[bromcom] Bromcom reports slow performance

[Dr_Zeux]

We've been experiencing extremely slow reports in the last week or so - many reports take ages to run, Exams timetables don't even finish running, they simply time out! Any other schools with the same problem?

[Olliedawg]

I had a call from our EO earlier today " Is there a problem with the network??" ummm not that i'm aware of why whats up? " Bromcom being very slow again " ... wooohoo!

 

Checked internal network, did some tests.. all fine.. did a speedtest.. fine.. did the usual, can you clear cache in edge, restart the browser.. nope still the same.

I ran a fairly simple report on 4 classes, and that took a few minutes to preview..

See what it's like tomorrow!

[Bromcom_Darren]

We've been experiencing extremely slow reports in the last week or so - many reports take ages to run, Exams timetables don't even finish running, they simply time out! Any other schools with the same problem?

 

Morning Darron,

 

If you haven't already done so please raise a case with the support team for further investigation into this.

 

Thanks

Darren Moody

Community Manager

[Bromcom_Darren]

I had a call from our EO earlier today " Is there a problem with the network??" ummm not that i'm aware of why whats up? " Bromcom being very slow again " ... wooohoo!

 

Checked internal network, did some tests.. all fine.. did a speedtest.. fine.. did the usual, can you clear cache in edge, restart the browser.. nope still the same.

I ran a fairly simple report on 4 classes, and that took a few minutes to preview..

See what it's like tomorrow!

 

How is it today for you? Please raise a ticket with support or further investigation if you are still having issues.

 

Thanks

Darren Moody

Community Manager

[Olliedawg]

How is it today for you? Please raise a ticket with support or further investigation if you are still having issues.

 

Thanks

Darren Moody

Community Manager

Hey Darren,

 

Still not great, EO has raised a ticket with support

 

Cheers

[Dr_Zeux]

I had a call from our EO earlier today " Is there a problem with the network??" ummm not that i'm aware of why whats up? " Bromcom being very slow again " ... wooohoo!

 

Checked internal network, did some tests.. all fine.. did a speedtest.. fine.. did the usual, can you clear cache in edge, restart the browser.. nope still the same.

I ran a fairly simple report on 4 classes, and that took a few minutes to preview..

See what it's like tomorrow!

Ok, good to know other schools are also experiencing this as well - so the reports are having performance issues!

[Bromcom_Darren]

Ok, good to know other schools are also experiencing this as well - so the reports are having performance issues!

 

The team are investigating these cases and will respond to these asap

[Dr_Zeux]

Morning Darron,

 

If you haven't already done so please raise a case with the support team for further investigation into this.

 

Thanks

Darren Moody

Community Manager

 

Hi Darren

Already done this yesterday!

Same issues today...

 

How's my complaints coming along Darren??? No one from Bromcom has responded to any of my communication, including you, when I emailed you directly as you requested... If Customercare don't respond, and you don't have a CSM, who are you supposed to liaise with - please let me know?

[Bromcom_Darren]

Hi Darren

Already done this yesterday!

Same issues today...

 

How's my complaints coming along Darren??? No one from Bromcom has responded to any of my communication, including you, when I emailed you directly as you requested... If Customercare don't respond, and you don't have a CSM, who are you supposed to liaise with - please let me know?

 

I will chase these for you with Customer Care, however I did escalate your cases with the team following your latest email to me.

[Brax]

Anyone else having issues with loading reports today? Pretty much doesn't load at all. Just need to look up a timetable for a room!

[Dr_Zeux]

Anyone else having issues with loading reports today? Pretty much doesn't load at all. Just need to look up a timetable for a room!

 

I haven't been using Bromcom much this morning, but having just tested a few reports, yes, they are very slow! I'm also getting error messages after waiting for a minute, saying it's 'loading'... I'm just trying to run simple timetable reports. When I logged this previously with Bromcom, at the end of March (CAS-333869-N1T7V7), i think a software fix was required and this hasn't yet been applied so i think most customers are probably still affected!

Edited April 18, 2024 by dbluston

[Bromcom_Darren]

I haven't been using Bromcom much this morning, but having just tested a few reports, yes, they are very slow! I'm also getting error messages after waiting for a minute, saying it's 'loading'... I'm just trying to run simple timetable reports. When I logged this previously with Bromcom, at the end of March (CAS-333869-N1T7V7), i think a software fix was required and this hasn't yet been applied so i think most customers are probably still affected!

 

Hi Darron,

 

I have taken a look into your case and confirm that a fix is scheduled for tomorrow evening (subject to it passing testing).

