Are ESS trying to make it harder to migrate away from to SIMS?

[Michael]

The movement between October > January is always statistically low, but I suspect the numbers will be larger again post May Census, with a lot of schools changing February/March time.

[marshall_wave]

• SIMS decline slows
  

 

Does it?

[Ditto]

Does it?

Well, it guess which measure you base it on . On the data presented, I'll stick with my interpretation!

[supportman]

The bit that was missing from the post was the full current table of School MIS's

 

 

So its

1) Sims

2) Arbor

3) Bromcom

4) Integris

5) Scholarpack

 

But for how much longer? Sims is in free fall....

[LeMarchand]

That's some amazing growth from Arbor!

[Michael]

The bit that was missing from the post was the full current table of School MIS's

 

 

So its

1) Sims

2) Arbor

3) Bromcom

4) Integris

5) Scholarpack

 

But for how much longer? Sims is in free fall....

 

Where did you extract this info?

[supportman]

Where did you extract this info?

 

Joshua Perry on X: "@hailst0rm Sure! Here are the latest running totals... https://t.co/GGc7bjv4yW" / X (twitter.com)

[TRSJon]

And I believe uses SIMS ID to sign in. The previously mentioned god awful system used to ‘onboard’ parents etc.

 

SIMS Connected does use SIMS ID - but this can be linked to either Google or Microsoft login for SSO, and once you can also link the SIMS login to the SIMS ID/Google/MS account so SSO all the way through for SIMS.

[supportman]

For more bits form Private Eye

 

[NegativeKillDeath]

The CMA are looking into the database export tactic. https://schoolsweek.co.uk/competition-watchdog-launches-another-probe-into-sims/

[supportman]

Yep even made it to the GOV.uk website.

 

Its about time as well.

 

Education software firm probed over potential abuse of dominance - GOV.UK (http://www.gov.uk)

[PotNoodleTech]

Interesting!

[tdawson]

We have now started to receive e-mails from ParentPay ostensibly warning us about the perils of cybercrime but unsubtly making a dig at 'Company A' and 'Company B' for the fact that they only have the standard Cyber Essentials certification not the Cyber Essentials Plus.

What they don't mention is that although Parent Pay have the plus cert, ESS only have the same standard cert that their competitors have.

They also make a big thing about the importance of patching which seems pretty rich coming from the people who have kept their client schools on ancient server versions till this year.

Not sure if they mentioned their attitude to storing SA passwords in plain text to IASME when they self certified either.

[Ex-MGSTech]

Nor do they support database encryption!

[andy_b]

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/competition-watchdog-closes-probe-into-sims-without-taking-action/

 

[Ditto]

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/competition-watchdog-closes-probe-into-sims-without-taking-action/

 

Very unsatisfactory and hard to believe some statements. I wonder what the new migration steps are - perhaps as a result of the competition thread?! From my younger days, the expression that comes to mind of the CMA is 'they've bottled it!'.

[supportman]

Schools also told the CMA that sharing database copies was a “longstanding and widespread practice used in the sector for data transfer of this kind”.

However, ESS said it was “unaware” of this practice, the watchdog said.

 

Not sure how they can be "unaware" when hundreds of schools would have asked for their SQL data from the hosted solution during migration.

[Primus]

Not sure how they can be "unaware" when hundreds of schools would have asked for their SQL data from the hosted solution during migration.

 

Yup! We had one of our schools on hosted SIMS and did exactly this about 3 years ago!

[Damon]

ESS also referenced the use of SQL backups to show how it was easy for schools to migrate away from SIMS when they were defending themselves to the CMA last time.

[dmj]

Ridiculous. The first post in this thread is a link to ESS saying that they are aware of schools using database backups for migration and that's why they were banning it.

[FragglePete]

Just received an e-mail from ESS claiming their victory over competitors as the CMA backed down on their action against them for blocking using database backups. They've got their smug face on now.

 

And still they hark about the £40m investment they are making into the next generation of SIMS - For the love of God, shut up already! They've been going on about this for several years now - makes me wonder how much of that £40m is left?

 

Pete

[nicholab]

I am discussed by the management of this company and the CMA. They all a disgrace they are in effect stealing public money by not letting schools leave easily.

[Claysonsd]

Fortunately Arbor and i'm sure other have started using existing tools e.g. groupcall exporter to migrate the data. So the process of migrating away from Sims shouldn't be impacted. I'm sure the rush will continue to increase when people see how ESS are trying unsuccessfully to throw their weight around.

Migrating to Arbor using Groupcall Xporter on Demand – Arbor Help Centre (arbor-education.com)

[2ilent8cho]

Had 2 schools recently join our Trust, so currently in the process of moving them from SIMS. Will be another next year too. So thats another 3 SIMS users gone. Glad we moved our first school off SIMS 8 years ago we were fed up with it then, and it looks no different now after 8 years.

[TwistedHelixis]

All the schools in my entire county moved away from SIMS last year. That must have been a large chunk of school gone from SIMS.