[sims] Who has direct support for SIMS.net from Capita...experiences please!

[kennysarmy]

I would love to move our SIMS.net support from the LEA direct to Capita but our data manager puts up a strong argument for not doing so...

 

The County SIMS support is crucial for day-to-day queries about SIMS. If we are not supported (and lots of schools have got rid of their support) then we are completely on our own. You cannot simply ring Capita and ask why a certain report isn't running, or why an aspect of the school census isn't working correctly. You can only reply on their terrible forums.

 

Our support is invaluable for that reason. I was rung back in Oct by the person completing the Post16 census (worth all the 6th form funding the school receives and prob is the single most important part of my job) from another school. They couldn't complete it, they don't have SIMS support anymore and the DfE would not give them an answer. If it was me, I could have just rung the LEA lady and she would have remoted in and done it.

 

The issue is they have zero technical knowledge at the helpline - but very good operational knowledge.

 

I know it is frustrating and I appreciate the amount of time you take trying to fix it when it is not working. It is a shame that when technical things go wrong that you cannot go directly to Capita.

 

Is her view on Capita support correct in that you cannot ring them for more operational issues of a user-level?

[DrCheese]

Is her view on Capita support correct in that you cannot ring them for more operational issues of a user-level?

I believe so yes, I've always had to fill out what support company we're using when renewing our SIMS licenses - What are your reasons for moving from the LEA to Capita direct?

[Jawloms]

What's your argument for going direct? It's a lot more expensive I believe.

[Boredguy]

We have been with a Capita direct support for quite some time, but as of the 1st April we will be with a third party as it is going to cost the MAT less per year than our current support contract.

 

We have called their regional support office many, many times over the last 15 years with questions ranging from "report X doesn't seem to want to work" (which was a group membership issue) through to help we bricked the server!

Edited January 11, 2018 by Boredguy

[kennysarmy]

I believe so yes, I've always had to fill out what support company we're using when renewing our SIMS licenses - What are your reasons for moving from the LEA to Capita direct?

 

Whenever I have a technical question....they can't help and I have to wait for them to raise a call with Capita!

[rogerdnixon]

We get support from Capita direct and have done for years. We ask them all sorts of questions - ranging from reports to census questions to technical stuff. Never had problems with them other than occasionally it taking thema few days to figure out how to sort an issue.

[JAC1]

Where are you based? If you are in the Midlands there's a fantastic Sims support company called SIPS. They, in my opinion, are far better than the LA or Capita. They are absolutely fantastic and their customer support is the best I've known.

[Steven_Cleaver]

I feel this depends on the LEA and level of support you get from them ours is very good especially at issues with sort of using SIM's and issues around this so all the modules including Nova and resolving any issues when we have sort of bugs in the system they usually resolve these or escalate to Capita. The LEA support team is mostly ex school staff with many years experience, ex data manager, Time Tabler etc. Another upside with our LEA is if the Data Manager\Time Tabler leaves which has happened a couple of times here since I have been here they offer interim support sort of more hands on and offer training for new staff when appointed. When we went to Academy we did investigate support direct from Capita as a group of schools converting to Academies but found this more expensive and felt we were getting better level of support from LEA. As I say depends on support you are getting, we are in Solihull in Birmingham.

[Wizross]

Where are you based? If you are in the Midlands there's a fantastic Sims support company called SIPS. They, in my opinion, are far better than the LA or Capita. They are absolutely fantastic and their customer support is the best I've known.

Agreed.

[Bob_the_Goon]

We get our support from Capita. They answer any queries that we may have about the use of the software. Most of the issues that I raise are technical and most of these get resolved within a day. Occasionally these requests can take longer than that. I'm more than happy with the support we get. In terms of cost, they are very competitive and are in fact cheaper than some of our surrounding Learning Authorities.

[jacquij123]

We get support direct from SIMS and I've called them for all sorts of issues. If they can't help straight away they pass it to their second line team and someone will remote in if necessary.