Setting up groups in O365 from SIMS

[mdwheeler]

Hello,

 

My school currently uses SIMS and O365; however, the two are not joined together and teachers have to create their own groups which, although we are a small school, seems terribly inefficient. I came across school data sync which looks like a way to go - my question is how easy is it to set up with SIMS? It looks like I need to generate csv files to import into SDS. My IT people aren't particularly proactive and said it looked like a big job! I suggested Salamander School Data Sync (https://www.salamandersoft.co.uk/sds/) but again they seemed to think that this would not be too easy. I'm not sure if I am being fobbed off, so am looking for some advice from others that have probably done this already. I am not an IT specialist and am not sure about the O365 side of things (ie the active directory stuff) but I have a reasonable knowledge of SIMS.

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions,

 

Martyn

[Jonah]

We use Salamander, they will pretty much sort it all out for you if needs be, they're very good and very flexible and the software works perfectly

 

EDIT: To clarify, the above is in reference to their paid product (which is well worth the money!), not necessarily the free SDS stuff

Edited March 24, 2018 by Jonah

[mdwheeler]

Thanks, the paid product seems very expensive for a small school and I was wondering if we could get away with the free stuff in the first instance.

[ozydave]

And again my vote without a doubt would be Salamander. Just works and makes your life so much easier

[Mistert89]

Salamander without hesitation. And they are very responsive to change support.

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

SIMS ID lite comes as part of the core SIMS license and will do O365 provisioning (the groups things will be implemented shortly) from SIMS data once set up and configured. Ask your support unit about getting it set up for you. Edited March 26, 2018 by Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun

[matt40k]

SIMS ID lite comes as part of the core SIMS license and will do O365 provisioning (the groups things will be implemented shortly) from SIMS data once set up and configured. Ask your support unit about getting it set up for you.

 

Out of interest - how do you link\filter that to data collection UDFs? Just thinking parents might be happy with the school holding that data and Microsoft, but not Capita.

[bobsmith]

Matt40k, can you clarify that a bit?

 

Any school that uses any of the plethora of SIMS online bits and pieces are going to be in the position where capita (via Azure) have access to the data stored in SIMS. Is this any different?

[matt40k]

Historically data would not need to physically exit the school, the "plethora of SIMS online bits" are all new, and I would hope schools are\have updated the data collection sheet to reflect this. Again - how does Capita handle if individuals refuse to give permission?

[grahamd22]

Ruler have a free tool and Microsoft endorse it! Worked for us and the support was very good.

[jmak]

The free salamander product specifies that it works with some and O365 - it looks like you only need to pay if you want the bit that controls onsite Active Directory.

 

That's the bit I need, so I haven't looked at the free product, but it sounds like it should do what you need.

[mdwheeler]

Thanks for the replies. I will take them to my IT department!