Micro Librarian Support?

[bennz]

Its such a shame that MLS are clearly monitoring this forum but havent bothered to comment on any of the issues raised by their customers, yet when something is raised about their new app we get you Charlie.

Id call you out on this statment:

I approached MLS to trial the platform as another channel of support for their customers, which they agreed to do. We have a small, independent team of developers who work on edoocoo, and I can vouch that they are really working hard to make the platform better with every release.

If you approached MLS as you describe then why are MLS staff listed as edoocoo company directors? link

Why are the developers posting in your test circles about new features the same developers that work for MLS?

MLS Team Page

 

Why is the current managing director of MLS discussing with yourself the commercial opportunities for edoocoo, it certainly seems that he has a lead role, the directors list in companys house backs this up.

Why is Ajmal Khan the current technical director of MLS fixing bugs in the edoocoo app:

 

Another question is why edoocoo.com was registered by a company called OOMAGOO LTD which has been dissolved following court ordered liquidation, but I think i found the answer, this company is the one MLS seems to use for its websites:

 

I think its clear edoocoo is an MLS creation, I dont think I have ever come across anything so underhanded in my career. If only they took such an active interest in answering the concern's raised in this topic about the Library system that we are paying for and not their new app which has some serious UI and security issues.

Edited February 7, 2018 by bennz

[round2it]

Rumbled

 

Just like sales tactics underhanded

Edited February 7, 2018 by round2it

[mavhc]

We have a few protocols in place; password can't be "password", can't be their name and must be at least 5 characters long. Perhaps I'll get the guys to look at fleshing it up a bit. Many thanks.

 

The first rule of doing passwords is: DON'T DO PASSWORDS! Just use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenID_Connect to let people sign in with facebook/twitter/google, then they can do 2 factor and have 100 people keeping it secure, and when your site gets hacked, there's nothing to steal, you win, customer wins.

[kennysarmy]

afternoon all,

 

I mentioned that our librarian switched to Oliver from Softlink in the new year and I have to say that so far it has been an extremely positive move for us.

They use AWS and the speed in comparison to when we had Eclipse is like chalk and cheese, the librarian has been able to run reports extremely quickly (for the first time in a long time!) and students are using the system on their own devices both online and with the mobile app.

I really would recommend giving them a call if you are considering other options, their technical team have been first class in responding to me and the move across went very smoothly indeed.

Price wise they were cheaper than some others that we were looking at and also from some of the comments on here their pricing is very competitive.

One final thing - they offered us the chance to go local install as well but as a school it just made more sense to have it hosted but it was nice to have the option.

 

We've got an Oliver trial next week...

 

If you're listening MLS (and we know you are!) - goodbye! It's been ride...

[clareq]

From what you are saying, it looks like I used an incorrect username or password for the site, but it let me on anyway, but unable to see anything.

[Steve21]

It really is one of the worst designed layouts on websites of the last few years I've been forced to look at to get support on a product...

 

No logic to it at all, and the fact that you can just farm every persons emails signed up to it by looking at their usernames etc seems a great start to security/gdpr too!

 

Steve

[synaesthesia]

is that the sound of a golf clap?

[CMDRShepard]

No logic to it at all, and the fact that you can just farm every persons emails signed up to it by looking at their usernames etc seems a great start to security/gdpr too!

Steve

 

You missed the one I mentioned previously, where you could log in as any existing user by entering their email address and using the password '*'. Thankfully, that appears to be resolved now. I would seriously ask that Edoocoo (or MLS, as it appears to be) consider the abilities of their security and testing staff and consider training, if such a basic (from a dev standpoint) and high-risk (from a security standpoint) flaw managed to make into live build for however many months the site has been live.

 

The site also looks vulnerable to SQL Injection and XSS, but I'm not in the business of trying to break into people's systems anymore. I'll leave that for their security guys (I see MLS appears to have one(!) of them, which is a start...)

[BOOT]

That suggests the passwords are not stored in a hashed form...

[kennysarmy]

I signed up to take a look!

 

Have now posted on their support page for my account to be closed and all my personal data be removed.

[witch]

Can anyone point me to the MLS SLA? The office can't find it and we are now way overdue to pay - HT wants to talk to them about their joke of a system

[Katy]

Can anyone point me to the MLS SLA? The office can't find it and we are now way overdue to pay - HT wants to talk to them about their joke of a system

 

Why do I get the feeling this will be one of those "It's on display... in the locked filing cabinet, in the basement of the building marked "DANGER ASBESTOS KEEP OUT" with the leopard guarding it" situations...

[bennz]

Can anyone point me to the MLS SLA? The office can't find it and we are now way overdue to pay - HT wants to talk to them about their joke of a system

 

If you log into MYMLS and go to Contact Us its at the bottom, they dont have an SLA as such but here is the link.

[synaesthesia]

It's horrible to say that from an outsiders point of view, this may look very much like a witch-hunt. If anyone from either Edoocoo or MLS is watching please be assured it's not.

 

Whilst we are all concerned about getting the best possible systems in place for our schools at the best possible value, in this instance a library system, we have to do so from a professional and unbiased point of view.

From the POV of us as technical, some of us are more hardware, some software, some security, it looks terrible when little things like this are being picked up. We have people being lied to face to face at BETT and via your support lines and so far methods of rectifying that support whilst they may be admirable in intent, looks particular shady when it's been made to look as if it's entirely 3rd party when in fact they are linked. Then you have the security issues raising eyebrows to boot.

