nick3young Posted February 5, 2018 Posted February 5, 2018 Hi All, Is it just us or the level of support that Capita provides supporting SIMS absolutely woeful?! I think we pay well over £8000 a year for it (admittedly, that includes updates etc... which do.... I don't know what because SIMS still looks like it did 10yrs ago). Perhaps I've become spoiled by the various other suppliers that we deal with (ClassCharts, Clickview, RM, Eclipse...) who actually respond to requests in a timely manner and actually appear like they care! SIMS support is just constant 'jumping through hoops', waiting forever for a response, not being able to talk to anyone on the telephone ever. In fact, last month, I was speaking to an engineer on the phone who knew how to resolve an issue but told me that his hands were tied because our level of support doesn't provide the 'remote desktop' option. At £8k+ for the basic package I dread to think what it costs for their premium service! I just feel like SIMS have been resting on their laurels for far too long. They've got the education market mopped up. They know it is too tricky for a school to move away from. So they get away with providing a shocking level of support. In my opinion.
Steve21 Posted February 5, 2018 Posted February 5, 2018 No idea what you're signed up for, but I think it's the wrong thing Full support with remote support etc is all a lot less than that price, unless you're including licensing in that? What package do you have? The basic Enhanced? Steve
TwistedHelixis Posted February 5, 2018 Posted February 5, 2018 Well with Capita in financial crisis it might not be long before we are all forced to move to another product.
nick3young Posted February 5, 2018 Author Posted February 5, 2018 Steve... yes sorry, I am including the license in that price. £8000+ (might be closer to £9000 now). But even so, it's still a lot of money and I would expect a better level of support.
Steve21 Posted February 5, 2018 Posted February 5, 2018 Still think you might be using a 3rd party if that's the case As I don't think Capita have a level of support that doesn't include Remote. https://www.capita-sims.co.uk/sites/default/files/2017-11/CAP_30774SupportContractSIMSONLYFINAL.pdf Is the lowest one on the enhances support and still does. You sure it's a direct Capita package? Steve
2ilent8cho Posted February 5, 2018 Posted February 5, 2018 When we bought the SIMS Learning Gateway about 10 years ago we had to go direct with Capita for support for that product, and our LEA for SIMS. The direct Capita support was dire, infuriating, and i wanted to smash things up. Sounds like it is still as bad. Just another 4 schools in our MAT to move off SIMS this year and i can say good bye to Capita
nick3young Posted February 5, 2018 Author Posted February 5, 2018 Definitely a direct package Steve. When I spoke with them on the phone, the chap did say something about 'us going through the Bedford office'. Not sure how that effects us though. According to that document... we should get telephone support too. Which they also told us we don't have! I think I need to explore this in a little more detail!
synaesthesia Posted February 5, 2018 Posted February 5, 2018 I strongly suggest getting all your facts together, licensing, support agreements etc. A mini-audit, if you will. We don't even pay that much for a large secondary and get full remote support etc when required, if required. Incidentally, as much as I have a vested dislike in Capita as a company, it's been rare that I've ever been able to fault the Northampton or Bedford (pretty much one and the same these days) teams for support quality and speed. May be you're paying for something you don't need, such as hardware/server support or there's a general account issue that may be easily rectified.
RootsSchImp Posted February 6, 2018 Posted February 6, 2018 My tuppence is that most school leaders overestimate the difficulty of switching MIS. Plan for it properly and it's not that hard, and you can find solutions that will do a lot of what your third parties do (class charts, for example) as part of core functionality. My big tip if you do switch is to train your admin staff properly. I see so many schools who don't use their MIS to anything like its potential and the reason is they don't invest in their support staff. 2
mjk Posted February 6, 2018 Posted February 6, 2018 My tuppence is that most school leaders overestimate the difficulty of switching MIS. Plan for it properly and it's not that hard, and you can find solutions that will do a lot of what your third parties do (class charts, for example) as part of core functionality. My big tip if you do switch is to train your admin staff properly. I see so many schools who don't use their MIS to anything like its potential and the reason is they don't invest in their support staff. This is probably the most accurate post I have ever read. (Someone who has undergone two MIS changes and planning the third) 1
DSapseid Posted February 6, 2018 Posted February 6, 2018 We were paying for SIMS from Capita (licences etc) and then an enhanced support contract from the LEA (which is Capita) i have to phone a separate number to what the website says. Like others i found this service to be awful, issues where i phone and then get sent a link to a completely non related KB article on supportnet. From April i have canceled this enhanced support with the LEA saving £4k and taken out a support contract with a 3rd party, they used to work for the LEA before Capita got the hands on it and setup their own company. Saving myself about £3k a year as well, they don't support everything but i have honestly called support about 3 times in 4/5 years so willing to take the punt and if need be pay hourly direct to Capita to get an issue fixed.
