[sims] Goodbye Sims! Its been fun....

[supportman]

So... we have now signed the agreement to purchase Bromcom on a 5 year contract in our school. The research was in progress before lockdown, but has reinforced our thinking since everyone has been working from home.

 

We looked hard at adding Edulink One on top of Sims, as its a great system, but in the end decided to go with a full modern cloud based MIS. We looked at Arbour, iSams and Bromcom and decided after the demos and pricing quotes came in.

 

Lots more details in this thread on the need for change and the different options.

 

Anyway.... Back to the point of this thread, the journey of migration to a new system! Good an Bad experiences.

 

I'll post updates as we go along and any of the things we learn.

 

Currently we have signed the contract, informed Sims of us leaving (they have a clause on timing so well worth checking that), cleaned up our Sims data and sent the data securly to Bromcom.

 

Its been smooth so far and our test system should be up soon I hope.

Edited May 14, 2020 by supportman

[Ditto]

Good luck - enjoy the journey.

[supportman]

So while waiting to see our new demo system, I have cancelled our first third party service.

 

TASC insight has been a great parent portal. We used it for reports, timetables, achievements, behaviour reporting and Parents evenings. Its a real shame to let it go but it does save money. One thing I would say about them is they have not innovated as quickly as I would have liked. Things like parent surveys, consent forms, trip system, online payments could all have made the system amazing but they stuck to the basics really. I think they have been overtaken by Edulink One in terms of features now on top of Sims. Then again, Sims should really have all these features built in in the first place!

 

This is a saving of just below £2,000

Edited May 14, 2020 by supportman

[kennysarmy]

We're starting the same journey.

 

They've now got our order and we're planning for a Summer holiday Go-Live date.

[supportman]

Today we got the full test system online with our migrated Sims data, very impressive turnaround time.

 

There's a lot to learn in the new system and is slightly disappointing to see the docs section only showing the old interface screenshots. But saying that its quite similar so I just about worked out how to create new users.

 

SSO works great and was very easy to setup with Office 365 credentials.

 

I'm having trouble with the email smtp settings, our school gmail SMTP account doesn't seem to work. Other people appear to have had similar issues.

 

I've also noticed Bromcom appears to have 2 areas for its settings. One under "Config" on the main sidebar and another is under modules >> Setup. Quite confusing for the new user.

Edited May 15, 2020 by supportman

[Davit2005]

Today we got the test system with our migrated Sims data, very impressive turnaround time.

 

There's a lot to learn in the new system and is slightly disappointing to see the docs section only showing the old interface screeshots. But saying that its quite similar so I just about worked out how to create new users.

 

SSO works great and was very easy to setup with Office 365 credentials.

 

I'm having trouble with the email smtp settings, our school gmail SMTP account doesn't seem to work. Other people appear to have had similar issues.

 

I don't know if it could be the same as normal gmail but there is a setting to allow non-secure apps. I had that issue a number of times.

 

https://support.google.com/cloudidentity/answer/6260879?hl=en

[kennysarmy]

Today we got the full test system online with our migrated Sims data, very impressive turnaround time.

 

There's a lot to learn in the new system and is slightly disappointing to see the docs section only showing the old interface screenshots. But saying that its quite similar so I just about worked out how to create new users.

 

SSO works great and was very easy to setup with Office 365 credentials.

 

I'm having trouble with the email smtp settings, our school gmail SMTP account doesn't seem to work. Other people appear to have had similar issues.

 

I've also noticed Bromcom appears to have 2 areas for its settings. One under "Config" on the main sidebar and another is under modules >> Setup. Quite confusing for the new user.

 

Good to know.

 

We are O365 so hopefully our SMTP setup will be more straightforward. I know when we had a virtual meeting with them this week to outline the migration process they mentioned something about GMAIL SMTP.

 

We're not planning to do the live migration until late August.

