Arbor

[sluggster66]

Hi

 

Anyone using Arbor and would be willing to discuss how they feel about the product.

 

Cheers

[LeMarchand]

Using it at one of my schools (Primary). After the initial set up and some minor teething problems, I haven't had to do anything so for me - a resounding success. The head is still liking it (and the savings) and I haven't heard any complaints from any of the staff(!).

 

That said, the school was only a light/basic user of SIMS, so YMMV.

[mwnci]

Yes - have just rolled it out across a MAT of 27 schools. Experience has been a good one - PM me if you want to discus further.

[Meldrew]

A school on our MAT switched away from it to SIMS. The reasoning I heard, was that although it would be fine for primary schools, its not really up to the job of a secondary school.

 

Meldrew.

[DODICT]

Jesus, to make the conscious decision to go back to SIMS is damning. That said does the MAT not want consistency in the MIS its schools are using ? And I'd be surprised if when looking at the market SIMS comes out as a product that any MAT would want to consolidate its usage on.

 

that said I know many schools that use their MIS poorly and an incoming principal etc then makes a snap decision to go to SIMS as its what they know without actually reviewing the market or considering their needs.

 

Reporting was key for me when looking at Arbor - was a little light on getting info out. Yeah their dashboards look great for the statutory data but each school's assessment is very different and when you cant report as you would like on one of your key metrics it fell short for me. Yes there are ways but I found other products to more readily support getting 'what we want, how we want it' than Arbor.

 

I also heard when looking closly at some of the nitty gritty processes the functionality wasn't as user friendly and efficient as others - Talk to me about school improvement sure but an exams officer has a job to do and our MIS needs to support that process.

 

So I'd definitely ensure you delve into the specifics of some of the back office functions with the appropriate colleagues to ensure its not going to be a hindrance.

[DODICT]

But I'll add I like the direction they are travelling and think they'll get there but just not quite there yet for me and for the needs of a growing multi phase MAT (the context I was looking at it) in my eyes.

 

But I'm pretty confident in my context it still would have represented a significant step forward for our schools currently using SIMS and Facility but I felt there was a better option for our needs.

[sluggster66]

But I'll add I like the direction they are travelling and think they'll get there but just not quite there yet for me and for the needs of a growing multi phase MAT (the context I was looking at it) in my eyes.

 

But I'm pretty confident in my context it still would have represented a significant step forward for our schools currently using SIMS and Facility but I felt there was a better option for our needs.

 

 

What was the better option?

[ITGuyWestMidlands]

PupilAsset or Bromcom perhaps?

[DODICT]

What was the better option?

BROMCOM. The key for me is ease and accessibility for staff at the front end but with a powerful and flexible reporting engine(s) at the back. THis means as a trust we can provide exactly what we want, how we want it, to the numerous stakeholders across our organisation. I'm confident I can provide live summary dashboards of key metrics for leaders of the trust right down to the detail of a individual report for a child, with a couple of clicks, directly out of my MIS. It will take some time to develop all our desired outputs but crucially I know I have functionality there to allow it.

[TwistedHelixis]

Hope you don't mind the hijack :0)

 

If a primary school that is currently using Sims & FMS (Capita) moved over to Arbor, would the school need to look at FMS alternatives as I believe FMS integrates with Sims.