Changing MIS... our experience

[Timetable]

Well we have our test system....

 

We got our details through on Friday, so a nice 4 day turn around, which is brilliant and its surprisign how much information gets transferred. Just going though some data checking now and some playing wit the system before the training to do it properly.

[supportman]

Thanks to @JohnCondon for the Bromcom demo yesterday, our staff were impressed with the overall system and the new user interface looks great.

 

Things that stood out for me were the inbuilt flexible communication module and the ability for parents to pay in money via the App. PowerBi also looked quite exciting but I do wonder about the skillset needed to use it.

 

Things that appeared to be missing for me were the HR Performance management stuff, Medicine stock assets in the medical section, some small specific boarding school features and an online admissions form system.

 

I'm struggling to differentiate between Bromcom and iSams at the moment and a little worried they may be the "expensive option" looking at their online pricing. Any comment on what Bromcom does that iSams doesn't feature-wise?

 

We are seeing Arbor after the half term so will update after that and hopefully make a decision going forward.

Edited February 13, 2020 by supportman

[Bromcom_John]

@supportman It was my pleasure. Lovely sprawling site with lots of open space (despite the quantity of scaffolding!).

It is always good to put a physical face to the usernames on here!

[sefton]

I wouldn't worry about Power Bi, once you get the basics you can produce some quality dashboards, and that is me using it with Sims, never mind a MIS like Bromcom which is built to take advantage of Power Bi.

[noelmm]

I can't comment on iSams as I have never used it however one thing I would suggest is trying to get more feedback on the customer support side of each company as at some point you will run into problems. From my point of view we buy directly into Bromcom's support (we could go through LA but choose not to) and we're pleased with it. Of course there have been a few issues that have taken longer to resolve than I would like but Bromcom dealt with it well and made sure we knew what the problem was and why it took longer.

[supportman]

Today I got notice that we can finally move away from Sims onto a modern cloud MIS!

 

Hurray!

[DODICT]

congrats ! what system you moving to ?

[supportman]

congrats ! what system you moving to ?

The decision was between iSams, Arbour and Bromcom. After evaluating features, interface, pricing and development speed we went with Bromcom. Arbour never sent us prices (and the approximate prices they mentioned for secondaries were ridiculously high anyway) in the end after repeated requests, so we had to discount them early in the process. They looked a bit behind the other 2 in features but I did like some bits of their system so it was a shame.

 

iSams was good and was a very close second, particularly as our school has some crossovers with private ones in terms of admissions and fee paying boarding.

 

I will start a new thread about our experiences on moving over, but would be interested in anyone has done this already and the kind of things that have to be planned for and gone through.

 

I'd be interested how @CyBeRkId2002 @sonofsanta and @Timetable are getting on now. Having a cloud MIS under lock-down must be wonderful

 

I expect we will use Sims and Bromcom from September to December then switch over fully after Christmas but that's still to be decided. The Capita contract demands we pay this year until April 2021 so we have time even though we have no cancelled.

Edited April 22, 2020 by supportman

[sonofsanta]

The decision was between iSams, Arbour and Bromcom. After evaluating features, interface, pricing and development speed we went with Bromcom. Arbour never sent us prices (and the approximate prices they mentioned for secondaries were ridiculously high anyway) in the end after repeated requests, so we had to discount them early in the process. They looked a bit behind the other 2 in features but I did like some bits of their system so it was a shame.

 

iSams was good and was a very close second, particularly as our school has some crossovers with private ones in terms of admissions and fee paying boarding.

 

I will start a new thread about our experiences on moving over, but would be interested in anyone has done this already and the kind of things that have to be planned for and gone through.

 

I'd be interested how @CyBeRkId2002 @sonofsanta and @Timetable are getting on now. Having a cloud MIS under lock-down must be wonderful

 

I expect we will use Sims and Bromcom from September to December then switch over fully after Christmas but that's still to be decided. The Capita contract demands we pay this year until April 2021 so we have time even though we have no cancelled.

 

 

We were meant to be launching next Monday, ha ha, but Bromcom worked with us and let us move that back to June 1, in the hopes that we'd be back to school by now and able to have training on-site again; we upgraded to one day of on-site to better support staff on their first exposure to their system, and then all the webinars after that would have been in a shared room so me and mine could support users as they worked through different aspects. That plan is out the window now, though, with the extra three weeks of lockdown, but we need to stick by this new date as our Facility contract runs out at the end of July. Just in the process of trying to arrange all the training and make sure staff have got everything they need--going to get a bunch of long HDMI cables in so they can use their TVs as pseudo-projectors to follow along more easily, cos watching a presenter and trying to follow along all on one small laptop screen will be a nightmare.

 

We did get the test data across before all this kicked off, so we have actually been using Bromcom for sending out parent emails through all this, as it's better at that than our current system (WisePay). I've gotten to the point of looking up staff and student details on it too, even though ePortal is just as easily accessible from home, because it's just... better. Even without any training, it's more intuitive and easier to read information from. And silver linings, all this delay means we've managed to appoint a new data manager in time to take part in the training and be there for launch, so it might work out better in some regards!