Darren

[supportman]

Anyone else having issues with loading reports today? Pretty much doesn't load at all. Just need to look up a timetable for a room!

 

Thinking more long term, Bromcom should really have a better timetable lookup feature than running reports.

 

I know Sims did it this way as well but surely looking up timetable data should be a separate fast feature as its used so much.

 

Saying that, I think you can do it on the app though.

[Marci]

I haven't been using Bromcom much this morning, but having just tested a few reports, yes, they are very slow! I'm also getting error messages after waiting for a minute, saying it's 'loading'... I'm just trying to run simple timetable reports. When I logged this previously with Bromcom, at the end of March (CAS-333869-N1T7V7), i think a software fix was required and this hasn't yet been applied so i think most customers are probably still affected!

When you click "Preview" on the Curriculum reports and end up then sat on the preview screen with a "loading report" box across the top and nothing much happening, just hit the Export button. The issue is with drawing & delivering the preview to the browser, but all the data is there - Export will give you the usual Excel format output of that report, and Data will give you it's raw tabular data.We get this issue with most of the Curriculum > Timetable reports at the mo.

[psydii]

Thinking more long term, Bromcom should really have a better timetable lookup feature than running reports.

 

I know Sims did it this way as well but surely looking up timetable data should be a separate fast feature as its used so much.

 

Saying that, I think you can do it on the app though.

 

I'm told some chat-gpt-like systems are able to take student timetables presented as unwieldy spreadsheets and accurately answer questions like "where is Bobby Tables now?"

[supportman]

I'm told some chat-gpt-like systems are able to take student timetables presented as unwieldy spreadsheets and accurately answer questions like "where is Bobby Tables now?"

 

Finally an AI feature that is actually useful!

[Steve21]

Anyone had any updates regarding the slow reports? We've just moved over to Bromcom over Easter and between the "error/failed to run" and then eventually report loading speed it can take a good 5-10 minutes to actually get a single report out! So much slower than we had on SIMs

 

One of the biggest complaints is from our Cover Manager as it seems there's no simple way to print cover registers for cover staff (as not all have logins to Bromcom) and the "Blank Register" report doesn't seem to work for covered lessons only "official timetabled" ones, so by the time she's manually viewed each timetable/ran reports it's into the hours currently to print the lists off

 

Many thanks,

Steve

Edited April 23, 2024 by Steve21

[Bromcom_Darren]

Anyone had any updates regarding the slow reports? We've just moved over to Bromcom over Easter and between the "error/failed to run" and then eventually report loading speed it can take a good 5-10 minutes to actually get a single report out! So much slower than we had on SIMs

 

One of the biggest complaints is from our Cover Manager as it seems there's no simple way to print cover registers for cover staff (as not all have logins to Bromcom) and the "Blank Register" report doesn't seem to work for covered lessons only "official timetabled" ones, so by the time she's manually viewed each timetable/ran reports it's into the hours currently to print the lists off

 

Many thanks,

Steve

Hi Steve,

 

Do you have an open ticket with the helpdesk at all? If so please provide me with the case number so that I can take a look at it's progress.

 

Thanks

Darren Moody

Community Manager

Bromcom

[Dr_Zeux]

Anyone had any updates regarding the slow reports? We've just moved over to Bromcom over Easter and between the "error/failed to run" and then eventually report loading speed it can take a good 5-10 minutes to actually get a single report out! So much slower than we had on SIMs

 

One of the biggest complaints is from our Cover Manager as it seems there's no simple way to print cover registers for cover staff (as not all have logins to Bromcom) and the "Blank Register" report doesn't seem to work for covered lessons only "official timetabled" ones, so by the time she's manually viewed each timetable/ran reports it's into the hours currently to print the lists off

 

Many thanks,

Steve

Hi Steve. No, there's been no updates from Bromcom on my helpdesk ticket for slow performance to reports - but that's normal. I've got a case about 7 months old, and still ongoing! Helpdesk tell me, after they finally resolved another case that was 6 months old, and I quote, "I can only apologize again for the delay on this case. Unfortunately we accumulated a very large backlog since the September period until now and we did not manage to get back on all of them in time." They apologised, then suggested that if I wanted to provide feedback, feel free to do so via [email protected]. I replied and said there's no point, Customer care do not respond to emails, or perhaps it's just me as i've made 3 complaints this year about their poor service. Darren @Bromcom is fully aware of this as well - i've forwarded him the complaint emails.

