SIMS Connected Experience

[PaulPierce8]

Morning all,

 

I'm looking at moving our Trust onto SIMS Connected over the next few months. Not having to deal with SOLUS and quarterly updates, and staff not having to use a VPN to connect from home to complete work would have quite the big positive impact on our users and IT team.

 

I'm interested in any feedback from schools who made the move from SIMS to Connected, and if it has been a success, or if there any regrets etc.

 

Many thanks

[PotNoodleTech]

Slow

 

Slow

 

Annoying

 

Mouse scroll wheel doesnt work

 

File uploading and downloading is needlessly over complicated

 

If you move to connected, You'll be locked into a new contract where you surrender ownership of your data over to ESS effectively.

 

Other than that it does work. For the end user, it is not an improvement (other than access anywhere via browser). For the sysadmin I suppose it is an improvement as like you say no more SIMS client or updates etc and no more VPN /RDP rubish.

Edited September 12, 2024 by PotNoodleTech

[jthompson]

For us, the regular end user experience has been good. SIMS .net runs faster for us than it used to when running locally. The SIMS Connected service has been reliable, too, with no apparent sluggishness at certain time of day or year.

 

My big bugbear is with the third-party connector. We're still running an on-prem server to host our third-party sync utilities. Although that's much less burdonsome than managing a SIMS server, the VPN from that server to SIMS is a real bottleneck. Our EduLink syncs take 10+ hours each time. On occasions it'll tip over the 12 hour mark, which bascially means that EduLink then falls a day behind the MIS. Less noticeable with other sync utilities though, tbh.

 

Our exam officer finds that it's better in all but one regard: managing files for import/export is more fiddly and confusing, as you have to use a floating toolbar at the top of the window to transfer files between the local computer and the remote RDS session. It gets confusing fast to have Windows Explorer windows from the local system and within the SIMS Connected session up on screen at the same time. Having A2C within SIMS Connected is a bonus, as it doesn't tie her to needing to run that on her school PC.

 

I don't think we've any regrets about the move. There was never really an apetite for switching to a different MIS at the time. I absolutely love not having to manage an on-prem SIMS server.

[PaulPierce8]

Thanks both, i appreciate your feedback - do you mind if i ask if these are primary or secondary environments?

[jthompson]

Secondary. About 1600 pupils and our SIMS db was ~30GB at the time we migrated (a lot of that was historical InTouch messages).

[PotNoodleTech]

Secondary. I disagree with JT about connected being faster than on premise. Our on premise was mch more responsive. Theres like a 2 second delay in literally everything you do on connected. I guess that's RDP on possibly undersised servers for you. Edited September 12, 2024 by PotNoodleTech

[Scan099]

Slow

 

Slow

 

Annoying

 

Mouse scroll wheel doesnt work

 

File uploading and downloading is needlessly over complicated

 

If you move to connected, You'll be locked into a new contract where you surrender ownership of your data over to ESS effectively.

 

Other than that it does work. For the end user, it is not an improvement (other than access anywhere via browser). For the sysadmin I suppose it is an improvement as like you say no more SIMS client or updates etc and no more VPN /RDP rubish.

Everything said above - I would rather put up with the updates...........

 

its is slower than slow.

[jthompson]

I guess our on-prem SIMS server must have been in a very sub-optimal state if we're enjoying Connected!

 

 

Narrator: It was.

[dapaulio]

Sims connected is uses openvpn for all your data extractors

 

It is what it is. Had a couple outages here and there. Average may one or twice a month. General feedback from the schools who are on it. Slows productivity down for admins with extra steps when exporting data.

 

If you using sims to read only or write it’s ok enough for that.

 

If your data manipulating in to excel word etc it’s a nightmare with comments saying it’s takes far to long. Unnecessary steps to get it off their server environment on to yours.

 

I have another trust looking at moving into arbor.

 

Connected is a stepping stone to next gen and If your a sims fan they really need to get next gen out quickly and make sure it’s efficient at what it does

They have left it really late

[Edu-IT]

Haven’t had any issues with speed or downtime since they moved it to their own infrastructure (ParentPay Cloud).

[keyboards]

IF you are already on prem it's a good move and a step in the right direction, it's just SIMS but in a web browser, nothing really cloud or modern about it, but if you are going to move to cloud properly I'd go Arbor

[synaesthesia]

Especially at a trust level, I would hope that alternatives are being looked at. Sticking with SIMS might paper over some cracks and help the "we don't like change" brigade, and all the people that make all the excuses under the sun "Oh, but it's better at X and Y". (Hint; it isn't.)

[Damon]

If you choose to go to SIMS Connected, try to align the Connected contract dates with your SIMS/FMS contract. Otherwise, if you sign up for 3 years with SIMS Connected, you'll still be paying for it even if your SIMS contract ends in a year and you decide to move away.

[DODICT]

You do really need to be considering your solution - its not up to par and now delivered via a far from ideal solution. Do you hear the odd story about x and y element being preferred in SIMS ? Yes. But do you ever hear of anybody wanting to move back as they are not better off as an organisation as a result of moving to a modern cloud based MIS ? No. And delivering some very simple cloud elements as a bolt ons that then need to be synced to legacy products is about the last thing I would ever want to be using in a live scenario. If I was a decision maker I would also worry what damage this is doing to my career as sticking with something that has been superseded by solutions that overall positively impact an organisation isn't a good look and skills wise the market is wanting expertise in other systems.

[Michael]

Apologies to bring this discussion back in the spotlight -

 

I'm currently supporting a school using SIMS Connected and we've made great progress improving both the internet provision with a robust leased line, as well as an up-to-date switch infrastructure. The firewall rules as per ESS recommendations are in place, yet users still see sporadic performance or have their user sessions ended without warning. Testing other well known websites in the same browsing session continue to operate as expected, which should rule out WAN, LAN, device or browser issues.

 

I see there's also a Service Status page, but I question its reliability, accuracy and whether this is real time.

 

We do have a support request open with ESS, but they haven't really come back with anything we haven't already tried or explored.

 

Does anyone on this forum have any other further tips or advice, or what really worked for your school? I'm trying to rule out further configuration issues, but I know also I'm clutching at straws.

[PotNoodleTech]

Sounds normal to be honest.

[gaz350b]

I would also check browser energy settings are configured not to sleep sims sites.

[Michael]

Can this be achieved via GPO? I found this guidance, but cannot get it to work. The support notes are terrible Google.

[Michael]

Located the two GPOs as follows, not immediately obvious -

 

Comp Config > Policies > Admin Templates > Google > Chrome

Enable High Efficiency Mode (Enabled)
URL Pattern Exceptions to tab discarding (Enabled) example.com example1.com

[jthompson]

I would also check browser energy settings are configured not to sleep sims sites.

 

Letting it sleep might help to avoid bandwidth issues, no?

[Michael]

Everything else will continue to sleep, just not SIMS Connected.

 

Without doubt it will/could use more bandwidth, but I'm trying to rule out anything else school side.

[gaz350b]

The problem is when the tab goes into “sleep”it will disconnect you from sims connected.

[Michael]

The policy I've created is working/implemented, but awaiting feedback end users. What URLs do you add to the list?