[Timetable]

The decision was between iSams, Arbour and Bromcom. After evaluating features, interface, pricing and development speed we went with Bromcom. Arbour never sent us prices (and the approximate prices they mentioned for secondaries were ridiculously high anyway) in the end after repeated requests, so we had to discount them early in the process. They looked a bit behind the other 2 in features but I did like some bits of their system so it was a shame.

 

iSams was good and was a very close second, particularly as our school has some crossovers with private ones in terms of admissions and fee paying boarding.

 

I will start a new thread about our experiences on moving over, but would be interested in anyone has done this already and the kind of things that have to be planned for and gone through.

 

I'd be interested how @CyBeRkId2002 @sonofsanta and @Timetable are getting on now. Having a cloud MIS under lock-down must be wonderful

 

I expect we will use Sims and Bromcom from September to December then switch over fully after Christmas but that's still to be decided. The Capita contract demands we pay this year until April 2021 so we have time even though we have no cancelled.

 

For us its been interesting as we went live the week of lockdown.... That was a blessing and a curse to be honest as it gave staff time to try and they are doing things at their own pace OFFSITE... but it was a bit of a challenge for training and trying to answer little questions coming in from various staff, often repeated.

 

But i have to say its been far better, and staff are very impressed with it. Only the attendance officer has found it a negative, but maybe that's because shes having to enter quite a bit of data that she wouldn't, and i have to admit the whole school attendance screens are quicker to do on SIMS.

 

I and still fully behind Bromcom and its been a massive improvement. the transition process has been a lot smoother and less stressful than i expected too.

[sonofsanta]

For us its been interesting as we went live the week of lockdown.... That was a blessing and a curse to be honest as it gave staff time to try and they are doing things at their own pace OFFSITE... but it was a bit of a challenge for training and trying to answer little questions coming in from various staff, often repeated.

 

But i have to say its been far better, and staff are very impressed with it. Only the attendance officer has found it a negative, but maybe that's because shes having to enter quite a bit of data that she wouldn't, and i have to admit the whole school attendance screens are quicker to do on SIMS.

 

I and still fully behind Bromcom and its been a massive improvement. the transition process has been a lot smoother and less stressful than i expected too.

 

 

We launched with Bromcom last Monday, after we asked Bromcom to delay from our original Easter date (in the hopes--haha--that we'd all be back in school for an onsite training day sometime in May. WELP), and like @Timetable it actually turned out to be a blessing in some regards. Although I was still at my PC on Sunday night making sure I had login details out to everyone in time, there was no panic to get stuff done before registers at 9am on Monday. A lot of it now is just getting used to new workflows, but in general it's much easier than CMIS ever was, and possible to just... have a guess at what you need to do. The global search is a godsend, you can guess at what a setup page might be called and find your way pretty easily.

 

There's a lot of little questions coming out of the woodwork as we actually get into the nitty-gritty of using it, but we're able to book a phone call once a week with a transition specialist where we can ask all these little questions and get clarity on the best way to do things, which is massively helpful.

 

The data pulled across was pretty much flawless from a process perspective; it brought up a lot of stuff I needed to neaten up (staff email addresses etc.) but I can hardly blame my crappy data on Bromcom we had no trouble whatsoever with the transition process, and have felt really well supported throughout, so I'm as delighted as @Timetable.

Edited June 12, 2020 by sonofsanta

[Ditto]

It's great to hear positive news for those that have changed MIS. Of course it's an operational decision, but as a governor who has to keep a strategic hat on (but has deep operational experience), I just wish my school and parent trust would have a look at what they have and what alternatives are available. Strategically I'd like to see the schools be more efficient and save some money for spending elsewhere on education. Our budget has taken a big hit as we have lost significant revenue streams due to the pandemic, so case studies that show cost savings on any support function will be essential going forwards.

[TechSail]

When looking at how an MIS can save you money for me it is all about keeping in all under one product. Reducing 3rd party products not only saves money, but there are efficiency savings and reduced risk to dirty data when moving between programmes. Most importantly for me the data is live, no need to have staff spending time moving data backwards and forwards like the bell boy in a hotel whenever pupil information changes. As Covid-19 continues to bite being in the cloud is essential. School leaders need to work when and where they can!

[LTee]

When looking at how an MIS can save you money for me it is all about keeping in all under one product. Reducing 3rd party products not only saves money, but there are efficiency savings and reduced risk to dirty data when moving between programmes. Most importantly for me the data is live, no need to have staff spending time moving data backwards and forwards like the bell boy in a hotel whenever pupil information changes. As Covid-19 continues to bite being in the cloud is essential. School leaders need to work when and where they can!

Absolutely. We need to have agile systems that can adapt to the changing times!