Problems this morning with Bromcom?

[davie887]

The messaging is poor. Issues cropping up are just the nature of cloud services though. "Cloud is just someone else's ****** computer"

 

I can't count the number of times our SIMS fell over for **reasons**. Every workstation/server update brought some headache. Bromcom hosted on Scomis was fine for us during this period. 

 

 

 

[TheCookieMonster]

33 minutes ago, Synkrox said:

My personally written out complaint was finally replied to, with a copy-paste email from this address. Which I think says it all.

 

 

Heres the full text - I imagine most customers have already received this.

 

Dear Customer,    Between 3 and 10 March 2026, Bromcom schools across the country experienced service issues that led to a significant increase in contacts to our support teams. We apologise for the disruption and for the time it has taken to bring your complaint to a close. We understand the impact this caused, particularly during the critical period of taking registers.    While the issues experienced do not excuse the delay you encountered, they did contribute to longer-than-usual resolution times, including for your complaint. We recognise how frustrating this will have been and are grateful for your patience.    If you have not already done so, we encourage you to review the final Root Cause Analysis (RCA), which explains what led to the incident and outlines the remedial measures we have implemented to reduce the risk of recurrence.    We would also like to invite you to join our leadership team for a live webinar on Thursday 16 April at 14:30. During this session, we will speak openly about what happened, explain the steps already taken in response, and share the longer-term measures being put in place to strengthen performance and resilience. We will also discuss how we are working to rebuild your confidence in our service.    Please use the link below to register:   While we cannot undo the disruption that occurred, we hope our actions demonstrate our genuine commitment to addressing the matter and preventing a recurrence.    Thank you once again for your patience and understanding as we continue to enhance the reliability of the service you rely upon.    Kind regards,   Alastair McKenzie  Head of Customer Success

I expect they got a lot of complaints so use of donotreply and copypasta is pretty standard. You can't expect them to have a fully personalised dialogue with every single person who had an issue when the cause of it was the same and the impact broadly similar. I'd rather they spent the time / effort / money making things better than giving 1000s of individualised apologies. 

Just glad that the return from Easter was all OK. I noticed they put a minor performance incident up on Monday, but I don't know of anyone that was affected and all seems clear today. I gather some schools are still off though so may be speaking too soon!

[dmj]

Here's the real RCA:

Quote

Inside the complacency and decisions that eroded trust in Azure—from a former Azure Core engineer.

https://isolveproblems.substack.com/p/how-microsoft-vaporized-a-trillion

 

and discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47616242

[Synkrox]

43 minutes ago, TheCookieMonster said:

I expect they got a lot of complaints so use of donotreply and copypasta is pretty standard. You can't expect them to have a fully personalised dialogue with every single person who had an issue when the cause of it was the same and the impact broadly similar. I'd rather they spent the time / effort / money making things better than giving 1000s of individualised apologies. 

Just glad that the return from Easter was all OK. I noticed they put a minor performance incident up on Monday, but I don't know of anyone that was affected and all seems clear today. I gather some schools are still off though so may be speaking too soon!

 

So they shouldn't even read my email and should just chuck it all in the same bucket, not answering any point I took the time to write?

Their attitude to my time and that of their users being essentially worthless and was reflected in their apology-free "RCA" too. 

I disagree and it's a shame you feel such casual brushing off is an acceptable way to do business.

I don't think the "donotreply" team at Bromcom are the same as those "making things better" but even if they were, perhaps reading about the impact it's really having on people might encourage them to pause next time they test in production.

 

This is as lazy as half their attempts to reply to actual real tickets I've put in for provable errors in the system.
Don't read it properly, reply with something vague, close.

 

Maybe I'm just becoming an intolerant middle aged bloke? or maybe it really is ensh1ttificat1on.

[psydii]

 

1 hour ago, dmj said:

Here's the real RCA:

https://isolveproblems.substack.com/p/how-microsoft-vaporized-a-trillion

 

and discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47616242

Thanks for posting that. I saw it cross my feed last(?) week. but didn't get to it before it dropped off into the oblivion of things I'd meant to do.

