NOVA-T XML files

[Nickfinn]

Hi Everyone,

I’m looking for a bit of clarity and would appreciate your thoughts and experience on the below.

 

I’ve recently heard from an LA that they are reluctant to let a 3rd party partner to have copies of use the XML files exported from NOVA-T to help build and test timetables within their new timetable software as part of their migration from SIMS to a new MIS. Their concern appears to be that using these export files for migration/testing purposes may breach ParentPay’s IP.

 

My understanding was that schools and MATs have been using NOVA-T export files in this way for a number of years, so I was a little surprised by the concern. I also spoke informally with a former contact at ParentPay who suggested that, provided the LA holds a valid licence, using the export files in this way should be acceptable.

 

Before responding further, I just wanted to sense-check this with the wider group and understand if anyone has had similar conversations, received formal guidance, or has a different interpretation.

 

Any thoughts or experiences would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks everyone

 

Nick

[Devaleth]

Not a lawyer! Transferred two years ago, no formal guidance, never has ever come up. Assuming a school holds appropriate licenses for use of NT6 at the time of use I'm struggling to see how this would be problematic. Many schools chose to buy an NT6 license after leaving SIMS specifically because it was their timetabler's preferred design software. NT6 historically has not been a SIMS specific solution which is why all of the export functions exist alongside the SQL server push/pull functions. You'd need to check terms and conditions for the software's license, but I would struggle to accept, given the software's long usage history, that a limitation of this nature on its use would hold up anywhere.

 

As to the XML themselves to all intents and purposes they function identically to a set of excel files - class/teacher/period/day codes. I can't remember entirely the contents but I don't think it includes banding or blocking information. They include less information than the actual spl timetable files. There's not even any formatting and may as well be CSV files. At worse there are some columns that have some unique identifiers in which might be relevant to SQL but if that's truly the problem then I imagine the contents of the column could be cleared or replaced with dummy data before use elsewhere.

 

Further elaboration and thought - how is this any different than taking the export of any other data from any other piece of software and using it somewhere else. E.g. an excel spreadsheet created in Office then uploaded to Google sheets and shared edited and used there? How can there be a claim around IP of Parentpay when the ownership of the output's IP is wholly (or maybe partially) the end user? XML files by design are opened and used in multiple different software. There is nothing unique or special in its structure (a timetable is...a timetable?) - it's just a data transfer.

 

All that being said if you don't have the tolerance for risk then in the worse case it would be about a one to three day job to manually transcribe the timetable solution from one platform to another, dependent on the size.

Edited May 13 by Devaleth

[bobsmith]

The IP issue that ParentPay has been chucking around when it comes to MIS migrations is primarily related to SQL Stored Procedures (that nobody is actually interested in....).

 

An XML export is essentially a flat data file similar to a CSV or XLS (or even a notepad doc!) and even ParentPay would struggle to justify to themselves that this is a propriety format.

We did an .SPL to .etz migration back in November and it wasn't raised back then.

[Nickfinn]

Hi,

 

This was a quote from a friend at Parent Pay:

 

"So, NOVA-T6 has no process in place that blocks or stops anyone who has it installed to legally export a timetable definition to CSV or XML. (Menu Route Data | Export to Third Party Systems).

If the user does not have a contract or current licence to use the software, then they do so at their own risk from a commercial point of view."

 

Thank you for everyone's comments, from what you are saying Bobsmith, I agree this is more about the Store procedure IP, not the export files themselves, which are by definition public.

 

Nick