Is anyone else struggling with Arbor as much as we are?

[sefton]

Constant issues at the moment, the site is so slow to update any changes to registers and enrolments at times.

[foofighterjim]

Constant issues at the moment, the site is so slow to update any changes to registers and enrolments at times.

 

There is a service issue today: https://status.arbor-education.com/

[robjduk]

Just to chip in, my school is looking to move away from SIMS and Arbor was high on the list. This was until my child's school moved to it and I got to experience it as a parent. Making you sign in each time along with no face ID or fingerprint sign-in is poor form. Also trying to use the website on a phone to find it's not formatted for mobile browsers just shows it's not the MIS to move to for us.

[steveg]

Just to chip in, my school is looking to move away from SIMS and Arbor was high on the list. This was until my child's school moved to it and I got to experience it as a parent. Making you sign in each time along with no face ID or fingerprint sign-in is poor form. Also trying to use the website on a phone to find it's not formatted for mobile browsers just shows it's not the MIS to move to for us.

 

I would say that the parent app is awful in comparison to the core product, they definitely need to work on the ui in the app but it certainly isn't a reflection of the rest of the product.

[RobFuller]

I've been watching this thread closely as we go live in January! We are not going to use the parent app based on our own experience in testing and the feedback from others, thankfully Edulink are making brilliant efforts in supporting increased Arbor integration so we can keep with the 'same' platform though parents must get new logins, but this seems a minor blip compared to using the native app. Not having online parents evening was a big showstopper for us.

[sefton]

Just to chip in, my school is looking to move away from SIMS and Arbor was high on the list. This was until my child's school moved to it and I got to experience it as a parent. Making you sign in each time along with no face ID or fingerprint sign-in is poor form. Also trying to use the website on a phone to find it's not formatted for mobile browsers just shows it's not the MIS to move to for us.

 

I know that logging in with biometrics is being launched next term.

[RobFuller]

Just to chip in, my school is looking to move away from SIMS and Arbor was high on the list. This was until my child's school moved to it and I got to experience it as a parent. Making you sign in each time along with no face ID or fingerprint sign-in is poor form. Also trying to use the website on a phone to find it's not formatted for mobile browsers just shows it's not the MIS to move to for us.

 

Touch and Face ID is coming shortly so I'm told, not enough to make us use it but still..

 

Edit: @sefton snap

Edited December 14, 2022 by RobFuller

[ABR82]

As a recent mover to Arbor, I'd agree with you that timetabling integration with Edval could be better, but that is a once a year thing to do. Having said that, I did make a timetable with Edval and import it without any problems, which wasn't bad for a first time timetabler (I'd been modifying/maintaining things in Nova/SIMS for years, but previously another member of staff was responsible for making the timetable itself). There is definitely room for improvement, and I look forward to seeing better integration (particularly if Arbor could write back changes you make into Edval) Changing staff/lesson times through the year works quite well within Arbor. The little delay between you making the changes and them actually taking effect is irritating, but once I'd realised that was what happened it was better (at first I'd change some kids classes, then click on their calendar and wonder why it hadn't worked, go to do it again, then check their calendar and wonder why half of it had changed....). A bit more speed on that sort of thing would certainly help.

 

I would definitely agree that assigning students to courses was vastly easier/better in SIMS, particularly where you would right click on each option band and pick from the available choices, where you could see the teacher and class numbers whilst choosing. It is the only bit that really stands out to me as being much better in SIMS.

 

Being unable to report/export attendance properly using custom report writer for clubs and interventions is a glaring shortcoming, but SIMS didn't even give us anything for interventions in any case. Interventions have been invaluable from a safeguarding point of view in terms of tracking when/where students are out of lessons. I think it is a really nice bit of functionality to use, just spoiled a bit by the reporting end.

 

So far as the Parent App goes, I'm not sure it really offers anything more than the website, and I'd agree that the web interface is pretty rubbish in mobile view - I always put it into desktop mode and zoom in. However, compared to the massive chew on with parents having constant issues with the SIMS parent app and its multitude of different ways to log in and forget how you logged in, I swear about 5% of my workload was gone just from not having to deal with SIMS Parent App issues (I personally didn't find it difficult at all, having set myself up a dummy parent account to test/monitor issues, but our parents clearly found it awful). Being able to log in as a parent with 2 clicks is wonderful, and giving that to our reception staff has really helped them see what the parent is looking at to talk through problems when the parent cannot find their way to do things. We have had a lot of trouble with emails sent from within Arbor going into parental junk/spam, but we're trying to do something about that.

 

Overall, after 9 months, I'm very happy that we moved. Its the little things - I can set off a census run, then duplicate the tab and get on with something else, or have 3 different instances open on each screen looking at different things that I find really useful. I've done a few nice things with live data exports and excel to give staff constantly updating reporting on things - the built in reporting does what it does, and in it's own way only, but being able to pull live data out allows you to configure your own reporting solutions to suit your needs.