[kennysarmy]

What are you doing about historical access to SIMS data given that Bromcom only migrate over up to 5 years of data per oldest pupil I think?

[supportman]

What are you doing about historical access to SIMS data given that Bromcom only migrate over up to 5 years of data per oldest pupil I think?

 

Keep sims online I guess. Or just zip it up and put it in a archive somewhere.

 

I don't think we've ever had reason to go back further than 5 years. Any old student records can be exported to CSV files I guess.

[TASC_Software]

So while waiting to see our new demo system, I have cancelled our first third party service.

 

TASC insight has been a great parent portal. We used it for reports, timetables, achievements, behaviour reporting and Parents evenings. Its a real shame to let it go but it does save money. One thing I would say about them is they have not innovated as quickly as I would have liked. Things like parent surveys, consent forms, trip system, online payments could all have made the system amazing but they stuck to the basics really. I think they have been overtaken by Edulink One in terms of features now on top of Sims. Then again, Sims should really have all these features built in in the first place!

 

This is a saving of just below £2,000

 

Hi

 

Thank you for your comments with regards to INSIGHT and sorry to see you go. Just as a note, we have had surveys and consent forms in INSIGHT for a few years now with auto write back to SIMS We do have links to various payment systems and cashless catering via APi also and have worked with NRS in particular (now CIVIA NRS) showing dinner money etc in INSIGHT for …. 8+ years. We don't however have our own payment system as you rightly noted.

 

TALAXY; our cloud solution has enabled even more functionality linking PARS and INSIGHT together. This Gateway compared to others not only allows you to present data, you can also manage data, analyse, track and includes graphical school improvement dashboards (staff, parent & pupil). Also a PWA with Federated AD login / DPi, so multi operable, multi device...and multi MIS (also works without MIS). Lots going on!

 

Bromcom we have known for many many years and a great team, so we wish you well -- TALAXY also links with Bromcom MIS

 

Many thanks

 

Jenny Urey

Edited May 18, 2020 by TASC_Software

[supportman]

Good first training session today on Bromcom, I'm impressed with their training setup as its all automatic through their support system and in a webinar online format where you can ask questions. The trainer was good and very informed and could also answer the inevitable Sims questions as she had experience in using that as well.

 

The training was informative and I am beginning to get an idea of how the system works.

 

Some menus still seem a bit convoluted to me (there is a config menu as well as a modules >> setup menu) which as far as I can tell do the same thing but in a limited way.

 

We also realized some data from Sims for users who haven't been given a contract end date has been migrated to bromcom. We will sort this on the Sims side.

 

I am still unsure how we are going to handle pre admissions students for a September start, whether we admit them on Sims first then migrate or the other way round...

Edited June 3, 2020 by supportman

[Nearthemark]

I'd be interested to know how you get on with timetabling - all the feedback that I've heard is that the Bromcom timetabling software is very limited indeed (e-timetable) and nowhere near as powerful as T6. In fact, some schools I know of are timetabling on paper and recreating it in etimetable. It would make more sense to schedule in T6 and then export, but of course that is part of SIMs......

[supportman]

I'd be interested to know how you get on with timetabling - all the feedback that I've heard is that the Bromcom timetabling software is very limited indeed (e-timetable) and nowhere near as powerful as T6. In fact, some schools I know of are timetabling on paper and recreating it in etimetable. It would make more sense to schedule in T6 and then export, but of course that is part of SIMs......

I believe Bromcom works fine with Nova T6 so we are continuing to use that for now.

[Nearthemark]

I believe Bromcom works fine with Nova T6 so we are continuing to use that for now.

That's exactly what I advised a Bromcom school to do too!

[EduTechSLT]

What are the main advantages of using Nova T6 over E-Timetable? It's always worked for me!

[supportman]

What are the main advantages of using Nova T6 over E-Timetable? It's always worked for me!

 

For us, simply familiarity to smooth the transition. I'd be interested in looking at E-Timetable next year for sure.

