Hosted SIMS down?

[lmgtfy]

1 minute ago, SIMS_Customer_Support said:

@CHiLL @frogwoman @lmgtfy @DaveJ2717uk 

 

Good morning,

We are aware of an issue impacting SIMS Connected this morning that is resulting in degraded performance and login problems for users.

Please be assured this issue is under investigation as a high priority. 

We apologise for any inconvenience. 

Kind regards,
Sally

Thanks, Sally @SIMS_Customer_Support

 

Is there any reason why the system status page is so rarely updated? We’ve noticed that unless an issue lasts for at least an hour, it often isn’t mentioned at all. For example, the outage that lasted several hours yesterday isn’t reflected on today’s status page, which currently shows a green tick for the entire day.

 

Since moving to SIMS Connected earlier this year, we’ve experienced frequent periods of unavailability. Many teachers have stopped reporting these incidents altogether, as it’s become such a regular occurrence.

 

I understand that ESS has taken on more customers recently due to Scomis etc, but are there any plans in place to improve reliability?

 

As SIMS is our primary system for statutory attendance, these repeated outages are already a safeguarding concern — staff are unable to complete registers promptly, which directly affects our ability to monitor pupil attendance and welfare in real time.

 

I look forward to your reply.

[SIMS_Customer_Support]

39 minutes ago, SIMS_Customer_Support said:

@CHiLL @frogwoman @lmgtfy @DaveJ2717uk 

 

Good morning,

We are aware of an issue impacting SIMS Connected this morning that is resulting in degraded performance and login problems for users.

Please be assured this issue is under investigation as a high priority. 

We apologise for any inconvenience. 

Kind regards,
Sally

 

I am pleased to confirm that the service has now been restored and the service status page has been updated to reflect the recent outage. 

 

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused. 

 

Kind regards

Sally 

 

[SIMS_Customer_Support]

1 hour ago, lmgtfy said:

Thanks, Sally @SIMS_Customer_Support

 

Is there any reason why the system status page is so rarely updated? We’ve noticed that unless an issue lasts for at least an hour, it often isn’t mentioned at all. For example, the outage that lasted several hours yesterday isn’t reflected on today’s status page, which currently shows a green tick for the entire day.

 

Since moving to SIMS Connected earlier this year, we’ve experienced frequent periods of unavailability. Many teachers have stopped reporting these incidents altogether, as it’s become such a regular occurrence.

 

I understand that ESS has taken on more customers recently due to Scomis etc, but are there any plans in place to improve reliability?

 

As SIMS is our primary system for statutory attendance, these repeated outages are already a safeguarding concern — staff are unable to complete registers promptly, which directly affects our ability to monitor pupil attendance and welfare in real time.

 

I look forward to your reply.

Hi @lmgtfy

 

Thanks for your reply. 

 

I’d appreciate the chance to talk things through so I can fully understand the outages and how they’ve affected you. That’ll help us progress in the right direction. When’s a good time for a quick chat? 

[lmgtfy]

24 minutes ago, SIMS_Customer_Support said:

Hi @lmgtfy

 

Thanks for your reply. 

 

I’d appreciate the chance to talk things through so I can fully understand the outages and how they’ve affected you. That’ll help us progress in the right direction. When’s a good time for a quick chat? 

I’ll raise this with our Customer Delivery Consultant directly, but I’d appreciate it if you could also provide a public response on behalf of all users who have experienced the recent issues.
 

These outages have affected multiple schools, and it would be helpful for everyone to understand what’s being done to improve reliability and communication around service disruptions.

[techsmith320]

Our head is tired of the excuses and outages

We moved to hosted as we were sold on the reliability and uptimes over buying a new server
But its just become unreasonable and unsustainable, to the point even our SIMS manager was asking "we should look at iSams or similar"
Staff are frustrated, IT staff are getting the brunt of the anger and I just have no idea what to say to calm it at this point, because honestly, i don't disagree
It feels like they hoped everyone would use Next Gen, and have woefully under-set the services for connected VM's every day,

[psydii]

If you want SIMS, run it on prem and get involved in using NG - because if that doesn't get good, SIMS is dead.

 

If you don't want to run it on prem right now,  change MIS.

 

 

[lmgtfy]

6 minutes ago, psydii said:

If you want SIMS, run it on prem and get involved in using NG - because if that doesn't get good, SIMS is dead.

 

If you don't want to run it on prem right now,  change MIS.

 

 

We had no choice really. We were with Scomis hosted Sims and there was some sort of falling out between Scomis and ESS. The only choice we had presented was to move to Sims Connected.

[psydii]

It is what it is. But for future reference, anything like that is a negotiation, and it is a mistake to accept  the premise of the opening offer(s) from the other side.