Another school in our trust moved at the same time as us and have found it harder, I suspect because they didn't have any one person driving the change and helping/training/easing things. For me, the workload was pretty heavy because I was (and still am) essentially the single point of call for answers/solutions/help, but that has lightened significantly since October. What I would say is that for the most part the help files in Arbor are actually pretty useful - after years of never bothering to click help in software because it was always utterly worthless, the Arbor ones are surprisingly decent. Not perfect, and sometimes if you're trying to do something a bit more technical they're not so great, but for day to day stuff they're useful for staff to find their own answers.

 

Can't comment about payments as we don't do those in Arbor - we'd time to run on our parentpay deal and to be fair, though their website looks awful and their customer service/support is utterly abysmal, it works, and our parents and finance staff already knew how to use it, it isn't that expensive and sometimes it doesn't seem worthwhile pushing changes through!

[PotNoodleTech]

Very interesting as eyeing up Bromcom and Arbor here.

 

This isn't helping Arbors case - if we move we want the system to already be working perfectly - moving to a system that is "aaah yeah um we're working on it" is just not good enough. You wouldnt buy a new car with half the doors and wheels missing and accept "yeh working on it mate" as a response would you?

 

With software it seems all too common.

 

Question for the OP @DavidYoung did you just change systems or did you go out and get demos, visit other schools etc first?

[supportman]

Touch and Face ID is coming shortly so I'm told, not enough to make us use it but still..

 

I would argue that the Parent apps, Teacher Attendance features and cashless payments are the 3 biggest things for an MIS to get right from a schools point of view.

 

We have Bromcom here and all of them are excellent, particularly the mychildatschool app.

 

There are of course other areas that don't compare so well, but its all about priorities. Arbor seem quite slow in developing the core missing bits of their systems.

 

Face ID is easy enough to implement by a good app developer and has been out for 5 years now...

Edited January 27, 2023 by supportman

[synaesthesia]

 

This isn't helping Arbors case - if we move we want the system to already be working perfectly - moving to a system that is "aaah yeah um we're working on it" is just not good enough. You wouldnt buy a new car with half the doors and wheels missing and accept "yeh working on it mate" as a response would you?

 

Question for the OP @DavidYoung did you just change systems or did you go out and get demos, visit other schools etc first?

 

"I'd like to buy this Ford please?"

 

"Are you sure? Vauxhall's legal team would like a word...."

 

(sorry, couldn't resist)

[PotNoodleTech]

"I'd like to buy this Ford please?"

 

"Are you sure? Vauxhall's legal team would like a word...."

 

(sorry, couldn't resist)

 

When you put it like that - it does sound farcical!

[Ditto]

It's clear from elsewhere in these forums, both Arbor and Bromcom are not perfect (other MIS are available). There have been repeated reports about access and slowness problems with Bromcom and then there is this thread for Arbor. What's challegening is weighing each up in terms of what support is going to look like and what future progress and investment is going to look like. Both products have surged in recent years so I think it's reasonable to expect some growing pains, but it's how well, and how quickly those are dealt with that's important. I think that's a really hard thing to do, and to do so in a legally tight tendering way, even more so. The point about going out to schools and speaking them is a really important one. My last significant role was running Progresso. I came to it after they started to improve it massively from what I learnt was a disastrous report. Their market share has collapsed since and ultimately, I think they never recovered from the launch. But one good thing I recall is that there was a Progresso User Group, that was initially supported by Advanced, but not dictated too. Do either Arbor or Bromcom have user groups where you can meet, share experiences, support each other and ultimately provide strong and constructive feedback to the software provider?

[synaesthesia]

A very wise idea @Ditto - Arbor have already shown willingness to communicate and listen, and that could certainly help prioritise areas that they perhaps may not view as important as a school.

[AlistairB1983]

It's clear from elsewhere in these forums, both Arbor and Bromcom are not perfect (other MIS are available). There have been repeated reports about access and slowness problems with Bromcom and then there is this thread for Arbor. What's challegening is weighing each up in terms of what support is going to look like and what future progress and investment is going to look like. Both products have surged in recent years so I think it's reasonable to expect some growing pains, but it's how well, and how quickly those are dealt with that's important. I think that's a really hard thing to do, and to do so in a legally tight tendering way, even more so. The point about going out to schools and speaking them is a really important one. My last significant role was running Progresso. I came to it after they started to improve it massively from what I learnt was a disastrous report. Their market share has collapsed since and ultimately, I think they never recovered from the launch. But one good thing I recall is that there was a Progresso User Group, that was initially supported by Advanced, but not dictated too. Do either Arbor or Bromcom have user groups where you can meet, share experiences, support each other and ultimately provide strong and constructive feedback to the software provider?