 

Cover - yes, we've struggled with this since day 1, good luck with that! A few schools have been complaining about this one on the Bromcom 'ideas portal'. It's an idea that's been suggested almost 3 years ago. Apparently, the idea is 'planned' (from April 2023), but we have no way of knowing when this will actually be released into the product, as it's been a year since this was last updated by Bromcom. I voted for it back in Sept 2022, as soon I as realised the product wasn't able to simply print off cover class lists for all supply staff at once - being in the same boat as you, and used to the system of being able to print them off previously in Sims. Here's the idea: https://ideas.bromcomcloud.com/ideas/BRCM-I-499

Edited April 24, 2024 by dbluston

[Dr_Zeux]

Thinking more long term, Bromcom should really have a better timetable lookup feature than running reports.

 

I know Sims did it this way as well but surely looking up timetable data should be a separate fast feature as its used so much.

 

Saying that, I think you can do it on the app though.

 

Totally agree with you! This is something I reported to my CSM back in Sept/Oct 2022 - I can't believe you can't simply print a 2-week timetable for a student from the student record, so it comes out on 1-page! You would have thought this is the most simple/basic process for a MIS.... You have to go to 'Run reports' and go through the painstaking method of picking future weeks (otherwise you'll miss off any updated timetable changes, and/or Inset days/bank holidays, etc) and previewing, which is currently taking ages to load... Again, there is a 'development' request for this (https://ideas.bromcomcloud.com/ideas/BRCM-I-2326), that's been ongoing for at least 2 years, it has over 100 votes and is weirdly under the category 'Future consideration'. There are other similar ideas linked to this, so it should be merged and in fact the overall total is more like 200+ votes. Give us huge faith around development ideas!

 

https://ideas.bromcomcloud.com/ideas/BRCM-I-2524 - has 99 votes and is almost the same idea as the idea above.

And idea: BRCM-I-2989 which had 5 votes and was rejected, and idea BRCM-I-1682 which had 9 votes back in Sept 2021 (also rejected), and BRCM-I-3073, had 21 votes. They should all be merged/linked as its the same idea! But, strangely, the last 3 ideas can no longer be found....??? Is that because Bromcom rejected them, and deleted the ideas, and effectively we've lost the votes?

Edited April 24, 2024 by dbluston

[supportman]

Thanks for the detailed research and links. I've voted for them all

[Dr_Zeux]

Anyone had any updates regarding the slow reports? We've just moved over to Bromcom over Easter and between the "error/failed to run" and then eventually report loading speed it can take a good 5-10 minutes to actually get a single report out! So much slower than we had on SIMs

 

One of the biggest complaints is from our Cover Manager as it seems there's no simple way to print cover registers for cover staff (as not all have logins to Bromcom) and the "Blank Register" report doesn't seem to work for covered lessons only "official timetabled" ones, so by the time she's manually viewed each timetable/ran reports it's into the hours currently to print the lists off

 

Many thanks,

Steve

 

Just had an update - apparently a fix will be applied around 10th May....

[Steve21]

Hi Steve,

 

Do you have an open ticket with the helpdesk at all? If so please provide me with the case number so that I can take a look at it's progress.

 

Thanks

Darren Moody

Community Manager

Bromcom

 

Hi Darren,

 

I sent over a list of 10 items to the email address you mentioned previously as I didn't have a helpdesk login yet but haven't heard anything back - I can re-raise them as individual tickets if it helps

 

 

 

Hi Steve. No, there's been no updates from Bromcom on my helpdesk ticket for slow performance to reports - but that's normal.

 

Thanks for confirming. Yeah it's odd. For something that's been made to sound all singing and dancing, it seems to miss so many basic features we've had with SIMs for years (and even odder that certain things that did work seem to be broken by "new features"

 

Will have to keep nagging via the ideas area you mentioned!

 

Thanks,

Steve

[Dr_Zeux]

Hi Darren,

 

I sent over a list of 10 items to the email address you mentioned previously as I didn't have a helpdesk login yet but haven't heard anything back - I can re-raise them as individual tickets if it helps

 

Thanks for confirming. Yeah it's odd. For something that's been made to sound all singing and dancing, it seems to miss so many basic features we've had with SIMs for years (and even odder that certain things that did work seem to be broken by "new features"

 

Will have to keep nagging via the ideas area you mentioned!

 

Thanks,

Steve

 

Hi Steve. Read the comments on one of the development ideas from this morning: https://ideas.bromcomcloud.com/ideas/BRCM-I-3697

 

Apparently, a new team have been setup in December to deal with the development ideas, but I see no evidence of this at all and customers only getting more frustrated as great ideas that have combined 200+ votes and no updates since July 2023 when it was changed to 'Planned'... This particular idea, has been requested for around 5 years!

Edited May 23, 2024 by dbluston

[Olliedawg]

Reports running slow for anyone else this afternoon?