Options for LA schools moving away from SIMS? Questions...

[Japtastic]

I work for two LA schools that are federated and both use SIMS/FMS. The question came up in a meeting about the possibility of moving away from SIMS. For anyone that has gone through this process for LA schools could you answer some questions? Also what MIS system you moved to and how it was received?

 

 

• Is there any info about the data transfer from SIMS we need to be aware of? Does anything get missed etc?

 

• How do CTF’s IN AND OUT work + Census etc? Does this cause issues for the LA or School if not using SIMS?

 

• I don’t know how much integration there is with SIMS and FMS at the moment because I don’t use the systems but is there anything to be aware of that being separate if we moved away from SIMS?

 

• Anything else you can think of that we need to be aware of?

 

Thanks

[mavhc]

In general a) lots of things get missed out. b) the new MIS should support those things, c) is there anything they use that magically knows all the pupils/teachers?

 

Main issue is what finance systems your LA will accept, ask them.

[Japtastic]

Thanks

[supportman]

I work for two LA schools that are federated and both use SIMS/FMS. The question came up in a meeting about the possibility of moving away from SIMS. For anyone that has gone through this process for LA schools could you answer some questions? Also what MIS system you moved to and how it was received? • Is there any info about the data transfer from SIMS we need to be aware of? Does anything get missed etc?

• How do CTF’s IN AND OUT work + Census etc? Does this cause issues for the LA or School if not using SIMS?

• I don’t know how much integration there is with SIMS and FMS at the moment because I don’t use the systems but is there anything to be aware of that being separate if we moved away from SIMS?

• Anything else you can think of that we need to be aware of?

 

We are an academy but still quite close to the LEA as well, we recently moved from Sims to Bromcom.

 

- The full current on roll Sims database + 5 years of historical records should be migrated as part of the onboarding procedure. Linked documents are not migrated but we archived them onto a fileshare using a free salamander tool.

- No issues, CTFs work as before in Sims as does the census (in fact the census is refreshingly easy compared to Sims).

- Shouldn't be too much at all. They are separate products.

- Loads of other little issues but on the whole our migration was pretty much painless and having a modern cloud MIS has helped the school a lot. Sims is now a distant memory and I feel sorry for anyone who still has to deal with its legacy product.

[paulkerton]

I wasn't there when the original move occurred, but we moved to Bromcom, and its very well liked overall, certainly more so than SIMS!

 

Just having the ability to access it off-site during the lockdowns was a massive boon. It's certainly going to help us moving to a cloud-only future!

 

Don't forget all the third-party and add-on tools you use when considering the move. Consider if the service is included in your alternatives. Add those to the pricing up of your alternatives too, as well as the price of servers and on-site and off-site backups for those servers, SQL licenses etc as you consider the shift.