Moving to SIMS - need a web "skin"

[NotSoFast]

I know, the first question will be "why?!"

 

We have to, as part of standardising on a single MIS across our trust. We are moving from Progresso, and will have hosted SIMS. I've been looking at ways we can soften the blow for staff, meaning that things like taking a register, viewing contact info, adding a behaviour event and writing reports can all continue to be done through a simple web interface. The goal is that perhaps only the cover person and the data manager ever need to fire up SIMS. For parents, the Progresso Portal has been pretty good, but the experience on mobile is poor and I hoped we could upgrade to a decent native app. We currently use 4Matrix for assessment analysis so could continue with that.

 

I've looked briefly at Class Charts, but it doesn't do the report writing (or much analysis, as far as I can see).

 

Edulink One looks great and would also cover lots of other systems we have, but there is no behaviour or attendance analysis so heads of year, heads of department and SLT would still need to access some kind of report in SIMS to get overview data (or use another product).

 

Go4Schools is expensive, but covers most of the bases. The interface is cluttered, in my view, and the product is still focused on assessment analysis and "feeding the data machine" - we only do 2 data drops a year. The apps get awful reviews and the parent web view doesn't seem to cover as much as Edulink One. In short, I think it does the job but doesn't move us forward or save us money.

 

So, my question is what others would recommend. I'd love to hear that we can create dashboards/scheduled email reports in SIMS that will satisfy HODs/HOYs/SLT, or that there is another (cheap) product I can mix with Edulink One to do the behaviour/attendance analysis. I'd be interested in whether Power BI is a realistic solution here - I've never used it but do know Google Data Studio. Or maybe there is another solution I haven't seen...

[Michael]

These kind of questions should have been asked at the procurement stage. I take it you weren't made part of these discussions?

[CyBeRkId2002]

Possibly joining an already existing trust that use SIMs?

[NotSoFast]

Possibly joining an already existing trust that use SIMs?

 

Yes. We have used Progresso for several years (moved from Facility and ePortal) but most schools in our trust are using SIMS, so we have to join them. We have been with the trust for a couple of years, but our Progresso contract runs out in Jan 2022. We don't have a choice about moving to SIMS, but we can choose to buy additional systems.

[Scifigirl]

going the other way-- wanting to make SIms more friendly and accessible to teachers until we can change away from sims (waiting for LEA procurement to make up its mind0) and also replacing parent mail I looked at these 2

 

edulink https://www.overnetdata.com/edulink-one/

 

weduc https://www.weduc.com/ not sure on the analysis- as we have a specialised system for behaviour (special school, SIMS doesn't cut it)

 

don't know what your looking at but these may help.

 

oh - we went with weduc

[NotSoFast]

going the other way-- wanting to make SIms more friendly and accessible to teachers until we can change away from sims (waiting for LEA procurement to make up its mind0) and also replacing parent mail I looked at these 2

 

edulink https://www.overnetdata.com/edulink-one/

 

weduc https://www.weduc.com/ not sure on the analysis- as we have a specialised system for behaviour (special school, SIMS doesn't cut it)

 

don't know what your looking at but these may help.

 

oh - we went with weduc

 

Never heard of Weduc, but I will look. At first glance it seems to just be a parent app, but I always appreciate new leads!

[cw222]

I know TASC offer PARS as a web front end for SIMS and Insight as a parent portal. I can't vouch for their efficacy anymore, as it's been a while since I've used them, but they seemed to be allong the lines of what you're looking for.

[ChrisH]

We use School Synergy - A Complete School System with SIMS. Doesn't do reports (yet) but we use it for registers/behaviour/Homework/Messaging/SEN/Parent Portal. They are currently working on adding assessment and an app. For custom dashboards you can access the data in something like Power BI but this is limited at the moment but certainly all behaviour, attendance etc only bugbear is Power BI licensing for wide spread use! It's been a very welcome relief to off load most of what the teachers do to this and not rely on the main SIMS client anymore.

[Edu-IT]

I know TASC offer PARS as a web front end for SIMS and Insight as a parent portal. I can't vouch for their efficacy anymore, as it's been a while since I've used them, but they seemed to be allong the lines of what you're looking for.

They do a product called Talaxy which might tick all your boxes.

 

https://www.tascsoftware.co.uk/software-titles/talaxy/

 

I've used PARS and Insight before, they were both very good, but Talaxy is their latest product offering.

