matt40k Posted November 26, 2018 Posted November 26, 2018 Capita are instead planning to deliver mini BETT's in regional areas With no competition in the room? 1
vikpaw Posted November 26, 2018 Posted November 26, 2018 Perhaps it’s a move towards keeping the current user base rather than atttacting more. I’m sure I read something along those lines in a piece on Capita and their new management.
matt40k Posted November 26, 2018 Posted November 26, 2018 Weird. Capita Annual statement was opposite, was all about growth (hinting outside of UK). Sounds like its turning on the blinkers IMHO - there is only SIMS. Still would make a great game - each player picks a non Capita MIS and see how many times you can say your MIS during event, bonus points if you can get Capita staff to say it.
vikpaw Posted November 27, 2018 Posted November 27, 2018 Weird. Capita Annual statement was opposite, was all about growth (hinting outside of UK). Sounds like its turning on the blinkers IMHO - there is only SIMS. Still would make a great game - each player picks a non Capita MIS and see how many times you can say your MIS during event, bonus points if you can get Capita staff to say it. . . . . . . "We are better than Bromcom"
peej2k Posted November 28, 2018 Posted November 28, 2018 Having seen SIMS Finance being demoed today (dear God, if you thought FMS was bad, just see how stunningly poor Agora 2 powered SIMS Finance is) and the massive delays in SIMS Primary/SIMS 8 that are still occuring 7 years since they started work on it, I can understand why they wouldn't want to appear at BETT. If you've got nothing to show, why would you attend? I wish I could wrestle my school out of the SIMS grip. The SLT seems stuck staring into the Capita Deadlights.
supportman Posted November 28, 2018 Author Posted November 28, 2018 Having seen SIMS Finance being demoed today (dear God, if you thought FMS was bad, just see how stunningly poor Agora 2 powered SIMS Finance is) and the massive delays in SIMS Primary/SIMS 8 that are still occuring 7 years since they started work on it, I can understand why they wouldn't want to appear at BETT. Is it really that bad? I was holding out hope for Sims finance as they seemed to be moving it to the web and centralised cloud like other providers have recently done.
peej2k Posted November 28, 2018 Posted November 28, 2018 I was so disappointed as for all of the delays, SIMS Primary looks like they've at least thought about design, accessibility and user flow in that product. It has the functionality that we should expect in it, but the usability and design of it is an absolute mess. Each menu has a code baked into the front to help support (something that could go in a page footer), the styling is awful. The menu's are antiquated. The graphing engine they're using looks like Office 97. It's yet more burying your way through menus to get to where you want to go. It's raw and ugly, and won't be available to non-academies until April 2020 at the earliest. There are some screenshots here: https://www.capita-sims.co.uk/products-and-services/sims-finance It looks every inch as 2004 as those screenshots show. It wasn't helped that it was demonstrated after Access Education Accounting and Budgeting which looks modern, clean, well designed, thought out and does exactly the same stuff. 3
matt40k Posted November 28, 2018 Posted November 28, 2018 Huh, they've stuck with JasperSoft for reporting. Still surprised they went with it, still I guess its free. Wonder if they expect schools to use that to build reports? Has anyone asked about the report builder in SIMS 8? Hopefully they have a solution!
David_Grashoff Posted November 28, 2018 Posted November 28, 2018 Agora 2 powered SIMS Finance Can you expand a bit more on what this means ?
matt40k Posted November 28, 2018 Posted November 28, 2018 One would assume they are referring to the fact you folks (Capita) have expanded the School online payment systems into a full finance system... sounds pretty logical
supportman Posted November 29, 2018 Author Posted November 29, 2018 (edited) It wasn't helped that it was demonstrated after Access Education Accounting and Budgeting which looks modern, clean, well designed, thought out and does exactly the same stuff. Thats HCSS right? Another school locally had moved to this from FMS and said it integrated well with "budgeting software" and was very modern. I love the look of that one, but yet to hear many reviews. EDIT: It does look beautiful, very material design like Edited November 29, 2018 by supportman
matt40k Posted November 29, 2018 Posted November 29, 2018 I'd be interested to hear how people have got on with it (HCSS by Access) and how they are finding support. I've heard some horror stories about terrible support and high staff turnover (mainly because of massive growth).
