[bromcom] Bromcom reports slow performance

[Dr_Zeux]

Reports running slow for anyone else this afternoon?

 

Now that you mention it, yes, they're much slower than the other day (after they fixed the major incident related to performance issues on Monday)

Edited May 23, 2024 by dbluston

[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

 

This one will make you laugh: https://ideas.bromcomcloud.com/ideas/BRCM-I-4802. It has over 550+ votes (combined ideas), has been 'Planned' for god knows how long but still not implemented - the idea has been ongoing since Sept 2021! As a very popular idea, you can see for yourself how fast the development ideas move along.... Imagine if the idea was unpopular!?

[psydii]

Bromcom aren't alone in taking a while to address some bugs/requests. This Minecraft bug was opened in 2012 and was finally addressed yesterday (12 years later): https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-67

[Dr_Zeux]

Bromcom aren't alone in taking a while to address some bugs/requests. This Minecraft bug was opened in 2012 and was finally addressed yesterday (12 years later): https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-67

 

I would argue they are slightly different. That's a game, and yes, customers pay for it - so bugs are a nuisance, but the game is for pleasure. Bromcom is used for work purposes and if the software doesn't work efficiently, it impacts your productivity and output, not to mention frustrating as some of this functionality has been present in other MIS providers for 10+ years. We are paying customers and most secondary schools are paying in the region of £20k per year, so Minecraft pales into insignificance by comparison. There is an expectation that these ideas are escalated and worked on in some kind of priority order, and in an efficient way (clearly not happening). And both our old CSM and helpdesk would often suggest creating a development idea, if the software doesn't work as expected - they would suggest this a real workable solution! Which, if you think about it, isn't viable at all, if brilliant ideas are taking a minimum of 3 years to simply get to 'Planned' status, and not actually implemented!

[TheCookieMonster]

I would argue they are slightly different. That's a game, and yes, customers pay for it - so bugs are a nuisance, but the game is for pleasure. Bromcom is used for work purposes and if the software doesn't work efficiently, it impacts your productivity and output, not to mention frustrating as some of this functionality has been present in other MIS providers for 10+ years. We are paying customers and most secondary schools are paying in the region of £20k per year, so Minecraft pales into insignificance by comparison. There is an expectation that these ideas are escalated and worked on in some kind of priority order, and in an efficient way (clearly not happening). And both our old CSM and helpdesk would often suggest creating a development idea, if the software doesn't work as expected - they would suggest this a real workable solution! Which, if you think about it, isn't viable at all, if brilliant ideas are taking a minimum of 3 years to simply get to 'Planned' status, and not actually implemented!

There's a host of Youtube, Twitch and other streaming millionaires, not to mention Minecraft server owners who would disagree that it (or any other game) is just a pleasurable pastime.

 

Maybe a better comparison would be SIMS who still take months and years to fix some of the most annoying (albeit not world-ending) bugs with their software and haven't actually enhanced anything for as long as I can remember.

[psydii]

I'd be interested how Arbor seems to have navigated this (feature request/ bug prioritisation) problem. It seems to me inevitable for any product of this class. I wonder if perhaps its the nature of the customer base? Arbor is bigger with Primary heavy MATs (where the customer is the MAT and the leaders of the MATs can ensure they don't over promise to their users), where as Bromcom has seen more success in Secondary schools and these are might be more independently minded and less prepared to accept roadmaps and prioritisations strongly influenced by the needs of other organisations?

[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

 

Look at the updates today on the idea: https://ideas.bromcomcloud.com/ideas/BRCM-I-4802 - so many messages in my inbox relating to this! On the positive side, this idea actually got implemented - well done Bromcom!

[JamesWeatherill]

@psydii - just thought I’d give my two cents here, at least from an Arbor perspective.

 

In terms of scale, per the latest DfE census:

· Arbor has 4,942 schools live including 603 secondaries, an increase of 30% from 12 months ago. Share of large MATs with >25 schools is 34.9%

· Bromcom has 2,001 schools live including 661 secondaries, an increase of 16% from 12 months ago. Share of large MATs with >25 schools is 27.1%

 

I wouldn’t say that scale or type of customer inevitably create bugs or slowness. There are plenty of large software platforms in the world who have complex customers and manage to maintain performance at scale.

In terms of Arbor’s performance, our uptime is available publicly here, including minor incidents such as slowness and issues affecting a small number of schools.

 

Arbor commits to uptime of >99.8% in school working hours, and have service credits that refund customers if we fall below that threshold. Last year, and current year-to-date, our uptime is 99.96%.

 

Hope that helps!

Edited June 4, 2024 by JamesWeatherill

[psydii]

Thanks James for those numbers. My thoughts were more around how the ratio of primary:secondary as a function of MAT vs Non Mat effect the product development demands.

 

If Arbor's 30% increase in Secondary schools is significantly out pacing increase in primary end users, your account and product managers might just be about to start to experiencing the stakeholder management pressures to which I was referring.

 

 

I must say though, it is noticeable that Arbor has managed to outpace Bromcom's growth while avoiding the perception of the performance and feature delays that seem to have plagued them for a decade. Long may that continue - it will certainly make any decision i need to be involved in easier.

 

About a decade ago I had a great chat with one of your founders. They had a vision and gave the impression of competence that to me (sitting on the sidelines of the MIS wars for now) seems to be part of the core values of the company 10 years later. It will be interesting to watch how things grow over the next few years as sims likely continues to shed its customers.