Arbor Recomendations

[ste_hendo]

Hi Folks,

I work for a MAT comprised of 3 Secondary schools & a primary. We are investigating alternatives to SIMS at the moment and are impressed with Arbor and how it automates certain data driven tasks at MAT level and it's general ease of use & looks.

 

I'm ideally looking for some first hand recommendations on how Arbor performs? Did your migration go smoothly? How are their training resources? etc...

Many Thanks, Steve

[nikaso]

Hi Folks,

I work for a MAT comprised of 3 Secondary schools & a primary. We are investigating alternatives to SIMS at the moment and are impressed with Arbor and how it automates certain data driven tasks at MAT level and it's general ease of use & looks.

 

I'm ideally looking for some first hand recommendations on how Arbor performs? Did your migration go smoothly? How are their training resources? etc...

Many Thanks, Steve

 

We are in a similar position, looking at SIMS to Arbor but want to hear some first hand opinions.

[LeMarchand]

My primary went SIMS to Arbor 2+ years ago and have never looked back. The head loves it (and the price) and is constantly singing its praises. I had to fire up the old SIMS server this week to try and find an old pupil (long story) and his comment was, "Oh God! I remember why I hated SIMS so much!".

 

Anyway, migration was quite smooth. There were a couple of ambiguous lines in the instructions and I think that we may have had to fire up SIMS a couple of times in the first few weeks to grab something. I imagine that these niggles have now been ironed out, but will be able to confirm soon as my Junior is moving to Arbor.

 

Best thing from my point of view is that I've never had any questions about Arbor since those first few weeks, so it's obviously running smoothly and easy to use! As I only do a few hours at that Primary this is great for me - I don't even have a log on. At the Junior I have more responsibilities, so will have a log on and hope to set up something to automatically let me know when new people are added.

[Ditto]

Hopefully this is still on topic. What was the arrangement to retain access to SIMS post go-live. Is it a read-only license? Is it costly? How long do you plan on keeping the old SIMS data and need access?

[DODICT]

sims is licensed for updates - so you can keep a version running for evermore to access archive data at no cost.

[LeMarchand]

Hopefully this is still on topic. What was the arrangement to retain access to SIMS post go-live. Is it a read-only license? Is it costly? How long do you plan on keeping the old SIMS data and need access?

 

TBH, I didn't even think of those implications and just assumed that it was like most software in that if you stop paying, you don't get support or updates.

 

Assuming this is/was OK...

 

Just left the SIMS VM on for a couple of months and it worked fine. Then turned it off until this week when it didn't want to work "normally" as we obviously hadn't (and probably couldn't/shouldn't have) up to date details. Managed to get the info we needed by running a report, though.

 

What I'd like to do soon is just replicate the VM to a spare disk (to gain space on the host) and then dispose of the disk after a few years.

 

Not sure when Arbor are planning on doing my Junior, but I could ask if they now pull all SIMS data - which would obviate the need for ever using it again.

 

sims is licensed for updates - so you can keep a version running for evermore to access archive data at no cost.

 

Phew!

Edited November 4, 2020 by LeMarchand

[DODICT]

Very much doubt they will pull in everything for all years from my experience and your obligated to keep student's educational record till their 25 and longer for SEN info etc so you'll need it available albeit not immediately after that initial phase of ensuring everything is in your new MIS and the occasional integrity check. Its nice to jump back into SIMS and other legacy apps every now and then go 'OH MY GOD' why on earth did we stick with this so long, I cant believe it just took me 25 mins to get the app launched and a simple piece of info extracted ! Especially at Primary the insights you can get (rather than simply raw data) out of the box with Arbor, in a pleasant intuitive interface is a game changer. But when the market leading 'game' hasn't moved forward in a decade it damn well should be.

[Ditto]

I hadn't realised SIMS provided a perpetual license -that helps a lot! If you are hosted, I guess that's another thing to consider. As part of the migration from SIMS, I guess how far back you go needs to be part of the contract. I would think for an all-through school (with 6th form), it could be 9 years worth of data! As minimum, I guess you'd need at least all the previous academic year data, if only for census reasons which can include some retrospective data. I'm a bit rusty on this, but might be true for staff records too. Edited November 4, 2020 by Ditto

[DODICT]

most offer 3 - 4 which is fine but you just need to be aware. my latest migration we didnt actually migrate any assessment data as we have it in our analysis package and just started a fresh which made setup up a lot easier and cleaner. so its well worth thinking about what you actually need dont assume you need it all especailly when in some cases it can cause added work or issues in the new MIS - and ensure you talk to your DPO as may actually be obligated to remove some info and its a good point to review.

[ste_hendo]

Thanks for the feedback guys. We had a deep dive day with Arbor yesterday. Had 40 staff members across 4 schools on a 5 hour Zoom call (yes it was a long day!) They went through the various modules & components. It seemed to be pretty well received and I think the few doubters had their concerns assuaged.

[DODICT]

Thanks for the feedback guys. We had a deep dive day with Arbor yesterday. Had 40 staff members across 4 schools on a 5 hour Zoom call (yes it was a long day!) They went through the various modules & components. It seemed to be pretty well received and I think the few doubters had their concerns assuaged.

Good to hear. I'm yet to hear of someone getting to that point and not being happy that changing is absolutely the right decision. Its unfortunate that the doubters often stop the process even being started or getting to that point.

 

Also too often get hung up on the 1 or 2 things that cant get replicated exactly and ignore the 101 things you can do better or couldn't do before . . .

 

Best of luck with the process I'm confident you'll be in a lot better place in 12 months if you make the change if not sooner !

[CyBeRkId2002]

Just a thought but have you held a tender day? It was the most useful thing we did, getting key stakeholders across the school togethee to see what all software providers can provide. We invited 3 of the big players (Bromcom, who ended up being our preferred supplier, Arbor and iSams) along with what was our existing provider at the time (Capita).

 

It gave stakeholders real ownership over the project, provided a platform for them to ask questions relevant to their field and ultimately ensured that we chose the correct product to meet all of our needs.

 

Key factors for change for me are:

 

Don't try and replicate what you can do now and encourage others to do the same and think bigger - how can what this software offers benefit staff / learners

Don't be afraid of the change - it isn't as daunting as it seems and the migration is a doddle! Training is the key part but systems are so much more intuitive these days that even that isn't as big concern!