SIMS Connected migration

[ITGuyNW]

Hi all

 

We've had the email to say SIMS want to move us to Connected. I have read a lot of the stories about it being useless, breaking etc and even some schools moving back to on prem.

 

Is it really that bad? I will have to weigh up the pros and cons to discuss with SLT.

 

Also, we still use NOVA-T, how is that affected with SIMS Connected.

 

We also have a load of plugins like Wonde, MISSYNC etc, how do they integrate with SIMS connected?

 

I was hoping we would have moved away from SIMS before we got to this stage however its not yet happened.

 

Thanks!

[Bankesy]

Hi,

We have been doing our migration to SIMS Connected this week, where are you at with the Next Gen integration?

 

The Technical Consultant at ParentPay doing our migration has told me that they sort out the integration to ParentPay as they are under the same umbrella now. I spoke to to Wonde about their integration and they seemed very familiar with SIMS Connected and the required third party connector.

 

Handover is tomorrow so I might be able to come back to you with more useful info.

Thanks

[ITGuyNW]

We've got logins for everyone for next gen but haven't migrated or use it because it's still only partially developed so we're still sims 7 + school synergy.

[gumbygaz]

I'd be interested to know how it goes too, we've got a couple this term to trial with.

Third party connectors, is basically we need a keep a basic server running with SIMS Client installed on it, they'll setup a VPN connection to SIMS connected and update the client on the server. We'll need to then install all the connectors on that server. Wonde/Locker/Groupcall etc - So not quite fully cloud but closer I guess 😕!

[David44]

It seems strange that schools are still being migrated to SIMS Connected, against their will I assume. I thought that Parent Pay were now migrating schools to SIMS Next Gen against their will instead. Does that mean there are, or will be, some schools out there running SIMS Connected and SIMS Next Gen? That must be a nightmare for the users.

[gumbygaz]

Yes, we'll be running both. I'm hoping most will be using NextGen but those who need the features not in NextGen switch to Connected. I've heard the SIMS7 is meant to EOL next Christmas, but I would be surprised if this target happens......
 

We were stuck in contract so this move works for me - shifting off onsite servers at least, removing updates/backups etc and not having to deploy SIMS anymore. I can't wait, I know I'll then be dealing with SIMS Connected is slow complaints, but at the moment that seems the lesser of two evils... Time will tell! Ideally this migration would have been to Arbor/Bromcom etc but hopefully this will be a stop gap.