MIS documentation - How highly do you rate your MIS documentation

[Ditto]

In a recent thread I saw a comment about MIS documentation drifting out of date over time. I've being reflecting on our MIS documentation and would comment whilst functionality has been developed over the last 3 years, it does not appear that the documentation has kept up to speed. This is the case for the manual/guide book documentation and even more so for the online context sensitive help. In our case, the 'F1' or "?" help is poor, and I doubt more than a tiny percentage of our users have even tried it and had a postive outcome. How do you rate your MIS providers documentation, both in terms of an organised set of manuals, perhaps role based and immediate online help?

[vikpaw]

It would help if you specified your MIS.

With SIMS the manuals were usually pretty good, the contextual help was dated and not great.

 

Engage has nothing in context, the Help menu takes you straight to the support centre. The support is great. Knowledge base is useful and there are many guides and videos, skills assessments. There are not many full on manuals, it's mostly reliant on initial training for the core, however it's generally intuitive to work with. If you have an issue, raising a ticket gets a quick and useful response, usually from someone that has SQL skills and can tackle most issues without resorting to escalation.

[Ditto]

I've deliberately not named to avoid 'leading' the thread. If anyone really wants to know, one click on my profile will reveal. The topic of front line support is related but separate. For me, if the documentation is up to date and effective, I'm much less likely to call upon the support services. For anything really tricky, here is often the best route!

[vikpaw]

I couldn't see on your profile but I can guess from your other posts.

 

There's no harm in stating the MIS, as a general conversation is of less use to the masses.

 

Here is definitely one of the best resources, that's for sure.

[CAM]

The LA give me up-to-date documentation for SIMS at regular intervals throughout the year. Very handy.

 

I've never got the fault code links to work from within SIMS though.

[pete]

For generic mainstream modules? Not bad once you find it (the results on My Account are often far too generic if you mention something like "report").

 

For more esoteric things that only a couple of people per school will ever user?

 

[vikpaw]

The LA give me up-to-date documentation for SIMS at regular intervals throughout the year. Very handy.

I've never got the fault code links to work from within SIMS though.

Do they actually take you to MyAccount now?

I did get the odd one to work a couple of times, but that was rare, and when it worked, it meant the solution was usually so trivial, you didn't need the help.

[RootsSchImp]

In my experience support materials (from multiple providers) focus heavily on the obvious and rarely help if the program is behaving unexpectedly and you're not sure why. My advice would be to refer to them when you're first starting out with a module/system, but later on skip them and go straight for remote support.

 

The other day I contacted SIMS via twitter and they got back to me within the hour so hat's off. (their response was to tell I can't do what I wanted to do - delete Capita PoS aspects but at least they told me that fast).

[djrscally]

In a recent thread I saw a comment about MIS documentation drifting out of date over time. I've being reflecting on our MIS documentation and would comment whilst functionality has been developed over the last 3 years, it does not appear that the documentation has kept up to speed. This is the case for the manual/guide book documentation and even more so for the online context sensitive help. In our case, the 'F1' or "?" help is poor, and I doubt more than a tiny percentage of our users have even tried it and had a postive outcome. How do you rate your MIS providers documentation, both in terms of an organised set of manuals, perhaps role based and immediate online help?

 

I actually think the guide books are not bad. I struggle to find the more obscure ones on the support site so often end up logging a case to ask, but the like common ones seem to be up to date to me.

 

The contextual help button, as you say, is not good.

[CAM]

Do they actually take you to MyAccount now?

I did get the odd one to work a couple of times, but that was rare, and when it worked, it meant the solution was usually so trivial, you didn't need the help.

 

No idea, I stopped clicking on them because they never did anything.

[pete]

Do they actually take you to MyAccount now?

I did get the odd one to work a couple of times, but that was rare, and when it worked, it meant the solution was usually so trivial, you didn't need the help.

 

Some of them do (as of Spring 17), others still take you to support.capitaes.co.uk (which never resolves).

[vikpaw]

Thought as much.