 

If MLS as a company put hands up and said yes, there are issues and we're working to resolve them things would have been far more civil. Questions might have been asked quite rightly, but people would have more likely been on board and offering to help.

 

Very few of us actually believe the system (Eclipse/Junior/Reading Cloud) is a bad one; it does the job, librarians and end users tend to like it, but it's the speed, security, reliability. I have librarians of the older generation thinking they're going mad when every time they phone up, they're told it's the schools systems, firewalls, filtering. Maybe on the first call that should have been checked, it's a great place to start troubleshooting. But seeing that isn't the case but insisting it still may be call after call after call, is enough to make the least tech savvy librarian in the world think you know what; I'll do this myself on Excel. I have multiple cases of that already across schools whilst they either wait a resolution or wait for contracts to end so they can source something different.

 

Listen to your users. Listen to the technical staff. Stop telling people publicly that they can only talk in private (Yes, I'm talking about my little rants on Twitter where you've just asked me to call to resolve a problem that I don't actually have. I won't talk to you, I don't need to; you're already aware of the problems but you'd rather keep it quiet).

 

This isn't a witch hunt. This is a bunch of tired technicians, librarians, business managers trying to get a simple, working, quick library system.

 

The happiest MLS school I have? It's a large primary still running Junior Librarian 3 locally.

[LeMarchand]

let people sign in with facebook/twitter/google

 

That's me out!

[CharlieW]

Hi Bennz, I don't think MLS were actually monitoring this forum, it was suggested by an IT support chap on twitter yesterday that they take a look at the forum to highlight the current frustration everyone is having with their systems. They looked and passed on the link regarding edoocoo on to me.

I have been working with MLS on the design side of their business for over 14 years, and 3 years ago when I suggested creating an educational network, I sought Andy’s advice. He “got" the concept and has been really helpful in the structuring of the business. For his help he received equity.

Edoocoo is a free platform for our users (thats anyone involved in education) and always will remain free. With anything new, its about introducing the product and getting users to actually use it, and then get their feedback about what is good and what isn’t.

Initially we are using edoocoo as an extra channel of support for MLS customers, and I think it has been really useful for the MLS customer base. They have a platform to express their frustrations, and realise that they are not the only people experiencing them. Hopefully over time the content of edoocoo will not be just product related, but cover much broader educational topics and issues which can engage the network.

You guys have highlighted some flaws, which I am really thankful for, as the team are fixing or have fixed the problems Any further thoughts you might have would be really appreciated.

I do need to stress that this is not a MLS product, it is an edoocoo product. A few of their team are helping me out, but edoocoo is a totally independant company. I can feel your frustrations with MLS at the moment, but please don’t tarnish edoocoo with the same brush. We’re offering a free service to educators which can only help them create a network of like minded individuals, which will hopefully benefit them and their profession. It will be a long path before I can say we have a perfect platform, but we are all working hard to get to that point.

[Steve21]

I do need to stress that this is not a MLS product, it is an edoocoo product. A few of their team are helping me out, but edoocoo is a totally independant company.

 

That makes it even worse in my opinion... So we're being told that our main support channel and people who will be fixing our products we pay MLS for aren't linked to MLS or their support at all? Making it a pointless idea to suggest we all use it...

 

Point MLS support to this thread/board instead and save everyone time and trouble signing up to yet another new idea.

 

Steve

[localzuk]

That makes it even worse in my opinion... So we're being told that our main support channel and people who will be fixing our products we pay MLS for aren't linked to MLS or their support at all? Making it a pointless idea to suggest we all use it...

Point MLS support to this thread/board instead and save everyone time and trouble signing up to yet another new idea.

Its a third party site, but if MLS are using it, then it isn't really pointless. Kinda like how people use Zendesk etc...

[Steve21]

Its a third party site, but if MLS are using it, then it isn't really pointless. Kinda like how people use Zendesk etc...

 

Apart from the fact one is a product they buy into, and one is a new one being created and funnelled only with MLS users?

 

Although saying that it also seems to have MLS uptime too! "Error 403 - This web app is stopped."

 

Steve

[witch]

We’re offering a free service to educators which can only help them create a network of like minded individuals, which will hopefully benefit them and their profession. It will be a long path before I can say we have a perfect platform, but we are all working hard to get to that point.

 

 

..sounds familiar.....

[synaesthesia]

"3rd Party".

Subsidiary is probably more accurate.

[GuyJD]

 

Oh dear, definitely an MLS website.

[CharlieW]

The platform is down guys, we're just fixing the pointers that were raised in edugeek. Will be back up in a tick.

[GuyJD]

The platform is down guys, we're just fixing the pointers that were raised in edugeek. Will be back up in a tick.

Charlie I feel for you I really do, you seem like a good guy who's willing to listen to feedback and get things moving in the right direction but unfortunately MLS is not a very well liked company around here, too many of us have been fobbed off with excuses and poor customer service for too long. I understand that you are saying Edocoo and MLS are two separate entities but having the MD of MLS talking about monetising the Edocoo platform doesn't look good at all in my oppinion.

[Zoom7000]

My experiences with MLS pretty much reflect those of most people around here. It takes forever to make a call to support. My average hold time is around the 30 minute mark. The hosted system is dreadfully slow. Every time I call up to complain, I get given a new bunch of URLs to add to the web filter and the call gets closed!

 

It's atrocious! I'm tempted to move away, does anyone have any suggestions on suitable "true cloud" alternatives?