My last school (left November 2021) used Arbor and I wasn't aware of any user groups (although there was the option to reply to help topics/similar forum type posts, but not a full on help group) - however I did have an extremely strong working relationship with a couple of their customer support advisors who I was able to contact to get the vast majority of my issues quickly resolved. They even came out on site on a couple of occasions to assist in setting up bigger things (assessments for example) so that they did what we wanted.

 

I was also fortunate enough to have quite a lengthy and in-depth conversation with James (CEO) at an Arborfest event they ran in 2020 (just before everything stopped!) where I was able to tell him what my priorities were coming at it from a Data Manager in a secondary school. Most of the features I was asking for/complaining about were already on Arbor's progress map, and from what I understand (wife still works at the previous school) most have now been implemented or are very soon to be rolled out.

 

As you've said, it's definitely not perfect - when I first started using it I would frequently pull my hair out in frustration! But the more time they spend developing it, the more honed and refined it's becoming. To the point that when my current school leaves SIMS (hopefully soon!) it will be the MIS I push for, although bearing in mind other recent threads, this will all be done completely above board as I don't like lawyers!

[mthomas08]

I would argue that the Parent apps, Teacher Attendance features and cashless payments are the 3 biggest things for an MIS to get right from a schools point of view.

 

We have Bromcom here and all of them are excellent, particularly the mychildatschool app.

 

 

Disagree. Once signed on and using MCAS = good.

The sign up process though has far too many of our parents confused.

 

If they wanted a good example system, try EduLinkOne - the process was easy for us and even easier to continue pushing it out to parents with a pre-setup custom email all in the same screen. Their virtual parent meetings is brilliant and simple too.

 

We switched to MCAS early last year and still have parent problems today. We had to go elsewhere for a simple parent evening system because I am told the Bromcom one isn't as simple as it needs to be.

 

Also problems with kids suing the student app - apparently they are looking at all these systems to improve things.

 

Soon we will look at switching from ParentPay to MCAS for dinners etc but I'm not exactly holding my breath on how good the system is.

[mavhc]

How hard can it be to sign up? School has the parent's email, they log in with google/apple/microsoft, done.

[supportman]

Disagree. Once signed on and using MCAS = good.

The sign up process though has far too many of our parents confused.

 

If they wanted a good example system, try EduLinkOne - the process was easy for us and even easier to continue pushing it out to parents with a pre-setup custom email all in the same screen. Their virtual parent meetings is brilliant and simple too.

 

We switched to MCAS early last year and still have parent problems today. We had to go elsewhere for a simple parent evening system because I am told the Bromcom one isn't as simple as it needs to be.

 

Also problems with kids suing the student app - apparently they are looking at all these systems to improve things.

 

Soon we will look at switching from ParentPay to MCAS for dinners etc but I'm not exactly holding my breath on how good the system is.

 

I've just had a recent discussion with a Bromcom developer and they should be fixing all the MCAS login issues at the end of this quarter I believe or possibly Q2. It's actively being worked on.

 

Just to stay on topic, Both Arbor and Bromcom are rapidly fixing all these issues mentioned. You really can't go wrong with either of them.

 

Its worth keeping on saying this as there might be people sitting on Sims being scared off by this, don't be. Both systems are far superior.

[simpsonj]

How hard can it be to sign up? School has the parent's email, they log in with google/apple/microsoft, done.

 

Sadly not, parents have to sign in with a generated username, but almost all systems autofill the username with the parent's email. I've had to deal with a fair few of these requests since launching MCAS last week!

[DavidYoung]

Sorry for not being so active on this thread recently. I changed jobs at the start of this year (not because of Arbor!) so haven't been as involved but I am trying to keep in touch with my former colleagues to see what's going on.

 

Question for the OP @DavidYoung did you just change systems or did you go out and get demos, visit other schools etc first?

 

We engaged with both suppliers (Arbor and Bromcom) extensively and had lots of demos from them. We did speak to some schools, including @supportman, who was very helpful, but I don't think we did a particularly good job of finding very similar organisations, i.e. MATs with primary and secondary and sixth form, ideally, with shared teaching across schools. I think this was mainly due to the time constraints placed upon us by a certain incumbent supplier...

 

Its worth keeping on saying this as there might be people sitting on Sims being scared off by this, don't be. Both systems are far superior.

 

I think this is true and will become more true in the long-term. I maintain that this was the correct strategic decision and will pay off in the coming years. Just a word of caution that cloud-based MISs are coming at the problems from a very different angle and require schools to think about modern approaches to administration. And training, support, training and support for users.

[Wubbalubbadub]

I think you have highlighted our same issues.

 

The biggest one for us, is the central finance reports. They are Absolutely shocking! There is no way to run reconciliation reports from the central trust portal. It has to be run on each school site.

This is all but put a stop to our trust finance team wanting to move to Arbor payments. Very frustrating!

[mavhc]

Sadly not, parents have to sign in with a generated username, but almost all systems autofill the username with the parent's email. I've had to deal with a fair few of these requests since launching MCAS last week!

 

Then they don't know what they're doing and you shouldn't give them money