DSapseid Posted November 29, 2018 Posted November 29, 2018 We have HCSS here our MAT have it for all of their schools. From my experience its great. We moved from FMS -> Corero -> HCSS. I think HCSS is miles beyond the others! I have a login as a department holder (all hods have one) i can then logon and view my budget balance, raise an order where i put in all the information and pick the supplier (if we have used them before). Once i press submit it goes to the Business Manager for approval she clicks convert to order and it emails the order straight to the supplier - an order from me filling in the web form to it being approved and with the supplier can be 10mins - if i speak nicely to the SBM! From the SBM's point of view its good as we use HCSS to write the budget and its simple to match the budgets in the accounting module to the budgeting module. When we have had to use their support they have been fine. Phoned up over the summer with the SBM as we couldnt do something and they told us that an option wasnt selected somewhere else to allow us to do what we wanted. 3
peej2k Posted December 3, 2018 Posted December 3, 2018 Yes. That's the one. I know design isn't everything but compared with SIMS Finance it's chalk and cheese. I've heard good things about them, and our local MIS Support people also do support on their behalf.
peej2k Posted December 3, 2018 Posted December 3, 2018 Can you expand a bit more on what this means ? SIMS Finance is built on Agora 2, which is a platform they've been using in the NHS for a while. It's not a new product, rather than taking an existing one and manipulating it for a different case use.
PhilNeal Posted December 3, 2018 Posted December 3, 2018 Unless there has been a massive change in policy since I left, the new finance product is not built on Agora. Agora is simply a parental payment option. 1
NorrthDown2 Posted December 3, 2018 Posted December 3, 2018 (edited) I see with the new app there appears to be a few companies who have taken reasonable sized plots in the past not committed / agreed yet (though I'll happily stand corrected): Raspberry Pi Foundation ParentPay TES (Thought they might have gone to the Ed Show across the mall but no sign there) Lexia RM Edugeek not listed!!!! Back on the floor: Academia (they seemed to go to a local hotel last year) BBC The floorspace is slightly less too - there's no N10 entrance in use. I was talking with someone today who Capita flew over last year and put up in a hotel (which they priced at not a cheap price). I really must be slumming it coming on my own steam by Ryanair and the cheapest Travelodge on the DLR I could find. Though probably the time taken for me to get from here to London seems much less than some of those who come by train, even allowing for security etc! Edited December 3, 2018 by NorrthDown2
GrumbleDook Posted December 3, 2018 Posted December 3, 2018 EduGeek like to partner with the best possible company ... so no doubt @Dos_Box will confirm who it is over the next few weeks.
vikpaw Posted December 4, 2018 Posted December 4, 2018 EduGeek is a collective - we will be there in full force. Hundreds of agents all over the show 1
supportman Posted December 4, 2018 Author Posted December 4, 2018 Yeh ParentPay are not going this year, they mentioned that to me recently.
elsiegee40 Posted December 4, 2018 Posted December 4, 2018 Yeh ParentPay are not going this year, they mentioned that to me recently.They have been given a lot of grief at BETT in recent years
GrumbleDook Posted December 4, 2018 Posted December 4, 2018 They have been given a lot of grief at BETT in recent years There could be (and should be) a thread specifically about where EG members have been banned from at BETT over the years! 2
matt40k Posted December 4, 2018 Posted December 4, 2018 There could be (and should be) a thread specifically about where EG members have been banned from at BETT over the years! I need this thread in my life.
David_Grashoff Posted December 4, 2018 Posted December 4, 2018 Unless there has been a massive change in policy since I left, the new finance product is not built on Agora. Agora is simply a parental payment option. For Agora read Integra ? 1
AJWhite1970 Posted December 4, 2018 Posted December 4, 2018 (edited) There could be (and should be) a thread specifically about where EG members have been banned from at BETT over the years! Just been going through this list in my head of companies I've fallen out with at BETT and there are more than I first thought....!! Edited December 4, 2018 by AJWhite1970 speling
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