Moving to Bromcom from SIMS

[supportman]

Bromcoms twitter feed has been announcing quite a few academy chains migrating to them recently, maybe the tide is finally turning on Capita's monopoly?

[DODICT]

Bromcoms twitter feed has been announcing quite a few academy chains migrating to them recently, maybe the tide is finally turning on Capita's monopoly?

Its simple - due to either size or need they follow a proper process of review and selection - if you do that no one is going to choose SIMS as the best product at present. If MATs achieving nothing else but kill the monopoly they have made the world a better place ! Well certainly the school MIS market . . .

[deshills]

Have to echo much of what has been said above, especially Ed's comments. Bromcom's biggest selling point is the migration, it is seamless and no work for the school. I implemented Bromcom at Harris (at the time 40 schools in 6 weeks) and now have Bromcom at my new Trust (DRET) and can honestly say its a game changer - especially with the extra bits that integrate so well - power Bi for example.

Best tip you will see on here is Ed's - standarise all of your nomenclature when you are moving MIS - it will change how you work!

[supportman]

Have to echo much of what has been said above, especially Ed's comments. Bromcom's biggest selling point is the migration, it is seamless and no work for the school. I implemented Bromcom at Harris (at the time 40 schools in 6 weeks) and now have Bromcom at my new Trust (DRET) and can honestly say its a game changer - especially with the extra bits that integrate so well - power Bi for example.

Best tip you will see on here is Ed's - standarise all of your nomenclature when you are moving MIS - it will change how you work!

 

Since you are quite experienced with the migration, do you mind saying whats good and bad about the product?

[deshills]

Since you are quite experienced with the migration, do you mind saying whats good and bad about the product?

 

I think i have stated this a few times on here, and i'm very happy to be honest!

Bromcom basic reporting needs improving, it isn't great and definitely isn't intuitive enough. I raised this with them sometime ago and to their credit, they launched ARB (which is a 3rd party report builder) and Power BI - which has been a fantastic addition. Seating plans are a bit clunky and a bit of development needs to go into Homework and Parents evening booking systems. The timetable software is effective but could be a bit 'smarter'.

 

What is good about Bromcom - its just a really well rounded product, that has listened to the feedback from users to constantly improve itself to meet their needs.

Its very easy to pick up, teachers can use it with 10 minutes training. Automation is a big plus, so there is potential for so much time/cost saving in admin functions.

Communication with parents has always been easy, but it has got better with the MCAS app.

Being able to view all your MAT data as one is a game changer for us (MAT Vision).

Having used SIMS and CMIS extensively in the past, i think it is an infinitely better product that them both.

Last thing i would say is the maintenance, the upgrades for SIMS and CMIS were hard work for our IT teams, and mostly they were riddled with bugs, but having all of the upgrades (high quality) done for you is a definite benefit of the cloud!

[timbo343]

Question for those who have migrated to Bromcom from SIMS. Have you kept an instance of SIMS running so key staff if required need to access past data of students.

 

As a legal requirement, have schools got to keep records of students until their 25th birthday / 30th birthday if SEN / 35th birthday if the next level of SEN - i forget what it's called.

 

Our plan (if we get the go ahead) is to take the SIMS database and move it on to a SQLExpress installation and only give those access that really need access.

[Anjelica]

Yes, I still had access to our old SIMS database but we paid extra to have seven years data migrated. Well worth the extra expense.

[DMurray]

Yes, I still had access to our old SIMS database but we paid extra to have seven years data migrated. Well worth the extra expense.

 

As a matter of interest, have you ever needed to access your old SIMS database? How long ago did you switch to Bromcom?

[Anjelica]

As a matter of interest, have you ever needed to access your old SIMS database? How long ago did you switch to Bromcom?

 

2011. Yes I have accessed the old database. A couple of times I had that "Is this data right?" moment but checking SIMS found it was. Once we were happy with the data we moved the old database to a virtual server with the minimum amount of memory - it's painful to access now but it's there if needed. We did have a request from the Police during a high profile court case although they did acknowledge that as the data was outside the seven year range they didn't expect we would be able to fulfill.

 

The essence of a good migration is a 'clean' database which you know will only have relevant information. Spend some time getting rid of old contacts, doctors etc. There is no sense in moving anything you aren't going to use.

 

Word of warning. Once you have migrated be aware that your new database will start numbering new Admissions from 1. There is a setting that you can use to start from the last number in your current set up - it may not bother you but I wanted my numbers to be consecutive.

[Damon]

Question for those who have migrated to Bromcom from SIMS. Have you kept an instance of SIMS running so key staff if required need to access past data of students.

As a legal requirement, have schools got to keep records of students until their 25th birthday / 30th birthday if SEN / 35th birthday if the next level of SEN - i forget what it's called.

Our plan (if we get the go ahead) is to take the SIMS database and move it on to a SQLExpress installation and only give those access that really need access.

 

Further to what's already been said, our schools have their old SIMS databases running for the time being but these won't be maintained/updated from the end of their license period. Access is limited to those who need it and in the long run, we may export the old data in report form with only the info required for statutory purposes. This file would be encrypted and access limited accordingly.