[davie887]

Moving MIS provider will solve all these issues (and possibly create new issues) 😁

[daturum]

20 hours ago, lmgtfy said:

We had no choice really. We were with Scomis hosted Sims and there was some sort of falling out between Scomis and ESS. The only choice we had presented was to move to Sims Connected.

 

Most of us went with SCOMIS hosted because it had a reputation of being more reliable than Capita/ ESS. ESS shot themselves in the foot when they fell out with SCOMIS and sent round those libellous e-mails. They are now reaping what they have sowed.

[Homer]

Have people had more issues today with connected? We had a few reports from finance of locked sessions earlier... 

[CHiLL]

We are experiencing issues again this morning.

[lmgtfy]

25 minutes ago, CHiLL said:

We are experiencing issues again this morning.

Its slow to login but it has loaded eventually this morning. 

 

@SIMS_Customer_Support These outages have affected multiple schools, and it would be helpful for everyone to understand what’s being done to improve reliability and communication around service disruptions.

[Homer]

Seems their service desk has also died. 

[SIMS_Customer_Support]

1 hour ago, lmgtfy said:

Its slow to login but it has loaded eventually this morning. 

 

@SIMS_Customer_Support These outages have affected multiple schools, and it would be helpful for everyone to understand what’s being done to improve reliability and communication around service disruptions.

Hi @lmgtfy We update the Service Status page on the Customer Portal when we are aware of widespread issues that are impacting our services. If an incident is isolated or under investigation, it may not immediately appear on the portal until the scope of impact is confirmed. 

 

Best wishes

Sally 

[SIMS_Customer_Support]

1 hour ago, Homer said:

Seems their service desk has also died. 

Hi @Homer Our Service Desk analysts are available to provide support. If you have raised a case via the portal please can you confirm the case reference and I will arrange for this to be looked into, alternatively you can email [email protected]. 

 

I hope this information helps. 

 

Kind regards

Sally

[lmgtfy]

2 minutes ago, SIMS_Customer_Support said:

Hi @Homer Our Service Desk analysts are available to provide support. If you have raised a case via the portal please can you confirm the case reference and I will arrange for this to be looked into, alternatively you can email [email protected]. 

 

I hope this information helps. 

 

Kind regards

Sally

Thanks Sally,

 

 

You've missed a few posts from me as above. Can you please respond?

Edited November 10, 2025 by lmgtfy

[SIMS_Customer_Support]

6 minutes ago, lmgtfy said:

Thanks Sally,

 

 

You've missed a few posts from me as above. Can you please respond?

Hi @lmgtfy I replied to you earlier: 

 

[lmgtfy]

14 minutes ago, SIMS_Customer_Support said:

Hi @lmgtfy I replied to you earlier: 

 

Thank you for the response. This still only partly answers the question. We do need clarity on what is being done to improve the reliability of SIMS Connected. Since moving this year, we and many other schools have experienced repeated periods of downtime, as outlined above.

 

I will be raising this with our Customer Delivery Consultant, however it would be helpful to have a public update from ESS so that all affected schools receive the same information and reassurance.

 

As SIMS is the statutory attendance system, reliability is essential. When registers cannot be taken in real time, it creates a genuine safeguarding concern, as we are unable to account for student safety consistently during the school day.

 

We would appreciate confirmation of the actions being taken to prevent further disruption.

 

Edited November 10, 2025 by lmgtfy

[coolhands]

thing is you're probably just hammering a customer-services bod who has no authority!

[mavhc]

1 hour ago, coolhands said:

thing is you're probably just hammering a customer-services bod who has no authority!

There's a reason it's impossible to phone them, they can more easily hide from emails

[SIMS_Customer_Support]

1 hour ago, mavhc said:

There's a reason it's impossible to phone them, they can more easily hide from emails

@mavhc Are you experiencing an issue trying to reach the service desk via phone? Please send me more details so I can look into this. Did you attempt to call today? At what time? Which number did you dial? We offer multiple channels to contact support; via phone, email or via the portal. 

 

I look forward to hearing from you. 

 

Kind Regards,

Sally  

Edited November 10, 2025 by SIMS_Customer_Support

[mavhc]

Just in general when you forced us to give you money to change our name, oh well, at least we've left now

[techsmith320]

I see the fix for Next Gen registers hasn;'t fixed it and its down again!
 

I keep getting told its got an uptime of 99.93%
I'm sure it has when you're including weekends, holidays and midnight, but what's is its uptime between 8-5 during term time. because i can guarantee its not that!

[DWilson1997]

@techsmith320 SNG Registers are down for us too again 😞