Moodle Support

[truebluesteve]

Hi All

 

We have a Moodle server that was provided by a well known company that shall remain nameless at the moment, and which had a 3 year maintenance contract. This contract is due to expire shortly (they claim it already has, but thats another matter). I have had a quote from them to renew this and for one year the cost is £5000 and for three years its £13000. These prices exclude VAT but do include a discount!

 

After I re-hinged my jaw, I decided I need to either look for alternative support providers or do it ourselves. With that in mind I wondered if you folks have any advice/recommendations. I should add that this companies Moodle offering includes an add on that acts as a parent portal, but which in fact has never been used and a link to SIMS

 

Thanks in advance

[3s-gtech]

What do you need the support contract to do? Upgrades and maintenance as well as repairs and recovery?

 

Moodle is fairly straightforward to look after. Our key was to make it backup properly (using cron scripts on the Linux host and WinSCP scripting to pull it all down). Certain advanced integration aspects may be beyond what you can easily achieve, but there are plenty of guides for various add-ons/modifications out there. Those prices are nuts, they would indicate that they don't want to support it any more.

[truebluesteve]

What do you need the support contract to do? Upgrades and maintenance as well as repairs and recovery?

 

Moodle is fairly straightforward to look after. Our key was to make it backup properly (using cron scripts on the Linux host and WinSCP scripting to pull it all down). Certain advanced integration aspects may be beyond what you can easily achieve, but there are plenty of guides for various add-ons/modifications out there. Those prices are nuts, they would indicate that they don't want to support it any more.

 

Yes upgrades and maintenance mainly. I think we are capable of maintaining it ourselves but I am not sure about the SIMS link. Suffice to say we definitely won't be getting them to support it at those prices!

[synaesthesia]

We're in a similar situation, we *could* manage it all ourselves however we'd rather not! We pay OvernetData to look after it for all, support & maintenance etc and they've been awesome.

[localzuk]

Yes upgrades and maintenance mainly. I think we are capable of maintaining it ourselves but I am not sure about the SIMS link. Suffice to say we definitely won't be getting them to support it at those prices!

 

We manage our own here, and the SIMS link is handled by ZiLink. Their price is about £600pa IIRC. ZiLink also has a parent portal, homework function, room booking, parents evening booking and the like in it too.

[3s-gtech]

Sounds like there are some great alternatives for SIMS linking. Looking after it isn't that scary really, so long as you have backups and follow upgrade and maintenance procedures properly.

[truebluesteve]

We're in a similar situation, we *could* manage it all ourselves however we'd rather not! We pay OvernetData to look after it for all, support & maintenance etc and they've been awesome.

 

They have contacted us previously about supporting it and I'm waiting on a call back to discuss it. Can I ask what sort of money it costs you?

[sonofsanta]

We're in a similar situation, we *could* manage it all ourselves however we'd rather not! We pay OvernetData to look after it for all, support & maintenance etc and they've been awesome.

 

They have contacted us previously about supporting it and I'm waiting on a call back to discuss it. Can I ask what sort of money it costs you?

 

Also interested in a ballpark figure - we've been using Overnet's FacilityCMIS link forever, and like it very much, but they've always offered it through third parties. I gather they have fallen out again with their current partner and are planning to offer support directly, and to be honest I've always found them very helpful when I've dealt directly, so I'm certainly inclined towards them. It'd be useful to have an idea of what it's likely to cost.

[nadeem]

I don't know about SIMS (don't have it) but I can recommend Moodlerooms A Moodle-based eLearning solution