MIS Systems

[pjlivesey]

I am looking at different MIS systems with the view to replacing SIMs in my school (secondary)

 

The two that currently stand out are Integris and Bromcom.

 

Are either of these products better than SIMs?

 

Any recommendations?

 

Any bad experiences?

 

All advice gratefully received.....

[yac2016]

Sims is the best option still, but if it's because of the cloud benefits, best option is Bromcom out of the 2 you have mentioned.

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

I've supported several of the major schools MIS over the years and for the core functionality they are all fairly similar. I've found schools perception of an MIS can be heavily influenced by the quality of their support provider for that MIS.

What are the issues you are having that make you want to change MIS? (As that may help us guide you more towards one that will work for your school.)

[RootsSchImp]

I've supported several of the major schools MIS over the years and for the core functionality they are all fairly similar. I've found schools perception of an MIS can be heavily influenced by the quality of their support provider for that MIS.

 

This is definitely true. My advice would be to take some time (and consider paying for expert advice) to answer the question: what, in a perfect world, would our MIS do and how much staffing resource would we need to maintain it? Then use that answer as the basis for a invitation to tender.

 

In my opinion, a couple of issues schools tend to underrate in tender requests are: automation of tasks (degree to which admin staff tasks could be reduced/eliminated by the MIS) and speed of innovation - you're going to sign up for at least 3 years with a provider, at the end of three years are you going to be paying for the same product or a better one?

[ColinP]

we have isams and it has become a mess, it used to be very good and stable, now every release just brings in more and more bugs

[2ilent8cho]

We moved from SIMS to iSAMS at the high school, i prefer iSAMS, the teachers massively prefer iSAMS, the exam officer is over the moon with it and the Office staff at first did not like the change but now they are familiar with it prefer it, but since September they do seem to have got slower at responding to support requests and like ColinP says seem have a lot of bugs recently . We are just in the process of moving 4 primary schools in our MAT to Scholar Pack from SIMS. Soon to be SIMS free and all our MIS systems will be fully web browser based, client platform neutral .

[yac2016]

I'm holding out for Sims Primary...used most of the other cloud based systems and none of them tick all the boxes.

[AlanD]

We use schoolbase...by furlong solutions. Surprisingly capable and flexible..but maybe not so pretty....

[elsiegee40]

We use schoolbase...by furlong solutions. Surprisingly capable and flexible..but maybe not so pretty....

Schoolbase is aimed at independents and we didn't get on with it at my last school. Everyone we spoke to who had to cope with billing for flexible sessions in pre school seemed to start with "Well we have this spreadsheet"... as did we and it was far from straightforward. The support left much to be desired. I left two years ago and have no idea if they stuck with it or whether things improved Edited November 29, 2017 by elsiegee40

[karldenton]

Bromcom here. In terms of the fact it’s cloud based it is great. From a user point of view if staff are used to sims it take a bit of getting used to. Things like the early years headcount don’t always integrate with Bromcom as good as with sims.

[truebluesteve]

I'm thinking about the same - SIMS is bloated and slow and the support that we get is mediocre at best considering the huge amount of money we pay Capita each year. The majority of staff use the MIS for a limited set of functions so re-training them wouldn't be a huge concern, although power users (Options, Timetables etc.) would need more obviously. I do have concerns about the systems that link into SIMS to extract data (mainly via Groupcall Xporter) and whether other systems can do the same.

[RootsSchImp]

I'm thinking about the same - SIMS is bloated and slow and the support that we get is mediocre at best considering the huge amount of money we pay Capita each year. The majority of staff use the MIS for a limited set of functions so re-training them wouldn't be a huge concern, although power users (Options, Timetables etc.) would need more obviously. I do have concerns about the systems that link into SIMS to extract data (mainly via Groupcall Xporter) and whether other systems can do the same.

 

Groupcall link to all the major MIS suppliers so I don't think there's too much of an issue there, as for the earlier point I think you're absolutely right and I'd go further and say the security benefits of moving to the cloud alone (to say nothing of the greater convenience) justify the switch. I think it's only a matter of time before a school gets hit with a nasty ransomware attack, if it hasn't happened already.

 

In my experience schools overestimate the impact of an MIS switch on teachers (whose interactions are very basic) and underestimate the training needs for SLT and Admin staff. So much MIS potential goes unused because people in key roles are unaware of the functionality they have.

[truebluesteve]

We moved from SIMS to iSAMS at the high school, i prefer iSAMS, the teachers massively prefer iSAMS, the exam officer is over the moon with it and the Office staff at first did not like the change but now they are familiar with it prefer it, but since September they do seem to have got slower at responding to support requests and like ColinP says seem have a lot of bugs recently . We are just in the process of moving 4 primary schools in our MAT to Scholar Pack from SIMS. Soon to be SIMS free and all our MIS systems will be fully web browser based, client platform neutral .

 

SIMS is hardly bug free looking at the number of SOLUS 3 patch notifications I get! :-)

[Banjo]

I think it's only a matter of time before a school gets hit with a nasty ransomware attack, if it hasn't happened already.

 

Happens more often than you think. You get that awkward silence when you ask, "who does your backups?" .................. "We thought you did them for us"

[AlanD]

In my experience schools overestimate the impact of an MIS switch on teachers (whose interactions are very basic) and underestimate the training needs for SLT and Admin staff. So much MIS potential goes unused because people in key roles are unaware of the functionality they have.

 

Absolutely agree with this. Although the more functionality you start to use - you are increasingly tied into using that solution.