TechBeard Posted February 6, 2018 Posted February 6, 2018 Hi All, Is it just us or the level of support that Capita provides supporting SIMS absolutely woeful?! I think we pay well over £8000 a year for it (admittedly, that includes updates etc... which do.... I don't know what because SIMS still looks like it did 10yrs ago). Perhaps I've become spoiled by the various other suppliers that we deal with (ClassCharts, Clickview, RM, Eclipse...) who actually respond to requests in a timely manner and actually appear like they care! SIMS support is just constant 'jumping through hoops', waiting forever for a response, not being able to talk to anyone on the telephone ever. In fact, last month, I was speaking to an engineer on the phone who knew how to resolve an issue but told me that his hands were tied because our level of support doesn't provide the 'remote desktop' option. At £8k+ for the basic package I dread to think what it costs for their premium service! I just feel like SIMS have been resting on their laurels for far too long. They've got the education market mopped up. They know it is too tricky for a school to move away from. So they get away with providing a shocking level of support. In my opinion. Hi Nick, I can honestly recommend without any hesitation the guys at School ICTs for SIMS support SIMS Support Leeds | SIMS Support for Schools | School ICT - I first moved to them about 5 years ago and have recommended all schools ive ever worked with over to them. The support is insanely good and they are always super helpful and truly understand the SIMS system but also how schools actually operate. The training they offer is amazing and we have never had a problem with them. They even do SIMS migrations at a fraction of the price of CAPITA. To give you an idea on price, for a secondary school the costs is £2500 a year, and whats even more mad is that half way through they send you a massive rebate (something to do with a refund they get from Capita) - This year my rebate was around £1700 so my support costs for the year was like £800! My last school was spending over £12,000 a year and my current school was paying around £9000 so for us its been a massive saving as well as infinitely better support. More then happy to talk to you over the phone about this if you like. 2
nick3young Posted February 14, 2018 Author Posted February 14, 2018 Thank you for your thoughts everyone and I'm certainly going to look into an alternative providor for SIMS support. SchoolICTs looks brill. I feel for the staff I speak to at Capita. I have no issue with them personally... but I just hate the level of bureaucracy they enforce. SIMS is a pretty sensitive beast at the best of times and when you hit a problem with it... you don't want to be emailing someone or being pointed towards an irrelevant KB article. You want to be speaking to a human being who sounds like they care! Which I never get at Capita. And for the money they charge in general, I just expect better.
XiJ Posted February 14, 2018 Posted February 14, 2018 Another vote for Schools ICTS. We refer all our internet customers to them and every school that has gone with them for sims support has nothing but praise for them. (And school saves money!)
Banjo Posted February 15, 2018 Posted February 15, 2018 To give you an idea on price, for a secondary school the costs is £2500 a year, and whats even more mad is that half way through they send you a massive rebate (something to do with a refund they get from Capita) - This year my rebate was around £1700 so my support costs for the year was like £800! . The refund will be based on which modules the schools licences from Capita and is then entitled to direct support from Capita but are in fact supported by the provider instead - ie, Learning Gateway.
Bahney Posted February 23, 2018 Posted February 23, 2018 I think it's fair to say that any Accredited third party team should be more than capable of giving Capita support a run for its money. You should shop around, there are plenty of us out here, a quick google search for SIMS Support will give you an idea of the teams such as ourselves who would be more than willing to provide you with a quote. Thats not me advertising our specific services by the way, i don't want to ruffle any feathers i'm simply saying that Capita support isn't the only option and there are some really good reputable third party accredited teams out there.
Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun Posted February 23, 2018 Posted February 23, 2018 (edited) Here is a link to Capita's site where they list all the currently accredited support teams. It's a public website so no login is required, and the full table is at the bottom of the page. Edited February 23, 2018 by Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun
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