?

 

* user creation, including personalised password (combination of initials and date of birth)

* leavers, passwords reset groups removed

* class lists extracted from SIMS into AD groups with email addresses, for use in Google Mail and Classroom

* timetables imported into Google Calendar

* staff code and pupil admission number imported to AD for use with managed printing

 

Almost certainly some others I've forgotten...

[Liam]

It's awesome.. It seems so long ago that I actually had to do something manually!! Love it when someone comes to my office now and they ask if little Jonny and his new maths teacher can have a login!! Oh look what i made earlier.. Emailed directly to our support desk with our welcome letter! Genius! Makes us look pretty slick anyway and I would not live without it now! It's like having another member of staff.. That never makes mistakes, always on time and most importantly well worth the Benjamin's!

[BKGarry]

Emailed to helpdesk with a welcome letter, now that sounds interesting

[Liam]

Haha yea.. So I issues all my users a welcome to the network sheet with their username and password etc. Explains about password complexity and their entitlement to office via office 365. This is sent to my helpdesk so I know we have a new user. We then print it and store it in a secure place until the collects collects . Works well. Applies to both staff and students. Also get a similar notification when someone leaves and we are not aware! Nothing more frustrating than not know someone left and still have their pic on the website etc etc . Sorry salamander! Might have created more work haha

[BKGarry]

I will wait a bit before pestering them. I should get email notifications enable though.

[Liam]

I will wait a bit before pestering them. I should get email notifications enable though.

 

Works well honestly. Some would argue it's lazy... But hell with it! Who cares! Saves me a job!

[howartp]

Might steal this idea partially as well.

 

We already email parents a welcome letter with their initial password; no reason we shouldn't email a letter to staff when salamander creates AD and email, but without the password bit.

[enjay]

Haha yea.. So I issues all my users a welcome to the network sheet with their username and password etc. Explains about password complexity and their entitlement to office via office 365. This is sent to my helpdesk so I know we have a new user. We then print it and store it in a secure place until the collects collects . Works well. Applies to both staff and students. Also get a similar notification when someone leaves and we are not aware! Nothing more frustrating than not know someone left and still have their pic on the website etc etc . Sorry salamander! Might have created more work haha

 

For us, Salamander sends an email to the IT Services team with a spreadsheet listing any new users and any leavers. This is helpful if HR add new staff but forget to tell us about them - we can then ask HR for more details to finish off their setup.

[mullet_man]

Haha yea.. So I issues all my users a welcome to the network sheet with their username and password etc. Explains about password complexity and their entitlement to office via office 365. This is sent to my helpdesk so I know we have a new user. We then print it and store it in a secure place until the collects collects . Works well. Applies to both staff and students. Also get a similar notification when someone leaves and we are not aware! Nothing more frustrating than not know someone left and still have their pic on the website etc etc . Sorry salamander! Might have created more work haha

 

Hi Liam,

 

That sounds awesome, we have a welcome sheet with all the users passwords on etc but had no idea Salamander could be used to fill in their network details etc.

 

What did you have to do to do this? What format was the form in etc?

 

Thanks.

[Liam]

Word template. It just using ad attributes in a mail merge I assume. I can send you mine and you can amend if you wish. Salamander do the rest

[mdrabble]

@Liam yes please to your template [emoji3]

[Liam]

@mdrabble I'll send tomorrow

[mullet_man]

Thanks Liam, might harass Stuart at some point to see if we can get this setup for us.

 

Liam do you still receive email notifications for new starters, is welcome letter is additional or instead of that?

[Liam]

Both attached in same email . Do a spreadsheet and individual forms for users. I cross ref you see