SIMS - How to contact support (URGENT)

[SIMS_Customer_Support]

46 minutes ago, coolhands said:

 

Why are your 'help' portals all over the place, see above.

@coolhands, apologies I missed your post. We know some customers have had issues with the new help portal and sorry that's been your experience. Can you drop me a DM, I'll need to get some more info from you to resolve

[supportman]

2 hours ago, enbiggen said:

We're actually one of the few schools that likes SIMS, so you'd think their customer service would be better.

 

I liked Sims as well, it did a job and I didn't know any different. Until of course we got 4 different companies in to compare and we realized how much better the competition was. That was 5 years ago now and their competition have only extended their lead in that time.

 

I really don't understand anyone staying with Sims, it really has been obvious for a long time that they have technical debt issues such as this which are only going to get worse.

 

EDIT: Just as an example in Bromcom, you simply click on "Help and Resources" menu item to get into the support portal, ideas portal or Bromcom community. Its all pretty much single sign on and really useful to all users. Sims just seems so backwards to me. Just a load of different services bolted together with no cohesion. 

 

Edited May 15, 2025 by supportman

[SL_Thing]

27 minutes ago, PotNoodleTech said:

If your tendering for a Cloud MIS, SIMS Connected is not a Cloud MIS (Windows Server RDP is NOT cloud, it's just hosted).  Therfore they may not need to even be on your tender list?

Also, most if not all MIS systems are on the Crown Commercial Service framework, so you can in theory pick one and buy it without upsetting auditors as they like it when you use CCS.

[Sonic007]

Our Sims support provider uploaded the patch and it has thankfully worked.

We really didnt need this happening today and as well as all the portal and contract shambles it is once again another reason why we will be looking at leaving Sims.

[hallb15]

The patch (28955) worked here too. 

[ThrowawaySims]

A kind soul provided the direct link to the patch download in case anyone else was waiting for their support provider: https://s3dl.ess-solus.co.uk/SIMS_Sims.net_1.24.54.1.pkg

 

This can be imported directly into SOLUS3. It's a tiny patch that updates the date_last_checked column in the sims.db_annual_entitlement_service_details table to force an entitlement check the next time Sims logs in. It is advisable that users log off of Sims before running this, however we can see no, and anecdotally we saw no, reason to close Sims clients during the update. You might want to play it safe however and get your users to close sims, or schedule the upgrade overnight.

 

Please confirm the validity of this, don't trust random internet strangers! Perhaps other forum users can attest to this as being the legit fix for this Sims issue (not FMS!)

[SIMS_Customer_Support]

Glad to hear the patch has worked, thanks for your patience while we resolved this and apologies again for the inconvenience this has caused.

@Boredguy @BKGarry FMS patch is in final testing and should be released soon - I'll update on this once we release.
 

[SIMS_Customer_Support]

@Boredguy @BKGarry FMS patch 30735 is now on Solus - thanks for your patience

[howartp]

Are folk deploying the patch in-service or kicking everyone out?

[CHiLL]

We only use FMS and not SIMS, though we haven't had any reports of issues from our finance team. What is the FMS patch for?

[sunny88]

6 minutes ago, SIMS_Customer_Support said:

@Boredguy @BKGarry FMS patch 30735 is now on Solus - thanks for your patience

Hi, We have not had reports of FMS, If this patch is applied and the school don't have issues, Is it likely to cause an issue in sims/fms. Just wondering if it can be deployed site wise to stop calls

 

[hallb15]

2 minutes ago, howartp said:

Are folk deploying the patch in-service or kicking everyone out?

I got everyone to log out. Always do just to be on the safe side. Perhaps I'm overly cautious!

[SIMS_Customer_Support]

13 minutes ago, sunny88 said:

Hi, We have not had reports of FMS, If this patch is applied and the school don't have issues, Is it likely to cause an issue in sims/fms. Just wondering if it can be deployed site wise to stop calls

 

Hi @sunny88, if you apply the FMS patch it means the FMS database will need to check in with the licence server again. The eligibility check will automatically recheck tomorrow and resolve the issue.

[knelmes]

22 minutes ago, howartp said:

Are folk deploying the patch in-service or kicking everyone out?

I threw caution to the wind and didn't kick them out but I've always been a bit of a cool rebel.

[JRA]

1 minute ago, knelmes said:

I threw caution to the wind and didn't kick them out but I've always been a bit of a cool rebel.

Same here as I'm something of a loose cannon myself.

[BKGarry]

Some people have never had to restore a SIMS DB after a failed patch due to a random user being left logged in somewhere, and it shows

[DrCheese]

I did ours during a break - I never normally do SIMS patches during the day but needs must.

 

I did snapshot the VM tho as if it failed I would have just reverted it...

[36Degrees]

1 hour ago, hallb15 said:

The patch (28955) worked here too. 

 

Worked for us too.

 

I asked all users to come out of SIMS and then applied it using DB Upgrade. Took about 2 minutes to do the backup and then installed very quickly.

[enbiggen]

Another "it worked for me too"... it took an additional 5 minutes with AB Tutor to close down all the instances of SIMS that weren't closed as requested, with a couple of blocks for re-openers, but it went smoothly 🙂

 

There was no message, and Routines -> Statutory Returns exists again ready for the Census.

 

Thanks everyone for letting me know I wasn't alone in this,

[Kitkatninja]

1 hour ago, howartp said:

Are folk deploying the patch in-service or kicking everyone out?

We kicked everyone out, take snapshot, rebooted the server, applied the patches (we also did the client patch for next gen), rebooted server, then told people it was good to go.  Unfortunately in the past, we've had issues, so we do this with every patch/update/upgrade to do with Sims...

 

Oh and yes, it worked for all 5 of our schools

[JRA]

How's 30735 (the FMS one) working out there in the world, if anyone's tried it yet?

[the_quick]

So we get that message but as well most of our staff couldn't login to Sims. If I restart SSM, for short period of time we can login. But after that time, we just get a  splash screen from Sims and nothing else. If I disable SSM all can login without a problem. Applied the patch, but didn't fix it. Anyone else had similar experience? 

Edited May 15, 2025 by the_quick

[36Degrees]

1 hour ago, enbiggen said:

Thanks everyone for letting me know I wasn't alone in this,

 

Know how you feel. I thought it was us, then thought it was our Trust, then saw the email from School ICT Services...

[sunny88]

2 hours ago, JRA said:

How's 30735 (the FMS one) working out there in the world, if anyone's tried it yet?

I tried it on a case I had and it worked. Also the school that had the issue with FMS reported it to us 2 weeks ago. I couldn't log a call to ESS, as no access on their new site. Applied the patch today and that school resolved it self. So this issue has been in the background. We have not had any major FMS calls today. Sims was more of an issue today. 

[Edu-IT]

9 hours ago, SIMS_Customer_Support said:

@coolhands, apologies I missed your post. We know some customers have had issues with the new help portal and sorry that's been your experience. Can you drop me a DM, I'll need to get some more info from you to resolve

I gave my info a week ago and still unresolved. I’m convinced Service-Now wasn’t tested prior.