WONDE "Data Management Licence"

[psydii]

They seem to have changed their marketing, previously trying to upsell from Basic (free to the school) to Premium (not free at all)...

 

We've just got an email from them stating that "your free period for Wonde is coming to an end, and an annual invoice of £360+VAT for your Data Management licence will be issued..." Unless I missed something, we never signed up for a free period of anything... Wonde is a service 3rd Parties use and pay for as part of their service to us.....

 

Has the (unwritten?) contract in this sector whereby the third parties pay for the data transfer and compliance service seems to been broken? Is Wonde running at a loss? Have we built a complex interconnected web of systems on top of something ephemeral as cloud?

[andy_b]

Not seen anything here - and nothing obious in the dashboard (apart from the Data recovery thing they tried to push before).

[psydii]

TBF We took them up on the Data Recovery piece. Having another method for getting the data when everything else has gone sideways seemed like a win-win.

[howartp]

See my post #17

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/232035-wonde-basic-vs-premium-2.html#post1990690

[psydii]

See my post #17

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/232035-wonde-basic-vs-premium-2.html#post1990690

 

Except in the email we received yesterday they've dropped the Basic/Premium branding, and worded things so to a naïve person reading it might believe we'll lose access to services we have come to rely upon if we don't pay. To be fair, it actually does read like they will cut of the GDPR compliance part of the service, which I do rely upon but has always felt part of their core offer.

[howartp]

A few schools have had various forms of letters on the general area of 'we are about to charge you' over recent months but I've still had nothing through from them (as the Wonde administrator here).

 

I wonder if it depends which 3rd party initially setup/registered your school with Wonde as to whether they subscribed you to something/anything/nothing, paid or otherwise?

[Koldov]

They seem to have changed their marketing, previously trying to upsell from Basic (free to the school) to Premium (not free at all)...

 

We've just got an email from them stating that "your free period for Wonde is coming to an end, and an annual invoice of £360+VAT for your Data Management licence will be issued..." Unless I missed something, we never signed up for a free period of anything... Wonde is a service 3rd Parties use and pay for as part of their service to us.....

 

Has the (unwritten?) contract in this sector whereby the third parties pay for the data transfer and compliance service seems to been broken? Is Wonde running at a loss? Have we built a complex interconnected web of systems on top of something ephemeral as cloud?

 

I guess it depends on what involvement you have with the Wonde platform and what you use it for. It doesn't do a great deal for us apart from transfer pupil's details to a cloud learning platform so they have a user account. We were asked to just download and install the WondeSIMSInstaller.exe (although iirc it did have a 'license' key) and the program sits on the server and does just that, we have no other interaction with Wonde. Is your situation like that? I'm just wondering what could have prompted them to email you a demand for payment?

Edited July 5, 2023 by Koldov

[psydii]

Yup, but pretty much every other system we use that needs to know about students also pulls through Wonde.

 

We also used them rather than edenred, but they were processing all that data already. They only service I have actually directly contracted with them for is the MIS 'backup'/disaster recovery option.

[DrCheese]

I had this today - Cheeky sods. You can't seriously get away with moving schools to a "free trial" of something & then sending them an invoice to carry on using it without having any official paperwork or interest raised

 

The dumb thing is, I probably wouldn't mind paying for Wonde considering what it gives us, but this isn't the way to go about it. If they had just come out with "We can no longer allow X for free, but here's what it'll cost you to keep" then it would be a lot better

 

Who do they think they are? SIMS/ESS?

[mikes]

So what happens with all these software providers that made us use WONDE under the understanding it was a free service? We paid for e.g. some maths software, that forced us to install the WONDE data sync client, as part of this maths software, and now we are being charged a yearly fee? Surely the software providers should be handling that?

[Koldov]

So what happens with all these software providers that made us use WONDE under the understanding it was a free service?

 

This is precisely what I was trying to ascertain... if these email demands are being sent to everyone who uses a Wonde client to sync data (data feed/data extraction to provide user details to an online learning platform etc.), or only to those who have had more in-depth interactions with Wonde, or taken further services or have been moved onto the free trial offer for some other service Wonde offer etc.

[msi_school]

So what happens with all these software providers that made us use WONDE under the understanding it was a free service? We paid for e.g. some maths software, that forced us to install the WONDE data sync client, as part of this maths software, and now we are being charged a yearly fee? Surely the software providers should be handling that?

 

They already are Wonde is trying to double dip

[bobsmith]

just had our email informing us that we would have to start paying.

 

so I logged in and moved us back to the free plan (we never actually had the paid for plan).

 

It's a cheeky move - but I'd imagine they'll hit everyone with it - it's basically upselling.

The basic access you've always had is STILL free - but they've offered a load of extra crap and made that the default option so that people not paying attention will start paying them.

[EssentialRug]

Had our Wonde invoices mailed to all of our schools this week...extremely cheeky move IMO

[DrCheese]

Had our Wonde invoices mailed to all of our schools this week...extremely cheeky move IMO

 

Same & it was double what they quoted originally. I've moved us down to wonde basic.

 

It's really underhanded of them doing this at the end of term knowing that it may sit in finance mailboxes for a few weeks. Then they can claim it's overdue. They really are taking a leaf from ESS.

[Koldov]

Also a shame as they were starting to gain favour and being seen as the best of the bunch, given that the alternative is being 'bashed' on here regularly (not least by me).

[k-strider]

I dont see where this setting is i was just checking we havent had an invoice or anything

Ive got Applications (with our integration platforms like the DFE SOCS etc)

Settings > Manage School admins / Data Protection Officer Details / Activity Log

Then under my Name just my account settings

[psydii]

Apparentlty "Activity Log" is a premium/paid for feature. I think for us it is under account settings?

[andy_b]

I have activity log and no indications I am on the free trial (or paid version).

[psydii]

Here is what we see in settings:

 

 

And if we click into the Wonde Licence section:

 

And gotcha! The Activity Log is a chargeable service.

 

Which was news to me.

Edited July 13, 2023 by psydii

[andy_b]

Hmm, I don't have the license bit.

 

Maybe I haven't been "upgraded" to the basic version (or the paid trial).

[Koldov]

Yup, just logged in and went to, Settings > Wonde Licence... and have the same as @psydii

 

So, without any prior notice (although I wonder if an email has gone to someone who didn't take any action - wouldn't be the first time) Wonde had moved our plan onto a 'free trial' and now converted it into a 'paid' version (no invoice yet, but I'm sure it's on its way)!

[bobsmith]

precisely how it worked here - except there was no email - I'm the lead contact for Wonde and I checked.

[Koldov]

Just spoke to the BM and they had the invoice sitting in the 'pile of things to pay'... going on the knowledge that it is something we use (and the assumption that they needed to pay for it - which is I'm pretty sure is Wonde's plan)...

[k-strider]

i will be keeping my eye on this mines like this