SIMS

[Stormborn15]

Hi all,

 

My school ( primary) are looking at alternative MIS systems and SIMs is one of them - they are particularly interested in MIS systems with a proper working Parent App.

 

I said that I would ask for constructive feed back from the forum re the pros and cons of SIM as I have (mostly) heard the cons on here.

 

Any contributions greatly appreciated - thanks in advance.

[bald_pig]

Gotta say, I've never heard of SIMS referred to as the alternative before...

[elsiegee40]

What is your primary using now? Why are you looking at alternatives? Is your school LA, part of a MAT or independent?

[NickoTheSicko]

Id recommend EduSpot, we use it our school and it works really well, we did have SIMS but we chose to move to something just as great for a lower price.

 

https://eduspot.co.uk/

[Norphy]

In my opinion, SIMS pros and cons:

 

Pros: A widely used and known solution. Easy to get third party support for. Probably relatively easy to get staff that are experienced with it if you employ staff from other schools.

 

Cons: It has a lot of legacy cruft and is a very messy product because of that. Its user interface is esoteric and not the friendliest. Support from Capita isn't great, thereby necessitating the third party support option. It's VERY expensive. It's owned by Capita who don't exactly have a good reputation for anything.

Edited March 26, 2019 by Norphy

[Stormborn15]

Hi @elsiegee40 - have PM'd you Edited March 26, 2019 by Stormborn15

[bfelton]

Just to offer an alternative option into the mix, you could use SIMS alongside Edulink One (https://www.overnetdata.com/edulinkone) it is the same price as the Capita Parent App but has a number of other useful features that enhance your use of SIMS.

[CAM]

I've used SIMS extensively for over a decade and watched it slowly evolve into a far more usable state than it used to be. It's a perfectly serviceable application for use in schools but it isn't the de facto "go to MIS" anymore. The market has opened up significantly and parts of SIMS are showing their age in the modern environment we have. The interface jumping bug has been all but ignored for years, the reporting engine is clumsy at best and there are still modules that wouldn't look out of place on a Windows 3.11 system. They also had a PR nightmare after the CTF wrong contacts bug that saw Capita go all cagey. That said, it is very well supported by third parties (even if Capita support is best left to be desired), easy to find trained staff due to it's position as market leader and has regular updates to ensure it meets the statutory requirements for the census. You also have Phil never too far round the corner on here to help out.

 

I would say price is a significant sticking point though given the age and quality of the application. SIMS 8 is also round the corner (and currently released to Primary) so it might be worth waiting to see what that is like before paying large sums of money for SIMS 7, assuming we ever see it....

Edited March 26, 2019 by CAM

[RootsSchImp]

Other systems have parent apps-Bromcom does for sure. My advice would be to list everything you want your MIS to do, send that list to major suppliers (Bromcom, Scholarpack, Arbor, iSams, Progresso, Pupil Asset, Integris) and ask them to tell you what they can do for what price. It's worth the effort to find the right system.