Bill8 Posted October 23, 2019 Posted October 23, 2019 I've just found out that our equivalent of a LA don't want their Primary Schools using Integris and Secondary Schools using SIMS, they want the same MIS for both; a system that will support FS1 through to, and including, Sixth Form. Does anyone here support a Trust like this? Can anyone recommend such a system? 1
elsiegee40 Posted October 23, 2019 Posted October 23, 2019 If you’re in a MAT you can do what you darn well please. You do what’s right for your MAT. The LA has no say so!
Chaniel Posted October 23, 2019 Posted October 23, 2019 Our MAT is moving to Bromcom from SIMS/Integris and we had it demoed to us recently (we're a secondary). Honestly, Bromcom looks great and it's actively developed. I'd recommend looking at that 2
djm968 Posted October 23, 2019 Posted October 23, 2019 Our MAT is moving MIS to Arbor. https://arbor-education.com/
DODICT Posted October 23, 2019 Posted October 23, 2019 (edited) you'll end up with a shortlist of 2 - arbor and bromcom if you are all though and have some serious demands of your MIS - i.e. you want to get timely information and intelligence directly from your MIS. Dig into Arbor beyond the pretty visuals of statutory data and it is a little lacking in my view in terms of data OUT. The solution to bring together data from multiple schools was independent live linked reports into excel when looking at bespoke data, that isn't fit for purpose for a growing MAT and not scaleable. This is where Bromcom is still above the competition in my eyes as I can plug Power BI directly into a consolidated data set immediately or centrally deploy a report to schools with little effort. If anything its the people we now need to work with to ensure the focus is on the response to information rather than the processing or summarising of it (this is new !) . Word of caution though they are growing and I'm non too impressed with support at the moment so they need to upscale quickly or risk losing a lot of the positivity they have generated over recent years due to their product as a result of poor/insufficient support. So I'd be sure to explore the other new customers they are migrating if I was looking to adopt Bromcom over the next 12 months or so. Edited October 23, 2019 by DODICT 1
Sonic007 Posted October 23, 2019 Posted October 23, 2019 I wanted to do this and each school has its own DFE number and Sims doesnt like this. I was told I would need one sims system per school.
Ditto Posted October 23, 2019 Posted October 23, 2019 I'm wondering if some of the replies to the OP may have missed that fact the location is Cyprus? 1
Ditto Posted October 23, 2019 Posted October 23, 2019 I've just found out that our equivalent of a LA don't want their Primary Schools using Integris and Secondary Schools using SIMS, they want the same MIS for both; a system that will support FS1 through to, and including, Sixth Form. Does anyone here support a Trust like this? Can anyone recommend such a system? I'm assuming you are following the English education system. Both Integris and SIMS claim to support the MAT model and all-though schooling. I don't think either were built at the outset to support that, so you will find views on Edugeek as to how good each is in the MAT arena. In terms of other MIS that are worth considering, I'd suggest Arbor, Bromcom, SchoolPod and Progresso. If you were to shortlist just three, I'd suggest Integris, which would keep things simple for your primary school team, along with Arbor and Bromcom.
Bromcom_support2 Posted October 24, 2019 Posted October 24, 2019 Hi DODICT, I'm the Head of Customer Onboarding and Services at Bromcom, responsible for our support services, and I just wanted to respond to your comment about Bromcom support: “Word of caution though they are growing and …. “ I’m sorry you’ve not experienced the excellent service that we strive to provide - and rightly you expect from us! - recently. We have had longer call wait times than we would like this September and we are extremely conscious of this. There are a number of reasons for this but a key factor was the delay to implementing our new CRM system, which we had planned to implement before the end of the last academic year with time to bed in during August. For reasons beyond our control, this ended up being delayed until the first week of September, right in the middle of our busiest period. The helpdesk team worked heroically to minimise the disruption for customers but unfortunately there was an impact on call wait times as some customers struggled to register for online ticketing and reverted to calling us on the phone instead. Despite this we are still resolving cases within the SLA timeframes and we have a number of initiatives underway to allow the company to continue to provide a first class service for our customers even as we grow. In addition to expanding the team, amongst other things we are piloting new call handling processes to speed up response times and various new technologies. We have also overhauled our guidance and documentation to allow customers to self-resolve (as many of them would prefer to do this!). We don't think that growing the customer base will reduce support service levels and we're determined not to let the September 2019 experience happen again. Best wishes, Liz Morgan – Bromcom 1
Bill8 Posted October 24, 2019 Author Posted October 24, 2019 I'm assuming you are following the English education system. Both Integris and SIMS claim to support the MAT model and all-though schooling. I don't think either were built at the outset to support that, so you will find views on Edugeek as to how good each is in the MAT arena. In terms of other MIS that are worth considering, I'd suggest Arbor, Bromcom, SchoolPod and Progresso. If you were to shortlist just three, I'd suggest Integris, which would keep things simple for your primary school team, along with Arbor and Bromcom. We're a Ministry of Defence school, based in one of the military bases in Cyprus, as such we do follow the English system. Unfortunately CAPITA have informed the 'decision makers' that they don't do all-through schooling. We won't have any say in what system is chosen (it looks like it might be either Arbor or Bromcom) and only one member of the group making the decision has actually worked in a school; she was the Head at a Primary and, "apparently", has no understanding of what it's like in a Secondary. Reading through these comments, and those in a different thread, I'm hoping it'll be a smooth transition to whatever they decide for us.