 

It's worth looking at where MS is with Windows and Azure, and look at how they recovered from the Cairo, and Longhorn fiascos. On both those occasions the basic gist was Dave Cutler (an engineer "without portfolio", who reported direct to the CEO) had a skunk works team who maintained a modern build of his OS (for he is/was to the NT kernel (and for a while the original RedDog Hypervisor of Azure and XBox) as Linus Torvald is to Linux), that actually worked despite whatever the mainline PMs and other engineers were doing. It was that branch that was used as the baseline when Cairo and, a few years later, Longhorn got cancelled.  Mark R took over for windows 7, but then moved to Azure (possibly with a detour to  write stuxnet *allegedly). They were both the sort of people whose direct reports (if not themselves directly) would have shaped that engineers outlook on system stability, matching the low level engineering efforts to hardware, and the needs of the customer further up the stack. Cutler is 85+ and Mark R star waned (publicly anyway) after a big multiday Azure outage about a decade ago. It's time to empower these sorts of engineers again, those who understand what they have, what customers need and what needs to be done to deliver.

(I wrote this before reading part two. lol. yeah.)

Edited April 14 by psydii

[TheRobins]

50 minutes ago, Synkrox said:

Maybe I'm just becoming an intolerant middle aged bloke? or maybe it really is ensh1ttificat1on.

Probably, we all are but I have now learnt to not let it get to me. These incidents could be the downfall of their business in the long term. These systems come and go and in years to come we will be "do you remember Bromcom and when they sold out, yeah a bit like having to tap F7 with a floppy disk to install raid drivers with Windows XP". I have had tickets sit for over 12 months with Bromcom and no progress happens then suddenly that issue if fixed in the next update or release. Maybe they could do with hiring a communications expert for a while to improve communications both in and out. 

[psydii]

The real problems* for Bromcom users will start when the founder/owner passes. This problem will be contagious and all schools no matter their MIS will look back on these times as a golden period. The problems will not have a technical foundation but a financial one, one already laid deep in SIMS and Arbor.

 

*not in anyway to dismissed the very real problems users are having right now, but right now they can move for a reasonable fee.

Edited April 14 by psydii

[TheCookieMonster]

1 hour ago, Synkrox said:

 

So they shouldn't even read my email and should just chuck it all in the same bucket, not answering any point I took the time to write?

Their attitude to my time and that of their users being essentially worthless and was reflected in their apology-free "RCA" too. 

I disagree and it's a shame you feel such casual brushing off is an acceptable way to do business.

I don't think the "donotreply" team at Bromcom are the same as those "making things better" but even if they were, perhaps reading about the impact it's really having on people might encourage them to pause next time they test in production.

 

This is as lazy as half their attempts to reply to actual real tickets I've put in for provable errors in the system.
Don't read it properly, reply with something vague, close.

 

Maybe I'm just becoming an intolerant middle aged bloke? or maybe it really is ensh1ttificat1on.

I look forward to your campaign to ban comment banks from school reports too. 😅

99% of people here are intolerant, middle aged blokes. So you're in good company. 😁

[DrCheese]

2 hours ago, psydii said:

The real problems* for Bromcom users will start when the founder/owner passes. This problem will be contagious and all schools no matter their MIS will look back on these times as a golden period. The problems will not have a technical foundation but a financial one, one already laid deep in SIMS and Arbor.

 

*not in anyway to dismissed the very real problems users are having right now, but right now they can move for a reasonable fee.

 

Aye, the circle of edutech will continue. This will not change ever. The only thing that changes is the speed.

 

• New, modern software comes into the market, founded by ex NetworkManagers/Data Managers/teachers etc
• Software solves lots of problems, starts gaining market share quickly. New features are added weekly & support is brilliant.
• Offers to do anything they can to help you move to them.
• Becomes market leader
• Gets bought out by private finance, or larger player (HI TES) - Or the existing vendor managers to completely zap all the competition.
• New owner modifies T&Cs to lock schools in for years, or makes the cancellation period need 5000 days notice. 
• Software development halts completely & software stagnates in the stone age
• Support gets outsourced to a country that doesn't use the software, or understand the UK market terminology, for the cheapest possible cost & requires 5000 hoops to jump through. Documentation withers.
• Vendor then makes it incredibly difficult to move to another supplier & threatens anyone who hints at leaving with being sued (HI SIMS)

Then the cycle repeats

I've seen it repeatedly - Any/all schoolcloud software, Inventry, Classcharts (TES), SIMS. A never ending cycle, like a snake eating it's own tail.

 

 

Edited April 14 by DrCheese

[synaesthesia]

They couldn't decide of a name for the poor little blighter, so on his box where he resided underneath the pool table wrote "Our Rob or Ross"

 

That'll need some Red Dwarf fans to understand that reference and the above post

[psynegy]

It's not without a sense of irony that the day after their webinar about performance issues being resolved - we have significant performance issues.

 

Not to mention how hard it was to actually get into said webinar!