[supportman]

So today we are at the end of our test system on Bromcom and move to the live setup next week hopefully. Here are a couple of notes along the way:

 

- Training has been excellent, very comprehensive and fantastic to be able to download the video at the end of the session for reference

 

- Our implementation manager has been good, although I have had to prompt him to contact me a few times when I have been expecting a call. No weekly meetings like others have suggested which is a little disappointing.

 

- We've brought forward our live install data so we can do the pre admissions and timetable on Bromcom this year instead of importing from Sims in September in a rush.

 

- Bromcom permissions have very limited standard roles, you need to create a lot of custom ones just to get normal job operations up and running.

 

- Online payments are possible from the Bromcom Parent App. We are getting this integrated with Biostore tills.

 

- Data migration has been good overall but missing assessment data has come up as the main issue.

 

- Distributing parent app credentials seems very labour intensive. There is no "send to all" parent email button and I have been told Mail merging is the best way.

 

- Parent accounts bulk creation uses a weird random username which is very easy to forget I think. Its a shame Bromcom cant create the username as an email like our old system.

 

- Had to prompt our implementation manager to enable the Parent Portal and SMTP server features on our test install.

 

- Gmail didn't work with the SMTP server config but Office 365 did.

 

- Support has been great and fast when needed via their support portal.

 

I'll update again once we go live.

Edited July 3, 2020 by supportman

[paulkerton]

We've got Gmail working with Bromcom. I didn't configure it as it was before I took the role on, but anything we send through Bromcom relays through G Suite.

[supportman]

So we are about half way through the summer holidays and Bromcom is now our MIS after an easy enough migration. Its a live system now!!

 

Some of the things we've learned along the way:

 

- Both Wonde and Groupcall have cloud exporters which are easy enough to migrate to Bromcom. Both work as advertised with Bromcom.

 

- Migration was pretty painless but we are starting again with behavior and reporting

 

- Staff photos are stretched after the migration due to different aspect ratio

 

- The MCAS parent app is pretty poor on android, lots of parents complaining that the app crashes.

 

- The MCAS parent app works great on iOS

 

- The MCAS parent web page works well but its very confusing for parents onboarding as they have a separate username now which a lot of parents are confusing with the email address. Why can't it just be an email address to logon?

 

- No easy way to find out the parents who have not registered on the MCAS invite web page

 

- Bromcom permissions are quite complicated. They come with some standard roles but that doesn't seem to cover everything so you need to create more roles. We ended up just giving rights to our office staff with everything except for staff details and personnel.

 

Still loving Bromcom, its much better MIS than Sims in my opinion, even if it does have a few issues.

[paulkerton]

We're just about to enable the Google Sync with Bromcom. Just sorting a few issues out and we're going to be up and running! It's actually really quite simple to set up. Really impressed with how it works. It's also early days, so the functionality is only going to get better.

[cabezon1989]

You dont loose access to SIMS (if hosted onsite) when you stop paying the AE. Access to historical data shouldnt be an issue.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Has anyone considered getting a software company to develop their own MIS??? Surely it cant be that hard??!!

[timbo343]

We've got Gmail working with Bromcom. I didn't configure it as it was before I took the role on, but anything we send through Bromcom relays through G Suite.

Just be careful with this. We had it configuted through Gmail but the connection into Gmail with the service mailbox got cut around sending the first 80 emails.

[paulkerton]

Just be careful with this. We had it configuted through Gmail but the connection into Gmail with the service mailbox got cut around sending the first 80 emails.

It's been working for months. Never once had an issue with it.

[timbo343]

It's been working for months. Never once had an issue with it.

 

I'd be interested to know how and what you configured in Gsuite. I tried all sorts and everything i changed made no difference and the connection to Google kept dropping around 80 mail sends.

[aicrd]

Are you using Google's SMTP relay service or are you using a dedicated inbox? The SMTP relay is designed just for this purpose so that's the one you should be using