 

Features include:• MIS key performance data• Visual graphs with demographic filter• Chronological timeline of actions and events• School calendar• Registers & attendance management• Timetabling• Broadcast, email, SMS, Push-note• Behaviour management• Automated reporting• Attendance & behaviour notifications• Lesson plans• Parents’ evening booking• Room & resource booking• Seating plans• Homework management• Student resource document server• Exam timetables• Coursework• Personal information updates, collected, validated• Image gallery• Interactive forms• Noticeboards• Staff absence reporting• Invigilation timetable• Assessment Manager read/write• Grade analysis

 

https://www.tascsoftware.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/TASC-TALAXY-Leaflet-2019.pdf

[ITGURU]

We are a MAT with 3 sites running SIMS, each school has a local database and i've got the drop-down connection box on each machine so the users can login to whichever site they need to, and even run multiple copies of SIMS side by side on the machine. Off-site access is provided by remoteAPP.

[ful56_uk]

We are a MAT with 3 sites running SIMS, each school has a local database and i've got the drop-down connection box on each machine so the users can login to whichever site they need to, and even run multiple copies of SIMS side by side on the machine. Off-site access is provided by remoteAPP.

 

Apologies for being off topic, how do you achieve that with sims?

[Boredguy]

Apologies for being off topic, how do you achieve that with sims?

 

It's just in the connect.ini file, this thread has an example http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/219798-multiple-instances-sims-client-one-rds-server.html#post1881931

[ful56_uk]

It's just in the connect.ini file, this thread has an example http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/219798-multiple-instances-sims-client-one-rds-server.html#post1881931

 

Nice one cheers, what’s the shortcut switch for running multiple sims.net instances?

[gh5000]

Nice one cheers, what’s the shortcut switch for running multiple sims.net instances?

After pulsar.exe put /MULTIINSTANCE

off the top of my head.

 

Yup found backup https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.edugeek.net/forums/enterprise-software/212575-sims-net-multiple-instances.html&ved=2ahUKEwjp3-KOnYHwAhXVoVwKHYZMAycQrAIoAHoECAUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3OlmminjE3LNG6ed0rf2fb

[LeeDrury]

Hi

 

Have you looked at Everest from Edu365? (https://www.edu365group.com/)

 

Its a web front end for SIMS that offers much more value thank EduLink as its a fully functioning parent portal too.

 

I worked with these guys when I was MIS Manager at Dulwich College International group. We replaced Edulink One with Everest and the and the feedback from staff was extremely positive therefore I can highly recommend them. Yhey are very accommodating and offer a fab product with excellent support, half of their team are ex-Capita employees so they know SIMS inside and out and the other half are SharePoint experts giving Everest a professional familiar look and feel with some great integrations to O365 and a full set of PowerBI dashboards. If my schools were set on using SIMS I would certainly be having a conversation with them to fill the gaps.

 

Check it out and please feel free to contact me for further information.

 

Lee

[supportman]

Edulink or Pars is the best "sticky plaster" to get on-top of Sims, but I would be knocking on the MAT IT strategy directors door about moving away from Sims. Its very outdated now.

[NotSoFast]

Edulink or Pars is the best "sticky plaster" to get on-top of Sims, but I would be knocking on the MAT IT strategy directors door about moving away from Sims. Its very outdated now.

I argued for a few months, but to no avail. I fully expect us to have to migrate again when the tanker turns.

[Bev]

We use the Sims Teacher App - which does require all staff to have an iPad, but it does attendance, contact details, behaviour and you can access Marksheets (although we don't use it for that so I don't know how easy it is to use.

 

We use it for Attendance and contact information and that works well. We use Class Charts for behaviour

[bobsmith]

The teacher app was great until they dropped android support.

 

The total cost of ownership of Teacher app now runs to the not particularly cheap licence fee to Capita + 120 ipads (if you don't already have them!)

 

We're already running loads of third party apps to fill in the gaps - but the sooner I can migrate us to something like Bromcomm the better...

[Bev]

The teacher app was great until they dropped android support.

 

The total cost of ownership of Teacher app now runs to the not particularly cheap licence fee to Capita + 120 ipads (if you don't already have them!)

 

We're already running loads of third party apps to fill in the gaps - but the sooner I can migrate us to something like Bromcomm the better...

 

Agreed, if you have to buy iPads as well then it's a non starter.

[Jayem]

TALAXY from TASC Software will do everything you need.