[sims] SIMS Parent App hardly works

[MkII]

As new sign ups we've been having horrendous problems with SIMS Parent App.

 

1. Connecting to it is constantly timing out.

This past week, especially at peak times, no one is able to log in.

Apparently that's Azure's fault as capacity should increase to meet demand. The service status page is meaningless as it's retrospective.

 

2. The web admin page to manage users is primarily a report function. Half our users somehow don't have email addresses. You can re-invite those without email addresses and sometimes the users emails will be populated, so you can invite them for a 3rd time and this time an email will be sent. You don't know which ones these are, unless you do them one by one. Capita are aware of this and it's on their timeline to resolve.

3. When new users sign up they are automatically redirected to a page which tells them that they're not authorised, at which point most give up. Capita are aware of this and it's on their timeline to resolve.

4. First choice for sign up is a SIMS login. No one who has anything to do with our school has a SIMS login.

5. When we turn on lesson attendance, parents see random lessons per day, and no lesson marks. eg one parent sees lessons 2, 3 and 6. Another parent sees lessons 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5.

6. For no apparent reason, some users don't get synced up to the Parent App at all. If we delete them and then recreate them exactly as they were, they then appear.

7. When recording achievements and behaviour using the register, where all details ie class and teacher are automatically filled in, none of those details are sent to the Parent App. So parents and pupils have no idea who gave the mark or what subject it was given for.

If you do all of this via focus > behaviour management > achievement or behaviour > select pupils > select class > select teacher ...then those details make it up to the app.

Capita are aware of this and it's on their timeline to resolve.

 

We're paying top dollar for this junk and none of it seems to be working yet.

Edited October 3, 2018 by MkII

[Marcs_Dad]

Funny how big firms like this can get away with charging for products that are not and may never be fit for purpose. I tried to raise a support case on one of Crapitas other companies today, guess what it crashed, three times. I ended up using good old email and got back a nice reply saying how busy they are at this time of year.

 

Good luck pal, I feel your pain!

[pooley]

Following, we were just about to buy this over Edulink. May rethink

[MkII]

Edulink looks so much better, and seems to actually work.

 

Our bursar is wanting to pull the plug in March but I want a refund now as it's never worked for us.

[synaesthesia]

Agreed, it's awful. We're very thankful to have gone with Edulink. It's not without it's issues, however the support has been second to none and bugs have literally been resolved within 10 minutes of reporting them.

[AJWhite1970]

Can I throw TASC Insight into the mix if you are looking at alternatives? Superb parent portal app and great technical support.

 

Andrew

[MkII]

I think we'll get a few candidates lined up to decide where we go next. Thanks for the suggestion.

[nikaso]

Came here to say the same things as OP. What makes it worse is the tickets I have logged with Capita My Account have been open for over 2 weeks without any reply whatsoever.

[MkII]

Came here to say the same things as OP. What makes it worse is the tickets I have logged with Capita My Account have been open for over 2 weeks without any reply whatsoever.

 

With the building frustration I increased the rate of complaints, commenting on my own jobs with updates and screenshots. Don't know if that helped but I certainly got some action, if initially just a phone call... admittedly an hour long phone call.

 

Speed seems to have improved dramatically since yesterday.

Apparently only users who haven't already registered make it to the re-invite list, and you can at least order the email column by double clicking the header.

[PotNoodleTech]

Well if it's anything like SIMS Learning Gateway was, then it'll never get fixed.

[synaesthesia]

Well if it's anything like SIMS Learning Gateway was, then it'll never get fixed.

 

Rather like a rubbish, accident prone octogenarian skier who's only ever had sticky-plasters on his many broken bones.

[jonnykewell1]

We have it and yes it's rubbish. I have to try and find a member of staff in school who has a student on roll just so I can see how it looks /work. It would be nice to be able to test it as an administrator. Users always complain they that they have been signed out of the app, Notifications at random times of the day even though it's set to the evening. The list goes on..

[rad]

https://capita-mailer.co.uk/1WXN-5WQUX-62GPQUY144/cr.aspx

 

Update from Capita SIMs