SIMS - Direct Support from Parent Pay

[webby74]

Good afternoon everyone,

 

Our LA SIMS Support Team will no longer be offering SIMS support from April next year. They are fantastic, offering top notch support, so it's a real shame. We are looking at lots of options, including moving to another MIS so we can stay with them for support, along with looking at alternates like Bromcom and other SIMS Support Services. We are meeting after half term with all the relevant stakeholders with in our school to discuss options. 

 

One member of SLT is really pushing for staying with SIMS, does like change and just wants to go direct to SIMS/Parent Pay for support. He hardly ever uses the current SIMS Support, and can't see an issue.

 

So basically, I'm looking for reviews on what direct support is actually like? 

 

Andrew

[NetworkDirector]

I really would not recommend going directly to SIMS/Parent Pay for support because they are awful when it comes to direct support, when we cancelled our contract with our support provider, we went to SIMS for some support and it took weeks to get a response and someone to support us. When we had SIMS we used a third-party support company, we used Schools ICT, which were great when we needed them. I would definitely go for a Third-party provider like Schools ICT or others.

 

But completely depends on your situation and what you are willing to pay. If you want to wait weeks at a time for a good response from SIMS support then go ahead, otherwise I wouldn't. On other MIS's, we ended up trialing Bromcom, but the UI is super clunky with loads of menus that are more confusing than not, and when we had a Trial of Arbor that was good but timetabling wasn't too advanced with multi-day structures unavailable unlike SIMS. We went with Arbor though because training was much easier than with Bromcom since it was more intuitive and easier to understand for the teachers. I would move away from SIMS purely because NG is not ready at all, and they are pushing that when it's ready.

Edited 9 minutes ago by NetworkDirector