ESS SIMS 3 Year Contracts

[localzuk]

It took us about 2 months to research, demo and test them and make our decision. With tools like G Cloud 12, the pricing side was easy.

 

People just have to be decisive tbh. We go live on 28th March with Bromcom for out 6 schools.

[paulkerton]

"Our 'Next Gen Project' will allow SIMS to evolve continuously with ever improving capabilities that add value to your investment in SIMS. It will be delivered seamlessly, without disruption. Our investment in the future of school MIS will begin to deliver from Q1 2022"

 

From Q1 2022 we will also be offering enhanced browser-based access to all existing SIMS features, giving even more schools a cost effective and performant alternative to SIMS on premise.

Q1 2022 ends in 28 days. Has anyone who is sticking with SIMS seen any delivery on this yet?

Edited March 3, 2022 by paulkerton

[BKGarry]

"Our 'Next Gen Project' will allow SIMS to evolve continuously with ever improving capabilities that add value to your investment in SIMS. It will be delivered seamlessly, without disruption. Our investment in the future of school MIS will begin to deliver from Q1 2022"

 

Q1 2022 ends in 28 days. Has anyone who is sticking with SIMS seen any delivery on this yet?

 

Let's hope that the change to the sign up process for SIMS Options online is not what they are referring too, as it was so so so painful this year, more that other years.

[Scifigirl]

Originally Posted by BKGarry View Post

So, new letter sent out to Kent Schools, which are still on the LEA License, they (KCC) have now decided to keep the LEA License for the next 2 years in order to setup a Working Group in Jan 2023 to assess what is on the market

 

Just to say the Kent Schools one also includes a working party on the replacement Finance system-- so no-one will get stuck with paying for just FMS from ESS either.

 

So the long term purchasing process makes sense.

[BKGarry]

Just to say the Kent Schools one also includes a working party on the replacement Finance system-- so no-one will get stuck with paying for just FMS from ESS either.

 

So the long term purchasing process makes sense.

 

I think they have actually come up with a good solution, after basically going, hey, we are pulling it.

[Cheesywolf]

This is on the ESS SIMS blog from 17th December

 

'Back at base we are all very excited to see new development teams being created. In the first part of 2022 we will start to see customers using our new hosted SIMS7 platform ‘SIMS Connected’ where you can easily, quickly and reliably use a web browser from any computer or device to access SIMS7. This is a perfect solution where schools want to remove the need for locally installed applications and on-premise databases, but want to continue to use the most developed and feature rich MIS in the market. Our NextGen slices will also start to be released, firstly for take register and MAT reporting, but we are already working on the next two slices in the Learner Record and Assessment with even more plans through 2022.'

 

I've registered an interest in the project and highlighted the register taking as an area of interest but haven't heard anything back yet!

[BKGarry]

In the first part of 2022 we will start to see customers using our new hosted SIMS7 platform ‘SIMS Connected’ where you can easily, quickly and reliably use a web browser from any computer or device to access SIMS7.

 

So SIMS hosted on a Remote Desktop server running Server 2019 or above so it is using the HTML5 interface.

[Boredguy]

As above, hopefully not their current "online" offering of Remote Desktop Services.. but I doubt it since it would require a lot of work to create a proper web only version of SIMS (or even a subset of it)

[BKGarry]

I think these "next gen" slices will be the true online stuff, but with my experience of SIMS Options Online this year, I wouldn't hold my breath on it being a smooth transition.

[DavidYoung]

So SIMS hosted on a Remote Desktop server running Server 2019 or above so it is using the HTML5 interface.

My guess would be Ericom Connect RDP HTML client as I have seen they use this to run SIMS for online training sessions. Same principle though.

 

When I spoke to our account manager after learning of the contract changes (that seems a long time ago now), they were insistent that it wasn't remote desktop but I'm sure it is as all the info says it is the same product and experience as currently.

[supportman]

I think these "next gen" slices will be the true online stuff, but with my experience of SIMS Options Online this year, I wouldn't hold my breath on it being a smooth transition.

 

One of the reasons we jumped ship from Sims was that I couldn't see a "Migration path" away from their legacy software.

 

Thats why startups always win in the end, legacy companies can't just throw everything out and build something better.

[mthomas08]

One of the reasons we jumped ship from Sims was that I couldn't see a "Migration path" away from their legacy software.

 

Thats why startups always win in the end, legacy companies can't just throw everything out and build something better.

 

Same + the 3 year sign up or leave attitude.

 

I don't see them offering a new version anytime soon with all the modules/bits SIMs.net has.

[riverphoenix12]

Has anyone tried Ed:Gen?

 

We have received their tender and a demo of their product, which seems to blow them all out of the water. Very comprehensive in terms of features, far better interface than Bromcom, and seems to replicate every feature of SIMS in a much better way. Oh, and the cost is significantly cheaper.

[paulkerton]

Has anyone tried Ed:Gen?

 

We have received their tender and a demo of their product, which seems to blow them all out of the water. Very comprehensive in terms of features, far better interface than Bromcom, and seems to replicate every feature of SIMS in a much better way. Oh, and the cost is significantly cheaper.

 

It's iSAMS rejigged for state sector. They have so few customers currently that their pricing has to be aggressive.

[supportman]

Has anyone tried Ed:Gen?