Ditto Posted October 24, 2019 Posted October 24, 2019 That's a very interesting statement from Capita re all-through schools - can't see how that would fit in with supporting a lot of MATs? Any Capita people out there willing to comment? Although the decision making process is far from ideal, subject to a well-run implementation, I think with either Arbor or Bromcom, you'll see benefits in the long run.
kennysarmy Posted October 24, 2019 Posted October 24, 2019 Our MAT is moving MIS to Arbor. https://arbor-education.com/ Off topic, but can I ask what you moved from and why and if you considered Bromcom?
Bill8 Posted October 25, 2019 Author Posted October 25, 2019 With the likes of Bromcom and Arbor I have two questions: 1. Can you create timetables in them, like with Nova? 2. Are you able to organise the exam seasion in them? Seating plans, Statements of entry, etc...
6Foot2 Posted October 25, 2019 Posted October 25, 2019 We have Bromcom and our Timetaling staff have just told me that it does not have its own timetabling software. They (we) use Keith Johnson's TimeTabler, but you could also use NovaT or other timetable software. After our new timetable has been created it is imported into Bromcom and made live. HTH. 1
Ditto Posted October 25, 2019 Posted October 25, 2019 Progresso allows import from Timetabler too, but you can build it entirely in the product if you want to. Looks as though Arbor does too - https://support.arbor-education.com/hc/en-us/articles/208883025-Importing-a-timetable-from-TimeTabler. 1
ajp233 Posted October 25, 2019 Posted October 25, 2019 Bromcom does have it's own eTimetable software 1
ajp233 Posted October 25, 2019 Posted October 25, 2019 Bromcom has an exams module. As a ex-Exams Officer I can advise that it is very easy to use and has all of the functionality one finds in SIMS Exams Organiser. Re timetabling - Bromcom can accept timetables from it's own eTimetable software, Nova-T6 and Keith Johnson's Timetabler. 1
6Foot2 Posted October 25, 2019 Posted October 25, 2019 Bromcom does have it's own eTimetable software In that case our admin staff were not aware of it and don't use it. Apologies.
Bromcom_John Posted October 25, 2019 Posted October 25, 2019 @Bill8 It sounds like you need to get us in front of a shared desktop to get all these questions answered.
Bromcom_John Posted October 25, 2019 Posted October 25, 2019 With the likes of Bromcom and Arbor I have two questions: 1. Can you create timetables in them, like with Nova? 2. Are you able to organise the exam seasion in them? Seating plans, Statements of entry, etc... Others have already answered but in the interest of keeping it brief and in one post 1 - Yes, with our own tool, Keith Johnson's Timetabler, Nova-T or direct within the MIS 2 - Yes to each and every separate bit. 1
CloudGeek Posted October 27, 2019 Posted October 27, 2019 We're a Ministry of Defence school, based in one of the military bases in Cyprus, as such we do follow the English system. Unfortunately CAPITA have informed the 'decision makers' that they don't do all-through schooling. We won't have any say in what system is chosen (it looks like it might be either Arbor or Bromcom) and only one member of the group making the decision has actually worked in a school; she was the Head at a Primary and, "apparently", has no understanding of what it's like in a Secondary. Reading through these comments, and those in a different thread, I'm hoping it'll be a smooth transition to whatever they decide for us. Hi Bill8, Interesting that you identified ‘All through school’ being a barrier/challenge with SIMS and my be other MIS suppliers. It is worth seeking reference sites for all-through school - preferably a site visit. May be will give a chance to come back for a long weekend in UK? MOD-wide schools reporting / analytics: It may interest you that with cloud technology with some MIS systems you are able to have functionality that will provide your central office a view of across all MOD schools, have analytics for aggregate and drill down to individual schools on the fly. Some MIS use MS Power BI as a tool for visualisation of the data and within their MIS. The technology and MIS functionalities moved on since SIMS and it may be that working remotely abroad you have missed some of these developments. I assume you know about BETT exhibition in January where most MIS suppliers exhibit -yes? Good luck. 1
RootsSchImp Posted October 28, 2019 Posted October 28, 2019 Bromcom does have it's own eTimetable software Re timetable software I think it's often an underweighted aspect of MIS tenders because: 1. A good timetable has significant educational and staff well-being impact vs a bad one 2. The difference between a good and bad timetable is largely a function of how much time the timetabler can dedicate to improving their first schedule 3. The quality of the timetable software acts as a multiplier/drag on the limited time available. It's tempting to overlook timetable software cos it's only used by one person (usually), once a year. But its impacts are felt all year round so I'd recommend having a good look at any package your thinking of buying into. 1
Al217 Posted October 28, 2019 Posted October 28, 2019 For Arbor we use Timetabler for writing the timetable and then import into Arbor just like you do from Nova into SIMS. Exams does do seating statement of entries and timetables and these can be email direct to parents and students from within Arbor 1
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