Looking for a new MIS system - updated thoughts on Compass?

[lookingforanMIS]

Hi everyone!

 

I currently work at a MAT based in Suffolk. We are investigating moving away from SIMS as an MIS. Seems like a lot of other schools have moved over to Arbor but there's this new one called Compass in the market that I saw at a trade show recently. Would love to get everyone's updated thoughts on Compass and the usual suspects Bromcom, Arbor etc..From the demos, compasss seems pretty interesting but I don't know of anyone that's used them.

 

Any updated thoughts on Compass/Arbor/Bromcom would be great!

Many Thanks

[Sylv3r]

Interesting your country flag in your profile shows as an Australian flag, your location shows as London but you mention your MAT is based in Suffolk - it appears that Compass was founded in Australia too:)

[ovenchips]

Another Suffolk MAT here - we recently moved the entire MAT from SIMS to Arbor after a few flagship schools tested it for a year ahead - went fairly smoothly and everyone is much happier with it for the most part, had very few complaints, and none IT / Integration wise.

[ASA-Simon]

Having gone through a tender recently for an MIS to replace SIMS, I had a very positive impression of Compass. While the school ultimately didn't go for Compass I would say they are worthy of consideration. Their feature set covered areas that Bromcom/Arbor doesn't such as their own catering pos and visitor sign-in/sign-out like inventry.

 

I used Everything ICT for the tender process and would definitely recommend them.

[lookingforanMIS]

Super helpful! I was leaning towards just going with Arbor anyways since everyone seems to be using them but I've heard they've had some outage issues so we're doing some shopping around. Do you know why the school ultimately didn't end up choosing Compass?

[ASA-Simon]

Super helpful! I was leaning towards just going with Arbor anyways since everyone seems to be using them but I've heard they've had some outage issues so we're doing some shopping around. Do you know why the school ultimately didn't end up choosing Compass?

 

Ultimately it was the tender process that helped choose between the two. It was incredibly close but the general feeling was that Bromcom offered a slightly more polished and friendly GUI. There was less clicking through things needed. Also Bromcom felt like a mature product whereas there was still the odd feature being developed for a future release with Compass. Despite that I wouldn't be put off considering them. They were coming in as a cheaper option compared to the likes of Bromcom and Arbor.

 

We did invite Arbor to participate but they declined. It was quite off-putting. I don't think they wanted to put in the work to go through a tender for just one school. Also there was criticism that they specification template that Everything ICT use is too close to the SIMS feature set, something I would disagree with. I didn't really expect such a strange attitude from the leading company behind SIMS.

 

I had the same response from IRIS Ed:gen as well. Satchel One was also planned to be a 3rd product but they didn't submit anything on time. Sad as I would have liked to have seen how they compare. I am a big fan of their UI design.

 

I'm just happy that we are finally moving away from SIMS. Aiming to be moved over by the start of 2025. I'm hoping the response from staff will be positive.

[lookingforanMIS]

Great - thanks for the insight!

[AnglianEdu]

I know this is becoming someone of a Suffolk related thread, but I also work for a MAT in Suffolk!

 

Out of curiosity for anyone here who has gone over to Arbour (another person based in Suffolk here), do any of you have a Sixth Form and if so how did you find it for timetabling purposes. How does Compass compare for that also?

 

For me Timetabler looks a lot more complicated than Nova at least for our needs but probably it is a case of 'what you know' and what you are used to. If you needed support with the timetabling process, how did you get it, because I'm aware Timetabler don't provide phone support.

 

We are also looking at potentially changing in 25/26.

Edited July 31, 2024 by AnglianEdu

[psydii]

We're a SIMS school, but FWIW our "new" timetabler (the person) was struggling with 'impossible expectations' from the school, (we're a Nova kinda place). Four beers into a Friday evening I suggested they take a look at Timetabler and Options - 'it couldn't hurt'.

 

Turns out it could do what the school wanted, and that was something that 20 years of previous Nova timetablers had all failed to be able to. However it was deemed too late to scrub the provisional TT for 2024-25 and so we're mostly using Nova still. I believe that they did use Options in some capacity. We have a very broad curriculum and alt curriculum and sixth form, and a "higher than national average part time teaching staff".

 

Its quite possible that we'll be using Timetabler etc with SIMS 2025-26, and if that is successful it removes the last SLT objection to moving entirely from SIMS.

Edited July 31, 2024 by psydii

[AnglianEdu]

I guess it depends what you need from a timetabling package doesn't it?

 

We're a Sixth Form only Trust (but that will change soon) and most of our Heads of Department work out where they put their staff and how they schedule their lessons themselves and normally it's then up to me to make it work from a rooming point of view and in a way that we can service our student's choices in terms of A Levels etc.

 

Having tried Timetabler recently at the request of our SLT as we're reviewing Arbour as a possible future MIS, I found that Timetabler was more orientated to helping me solve timetabling problems, making stuff fit working out what subjects to put where and that kind of thing and working out the logistics of doing the department staffing, which we don't really need as we do all that on a devolved department basis and for a Sixth Form that really works for us.

 

When I actually tried to basically build the timetable as we want it into Timetabler it felt very difficult in that it was always trying to help me do things or overcome problems or help me schedule things in a way based on rules when all I wanted to do is build an already designed timetable into the system so it can be used in the MIS system. That is really simple to do in Nova, but timetabler seemed to have a lot of extra 'fluff' and whilst that fluff is clearly well meaning, for the way we do things, it simply got in the way.

 

It's my big fear about moving to be honest, it just feels that Timetabler doesn't fit well for Sixth Form only Trusts that work the way we do, whereas in Nova it's basic but you are in control and building everything in a structured way whereas in Timetabler it feels like it's trying to do the work for you to resolve problems etc, when I'd much rather manually build it.

 

At some point I need to go back to Timetabler and have a further play with it to feedback further to SLT, so any suggestions helpful with that or any other packages that may come in handy. Compass is not something I've come across but any feedback on if that is more suitable to a Sixth Form would be helpful. We would be keen to get away from SIMS as well, but as the Trust timetabler, I guess I've probably less keen than most.

Edited July 31, 2024 by AnglianEdu