[sims] Support Contract up for renewal

[smithson83]

Morning Guys and Gals,

 

Our SIMS support contract is up for renewal in April, I was wondering who you people use and how much (ball park) you pay.

 

I've just had a quote from Capita direct and they quoted a lot less than what we are paying. Do any of you guys use Capita directly, are they worth the savings?

 

Our current supplier supports SIMS, but draw the line at any hardware/(non sims) software issue that impacts on SIMS, would be keen to include this.

 

 

Cheers

[truebluesteve]

We use Capita directly and the support is OK - not outstanding though!

 

The price you pay does depend on the number of students you have on role (I believe) and of course the number of modules you have.

[smithson83]

Cheers @truebluesteve,

They quoted just a flat price, didn't mention anything about Pupil numbers and modules.

[HBPS]

We use these guys. School ICT Services - MIS and SIMS Support for Schools Cheap and cheerful but I use to do LA sims support so I deal with a lot of issues myself

[Banjo]

It also depends on training. Most LA's bundle their training into their support costs, other providers will charge per delegate or a consultancy fee per day to come out. I remember when Cover 7 was released, we did an awful lot of 1-2-1's in schools configuring the system and training the staff that was all covered in the headline price.

 

Every schools needs are different - so its making that informed choice.

[smithson83]

Anyone else used Schools ICT Services? Just had a really good quote from them, almost too good to be true.

[yac2016]

Keystone MIS. Very good support and great prices...

[jslate1980]

Anyone else used Schools ICT Services? Just had a really good quote from them, almost too good to be true.

 

We use them. I have had a few legacy sims issues which they have gone to no end to help fix.

 

Jon

[HBPS]

Anyone else used Schools ICT Services? Just had a really good quote from them, almost too good to be true.

 

Yep hence why i suggested them cant fault them really

[jonrose]

Yes I've used them for probably around 5 years now. They were that good that when I got a job in a different school I insisted that we dumped Capita to go with them. Their staff are really friendly and go the extra mile to help.

[smithson83]

Anyone used OSMIS?

[gillop]

We are coming to the end of our first year with Schools ICT Support, we couldn't recommend them more, excellent service for an amazingly low price in comparison the the LEA Support (which has a couple of people in the office to take the calls whilst the actually support is done by a 3rd part company). Our Business Manager has told her the other BM's in the Authority about them she's that happy with the level of service.

 

The only thing to bear in mind is that you will need to buy your licences direct from Capita as the LEA will insist that you use their support if you wish to use their discounted licences. It might be worth talking to Capita to get a quote for the Licences, they will try to sell you their support, you might be surprised at how much could be saved.

[gillop]

Anyone used OSMIS?

 

Tameside LEA use them for their SIMS Support, John Howarth is very good.