SIMS Licence Expiry and access thereafter

[Warwick_Tech]

So SIMS used to go into 'read-only' mode if there was a licence issue (EG expiration\connection error) however I've been told by a colleague their SIMs has effectively been locked since their licence expired - To prevent losing access (even accidentally) realistically what can we do? I know money rules the world and competition between MIS systems is fierce, but it seems kind of unacceptable to lock people out of their own data?

 

Has anyone had anything similar?

[drutt]

We were lucky enough to do the switch before they released whatever update causes the SIMS system to completely lock out, I also read on here about some schools having their data outright deleted instead of just locked down but no idea how true that is. Your best bet is to make sure you have a snapshot of the server and the database and if you do intend to migrate away make sure to plan well in advance.

 

Anyway, hello ESS customer support.

[BKGarry]

It does effectively lock you out once you are done, but TBH, I made sure all our marksheets where exported before we moved to a new MIS and we did vigorous checks of data when had a test site.

 

It is just the fact that you no longer pay for the service and license so I get that you cannot use their product.

[andy_b]

Quote

Please take careful note of the following which are important obligations on your part as you leave, noting that ESS reserves all of its legal rights to take action against anyone who does not comply fully with their obligations. As per the contract, the customer (you):

 

·       cease to have any right to access or use, any of the above stated products and/or services after X. You undertake to have deleted or destroyed, on or before X, all main and any back-up copies of: a) the Software; b) databases used by the Software; c) Documentation.

·       must only use ESS’s safe and authorised methods to transfer data from SIMS and/or FMS. Clicking on the link https://help.parentpaygroup.com/csm?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0013065KB0054129 will take you to a web page for further information on the permissible data migration process. For the avoidance of doubt, providing any third party with copies of SIMS or FMS databases is expressly forbidden, so too is undertaking migrations using unlawful methods.

·       undertake to comply in all respects with all contractual provisions which survive termination including, but not limited to, provisions relating to confidentiality, ESS’s intellectual property rights, data protection / privacy law and regulation, non-solicitation and obligations relating to freedom of information requests.

 

Yup, they want you to totally remove it.

[nicholab]

 But how can you store your data so you can access it?  Is the only way to do a full GDPR export before shutdown?  I think the answer is that the SLT needs to stop being cheap skates and migrate all data.  Does the above statement not contradict the data retention requirements of something like 25 years after leaving?

[ToyHeartsFan]

Years ago I was at a school where the Business manager purchased some single user licence to allow her to continue using SIMS after we migrated to another MIS I think it was very expensive and some people were critical saying they could access the database directly...

 

I can't imaging many schools have staff that can query an SQL database directly or that would want to even if they could.

 

I think the main problem these days is that MIS systems are more likely to be cloud based and you can't expect them to keep hosting data if you stop paying so you just have to migrate everything to the new MIS.

[BKGarry]

18 hours ago, nicholab said:

 But how can you store your data so you can access it?  Is the only way to do a full GDPR export before shutdown?  I think the answer is that the SLT needs to stop being cheap skates and migrate all data.  Does the above statement not contradict the data retention requirements of something like 25 years after leaving?

 

And there in is the difference we had, we migrated all the data we could, the only thing that didn't directly migrate was Assessment Manager items, the linked documents from the individual reports did, but not the marksheets. There is a routine to mass export marksheets as CSVs within SIMS, which is what we did, it took some time chugging away to do it, but we had a copy of all of them, just in case.

[Dr_Zeux]

On 01/04/2026 at 09:25, Warwick_Tech said:

So SIMS used to go into 'read-only' mode if there was a licence issue (EG expiration\connection error) however I've been told by a colleague their SIMs has effectively been locked since their licence expired - To prevent losing access (even accidentally) realistically what can we do? I know money rules the world and competition between MIS systems is fierce, but it seems kind of unacceptable to lock people out of their own data?

 

Has anyone had anything similar?

Turn Solus off!  Disable completely so it no longer updates to server or workstations providing you can still access Sims now...