Procurement process

[ASA-Simon]

I have been pushing the school I work at to look at moving away from SIMS and the many many add-on products we currently have.

 

I've had to get multiple quotes many times in the past for things but this is significantly more complicated.

 

We've had a couple of demos so far of Bromcom and Arbor. I've got a demo of Compass schedules for June.

 

I would be interested to know what the process and steps have been from others to get a school from the interested stage to finally signing off on ordering.

 

Have you used a framework like G-Cloud? Any experience required or was it a relatively simple process?

 

Thanks

[djm968]

Had to get 5 Schools to ditch their existing MIS and go to a cloud based system.

 

I found it much easier to concentrate on "selling" the benefits e.g. cost, anywhere access, no on-prem server hardware, security. etc etc. Cloud also made much more sense for a MAT, with MIS data for all Schools available in one place, which made it much easier as I was able to "sell" this to the CEO and get them to "drive" it.

 

My only word of caution would be that a cloud MIS, may not be the "silver bullet" you were hoping it would be. We found a few shortcomings with our cloud MIS and had to use other cloud solutions to fill the gaps. Then again this was a MAT, so it was a bit like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. As someone once said, “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”

Edited May 2, 2023 by djm968

[Chris_Cook]

I believe we used G-Cloud, although it was my line manager who did that.

 

I would echo what djm968 said - get SLT onside, and get input from all your key users. There is a lot more to an MIS that just looking up data - there's behavior, timetabling, Personnel/HR, payments and cashless, parent comms and much more. This is probably one of the largest/most complex projects a school can do, as it links in to every aspect of school management.

 

I'd argue that just looking at the cost is a mistake as if it doesn't work, your staff will spend many hours working round things if you don't get this decision right. The tendering process is also going to take a lot of time for a lot of staff.

 

Sims is by no means perfect, and I still think its a good idea to move away from it, but you probably have most of your systems working so you want to make sure the move doesn't cause interruptions.

 

Although we've had a lot of struggles, I do think we are on the right path. Moving to another MIS can be done surprisingly quickly, but making it fit the way the school works takes time. You are also taking many years of experience with Sims and trying to get everyone to the same point with the new system in a very short period of time. Arbor certainly seem open to suggestions for improvements, but these can take time to develop, so this might also need to be factored into your project. I suspect other MIS providers will be willing to do similar.

 

Its also worth engaging with the training that other MIS providers give. We've found a number of issues have been due to staff not having the required training.

[maxbradley]

We're in the process of moving over and using GCloud to do so. Definitely brush up on the GCloud provisions before you begin because the MIS you speak to will not necessarily make the process compliant if you don't. You'll need to do a search of the GCloud database and pursue all the results. You don't want to go through the process with Arbor, Bromcom and Compass and get to the end to discover that Ed:Gen exists as well, and they need to be fairly evaluated.

 

I'd also recommend building in opportunities for staff to contribute to the procurement process. We did demo days that anyone could attend, and collected feedback, then we did focus groups to gauge ease-of-use. The upshot is that it feels more of a collaborative move than a change mandated from on high, you will actually generate useful insight, and the salespeople of the respective MIS are probably much better at selling their MIS than you might be.

 

As Chris said above, cost won't be the deciding factor partly because there are benefits in users time to using a new system, but also because a newer MIS will likely replace more than just SIMS. There is an ecosystem of third-party services that give SIMS cloud-like functionalities (e.g. ClassCharts) and you're likely using some of these. A new MIS will replace these as well, so the price should take into account all of the services it replaces, not just SIMS.

[localzuk]

We used G-Cloud for our procurement due to the size of the contract, and the fact that using the framework allowed us to avoid a full tender type process. It was a very simple process - but is a bit different to that which most of us are used to.

 

You don't go out for quotes/bids. Instead, you determine your spec for how you'll choose your result, do a search on the system, which identifies options, you then you compare to your spec. You get the prices from the list prices on the G-Cloud site and build your own pricing model to compare.

 

The companies involved aren't allowed to actually send you a quote - or at least they weren't under G-Cloud 12 when we ordered.

[vikpaw]

Given some of the recent difficulties with the process using a framework seems to be a good approach however it’s worth seeking legal advice and consulting the board / LA / governors etc. and make sure it’s well considered and planned from the top down so you don’t end up wearing any blame.

As others have said, moving isn’t as big a deal as people used to think but you don’t want to take the wrong direction.

You really want to get buy-in on the idea of the change from high up so that the decision is already made and the choice is which one to pick. If you’re doing the convincing and encouraging them to look at options then it’s going to be tough.

After seeing compass you might want a review of the what the school’s inclination is to change and then draw up a firm plan of how to properly draw up your requirements and evaluate each company, get internal stakeholders more involved and do follow up demos focussed on your specific criteria.

[localzuk]

Given some of the recent difficulties with the process using a framework seems to be a good approach however it’s worth seeking legal advice and consulting the board / LA / governors etc. and make sure it’s well considered and planned from the top down so you don’t end up wearing any blame.

Oh, absolutely. We paid specifically for our legal team to check and double check every aspect of the process, including going through the contract to ensure we didn't have anything that'd bite us. Cost us a bit on top of the process, but I think with any high value process like this it is a necessity these days.

[garbage46]

I have just started conversations with Everything ICT to support our MIS procurement process. I have been impressed with their guidance and resources so far.

 

Check out the gov.uk Find a DfE approved framework for your school tool

[ASA-Simon]

I have just started conversations with Everything ICT to support our MIS procurement process. I have been impressed with their guidance and resources so far.

 

Check out the gov.uk Find a DfE approved framework for your school tool

 

Thanks for the recommendation. They look to offer a bit more help and guidance than going through G-Cloud.