SOCS and iSAMS

[newmoon1981]

Hello Everyone!

 

Does anyone here use iSAMS and SOCs?

 

If you do, please can you tell me?

 

if we only wanted to use SOCS for managing our co-curricular activities, can we still import our data from our old MIS into SOCs?

 

Our school is aware that doing this means having to add new students into two places, first in isams then into SOCS, but this seems the likely option for us as the co-curricular module in isams costs money,

however without online signups theres no point in our view paying for this.

 

Also, as i understand it, socs only pulls information from isams but is not currently able to put any updates back into it, in effect only 1-way communication/data transfer which is "a bit old school".

 

Many thanks for any input you can provide.

[edmokeski]

We use them both. SOCS is only used for keeping track of our sports fixtures & teams, etc.

The one-way nature of data travel between the two is iSAMS' "fault" - the iSAMS APIs only allow for read access, with no ability write back.

[TechMonkey]

We use them both. SOCS is only used for keeping track of our sports fixtures & teams, etc.

The one-way nature of data travel between the two is iSAMS' "fault" - the iSAMS APIs only allow for read access, with no ability write back.

 

My understanding is that there is write back but it is fairly new.

 

We use both here.

- Calendar is great. Can have private entries, a central publisher and the parents find it easy to use.

- Sporting fixtures is great but could do with a few tweaks. Staff have asked for positions to be able to be assigned for creation of Team sheets, Tournament placings.

- Co-curricular is good but needs work. It is geared towards pupils so if parents want to log in you have to share the pupils login with them.

 

You can email from with in SOCS to parents or Pupils.

Company is good to work with, I've had a few chats with the MD about things. They do tweak the system, but I'e never found a roadmap so never know what is coming.

 

The main missing bit is write back. We would love teams to be written back to create custom groups so parents could be contacted by SMS, or an email could be sent out, or the calendars written back so they are visible within iSAMS. I'm also hopeful that they will incorporate the new iSAMS SSO so parents can sign in with their Parent Portal details.

[newmoon1981]

Tx fir the responses peeps..

 

In the end, my school rejected isams cocurricular offering and went purely with socs.. Schoolbase used to handle this, no 3rd party required, has online signup and being part of the mis there is no need for api with Schoolbase..

So that's at least a further >£1k per year for functionality that Schoolbase already had as part of our contract level.

Something to think about if choosing isams.. At least until their cocurricular module offering does reliable online sign ups.