We have received their tender and a demo of their product, which seems to blow them all out of the water. Very comprehensive in terms of features, far better interface than Bromcom, and seems to replicate every feature of SIMS in a much better way. Oh, and the cost is significantly cheaper.

 

When we looked at iSams for state (I think the pre-cursor to this) it was OK, but bromcom and arbor was a lot better in terms of functionality for our needs.

 

It may have changed though in the last few years. They only had 16 or so schools signed up which put us off a little.

 

Regarding the interface it wasnt great when we looked, not even responsive.

[riverphoenix12]

Thanks

It definitely seems to have changed a lot. VERY responsive.

[mthomas08]

Has anyone tried Ed:Gen?

 

We have received their tender and a demo of their product, which seems to blow them all out of the water. Very comprehensive in terms of features, far better interface than Bromcom, and seems to replicate every feature of SIMS in a much better way. Oh, and the cost is significantly cheaper.

 

For us:

-unable to link to EduLink

-no homework function/reporting

-unable to migrate SIMs docs

 

There were a few other minor things but that was 2 months ago now (I think it was the future development).

[Ditto]

I looked at iSAMS about 3 or 4 years ago for a state school that modelled itself on independent school sector. It was a broad product which we felt we could use, but it was way out of our price requirements and we stayed with progresso. I see they label themselves as fully cloud. I'd be interested to know how fully cloud it really is.

[Ditto]

For us:

-unable to link to EduLink

-no homework function/reporting

-unable to migrate SIMs docs

 

There were a few other minor things but that was 2 months ago now (I think it was the future development).

Out of interest, would you need Edulink if you were (I presume) leaving SIMS? For the homework function, I can see that's an issue. Do you know if SIMS, Bromcom, Arbor have this? Migration of SIMS docs - I'm surprised they didn't offer a solution here. If I recall correctly, you can use SSRS with iSAMS, so even if it was a sizeable task, you'd think they could build dedicate reports for anything not adequately covered in standard reporting.

[mthomas08]

We're heading to Bromcom, at the moment we need to keep EduLink - one in particular part is parents evening and ease of it.

 

Once we go live, we can have a look at it more in detail. We don't want to just scrap everything and have multiple brand new systems overnight.

 

We have others to consider: ParentPay / PSFinancials / Asset Management & Library system to put all under 1 roof (my main goal). If they can replace EduLink, even better (which will be a shame - it's been fantastic).

 

At the moment, I don't want to consider signing up to other platforms unless necessary.

[supportman]

Once we go live, we can have a look at it more in detail. We don't want to just scrap everything and have multiple brand new systems overnight.

 

We have others to consider: ParentPay / PSFinancials / Asset Management & Library system to put all under 1 roof (my main goal). If they can replace EduLink, even better (which will be a shame - it's been fantastic).

 

Thats an interesting point as everyone's migration path is different of course, but just from our experience we moved overnight to a new MIS, cashless catering and payments and parent portal and it worked pretty well. We had tested for a month prior to that to make sure all systems worked and were integrated.

 

We moved at easter time so it wasnt too crazy other than sending out emails to parents with new portal credentials. It really helped that Bromcom has a parent portal and cashless catering payments inbuilt so there was a single system for that. Parents took it up pretty quickly as did students with their own portal.

[riverphoenix12]

Has anyone (or does anyone know of) a nice functionality comparison table which looks at each MIS product vs SIMS?

 

We have had a few demos. Quite impressed with EdGen (iSams 2.0) but cannot find many state secondary schools using it. On the plus side they provide a 12 month contract.

 

I don't love Bromcom's interface when you compare it with Arbor, but admitedly, their functionality is better.

 

Timing to move is always an issue, particularly when you are limited to the break clause rules of SIMS.

[paulkerton]

Has anyone (or does anyone know of) a nice functionality comparison table which looks at each MIS product vs SIMS?

 

We have had a few demos. Quite impressed with EdGen (iSams 2.0) but cannot find many state secondary schools using it. On the plus side they provide a 12 month contract.

 

I don't love Bromcom's interface when you compare it with Arbor, but admitedly, their functionality is better.

 

Timing to move is always an issue, particularly when you are limited to the break clause rules of SIMS.

 

We've had this discussion before. The problem is that every MIS's feature set is different to the point where it becomes difficult to directly compare them.

For example both Arbor and Bromcom have tools available directly in them that are only available as third-party tools. There are comms tools in all three, but they all act slightly differently. I'm sure somewhere in this thread someone attempted a matrix though.

 

I like Arbor's interface but I prefer Bromcom's look. I wish Arbor had some other colour options in it. Not sure a lot of brown is my thing. It's why I've never been a huge Ubuntu guy!

[mthomas08]

Has anyone (or does anyone know of) a nice functionality comparison table which looks at each MIS product vs SIMS?

 

We have had a few demos. Quite impressed with EdGen (iSams 2.0) but cannot find many state secondary schools using it. On the plus side they provide a 12 month contract.

 

I don't love Bromcom's interface when you compare it with Arbor, but admitedly, their functionality is better.

 

Timing to move is always an issue, particularly when you are limited to the break clause rules of SIMS.

 

I've got an excel sheet that compares modules of Bromcom/Arbor/EdGen - obviously this doesn't compare the specifics like the alert/patrol system which SIMs has & Bromcom is a few steps behind.

[riverphoenix12]

This sounds amazing. Are you able to share a copy? It would be really helpful as an overview?