[BlackCat80]

It would be funny if it was not so serious. A webinar saying performance issues are resolved, followed by more major issues the next day, sums up the problem perfectly.

It is not just the outages now, it is the credibility gap. Bromcom keeps saying things are fixed, while schools keep seeing the opposite. And honestly, if the same failures and the same weak response keep repeating, then the technical people in charge need to change, because this is clearly not being managed properly.

[pete]

17 minutes ago, BlackCat80 said:

I then the technical people in charge need to change, because this is clearly not being managed properly.

 

Judging from the intro there have been some changes on the IT side.  Old CIO (Simon W) has been replaced in the last few months.

[Dr_Zeux]

On 17/04/2026 at 11:54, BlackCat80 said:

It would be funny if it was not so serious. A webinar saying performance issues are resolved, followed by more major issues the next day, sums up the problem perfectly.

It is not just the outages now, it is the credibility gap. Bromcom keeps saying things are fixed, while schools keep seeing the opposite. And honestly, if the same failures and the same weak response keep repeating, then the technical people in charge need to change, because this is clearly not being managed properly.

100% agree!

[Synkrox]

Could anyone that attended share what was said?

 

Is a revolution coming or more "we promise it won't happen again, again? but for real this time"

Was hoping they would share recording or slide deck afterwards.

[Marci]

They did. Recording is on Vimeo…

 

COO section: 3m 26s to...
CTO section: 7m 38s to...
CIO section: 16m01s to end

 

Edited April 20 by Marci
Add timestamps

[supportman]

Brilliant explanation from the CTO. I love that he actually addresses the technical debt issue that basically killed Sims over time.

 

CTO's need to be brave and sometimes rewrite stuff that doesn't actually affect end users or bring new features.

 

Anyway, good to hear the explanation in clear terms.

Edited April 20 by supportman

[BlackCat80]

6 hours ago, supportman said:

Brilliant explanation from the CTO. I love that he actually addresses the technical debt issue that basically killed Sims over time.

 

CTO's need to be brave and sometimes rewrite stuff that doesn't actually affect end users or bring new features.

 

Anyway, good to hear the explanation in clear terms.

I honestly got the opposite impression. It felt less like someone giving a confident technical explanation and more like someone reading out a brief written by somebody else. At times it did not even seem to match the slide on screen, which just made it look even more awkward.

When you are trying to rebuild trust after this kind of mess, that sort of delivery really does not help.

Still not explained what they have broken 

Edited April 20 by BlackCat80

[Rob_D]

1 hour ago, BlackCat80 said:

It felt less like someone giving a confident technical explanation and more like someone reading out a brief written by somebody else.

Personally, I felt like it was more a case of trying to explain in more technical detail, but for a less technical audience. (I very much had the impression this was pitched for office managers)

[Buzzer90]

16 hours ago, BlackCat80 said:

I honestly got the opposite impression. It felt less like someone giving a confident technical explanation and more like someone reading out a brief written by somebody else. At times it did not even seem to match the slide on screen, which just made it look even more awkward.

When you are trying to rebuild trust after this kind of mess, that sort of delivery really does not help.

Still not explained what they have broken 

That's because the COO was a slide in front throughout the CTO's speech.. 🙃

[Synkrox]

It could have been more polished, with no Q and A it might as well have been straight to video really.

However I think it seemed like it came from the right place and didn't try to insult our intelligence or brush it off.

The communication generally needs 1000% improvement though. If they'd been making improvements and trying to sort things over the months why is there no blog or update post until the brown hits the fan? 

Unless theres some secret group I dont know about, there isn't much in the way of 2 way development with customers and power users.

 

Release notes only ever cover bits they've meddled with on the front end. Never a tech blog type of "We've tweaked this and you should find it improves X and Y". Had this been happening I think we may have had more patience knowing they were trying all along. 

Some of the responses from community and tickets with "no way of communicating with the devs" hasn't helped, and I've certainly been made to feel like a passenger on the Bromcom train.

I'll continue to expect the worst but hope for the best!

[Jaan]

Sooooon......

 

 

[supportman]

Performance has been good all start of term. Credit where its due! 👍

 

100% of parents signed up on MCAS within 48hrs as well. New record here!

Edited September 8 by supportman

[garethEds]

4 minutes ago, supportman said:

Performance has been good all start of term. Credit where its due! 👍

 

100% of parents signed up on MCAS within 48hrs as well. New record here!

 

Oh no - you've done it now. Jinxed the next few days.

[Jaan]

I know... i almost feel bad for posting the MEME above....... almost....

 

Well done Bromcom, fingers crossed.