SIMS to iSAMS

[2ilent8cho]

Has anybody here moved from SIMS to iSAMS or another MIS recently?

 

We have had SIMS since the 90s here, but we are going to look at alternatives over the next academic year, after a brief preliminary browse iSAMS caught our eye. Just looking to see if anybody has jumped and if they found things worse or better? Nothing has been set in stone yet.

[glen_j]

We went from isam to sims. Isams was a complete pain unless you're good at sql.

[vikpaw]

Yep. http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/148000-end-era.html

No regrets. Haven't looked back. Things are generally better. There is always resistance to change, but there were good reasons for moving and so overall it was a positive experience.

[Dickens]

We moved from two separate MIS platforms (from Double First for accounts and a bespoke MIS for pupil management) to iSAMS nearly 2 years ago. Once you're used to iSAMS, I find it works really well. For the on-boarding process, we were provided spreadsheet templates to export our existing data into, then a team at iSAMS loaded this up. We did a couple of test runs to check data and run through some cleansing exercises before the main load during the summer holidays. We use daily for all the normal activities, parent contact (via SMS and email), reporting, timetables, exams, pupil rewards / discipline, detentions, registration, finance etc etc.

 

We self host, but isams will provide hosted packages, it's entirely browser based so accessible inside and outside of school (staff just love writing reports at home) and they have just revamped the iTeacher app for Apple and Android which is a big improvement and allows our nursery to do their registration via iPad, contact parents from trips using iPhone / iPad etc etc. We visited another school who were already using iSAMS and got the daily pros and cons of using it from them - if you speak to iSAMS they can arrange this.

 

I can't say what SIMS is like, as I've never used it, so can't say if iSAMS is better or worse. For us, at least, it's better than what we were running previously. Like anything, the more effort you put in, the more you get out.

 

We're a small independent school with nursery through to y11 and it works fine for us. If you want any more details, let me know

[jwinters]

For the on-boarding process, we were provided spreadsheet templates to export our existing data into, then a team at iSAMS loaded this up. We did a couple of test runs to check data and run through some cleansing exercises before the main load during the summer holidays.

 

Can I ask how many of the template sheets you filled in? We've been given 22 workbooks, and when you break them down there are something like 150 separate sheets within them. We've filled in about 70, and iSAMS seem to be really struggling to import them. I'm wondering whether we've provided more data than they're used to.