Couple of questions

[button_ripple]

I have tried to stay clear of SIMS, as it is only used in the school office and finance department here. Now the head has decided that all teachers should have it on their computers. I have a couple of questions about SIMS:

 

1. Do we have to pay for it to go every where? The Bursar has said that we have an 8-user licence currently.

 

2. Can teachers access it at home (without remote access) as a few of the SIMS support articles mention "computers with local data" ?

[PhilNeal]

SIMS is an all school licence so there is nothing more to pay to us for putting SIMS in classrooms. Your bursar may be referring to a support contract that is for 8 users - that is more than just SIMS.

 

Working from home - you can do this via thin client such as Citrix or Terminal Services. Many schools now are using our SIMS Learning Gateway whicj allows teachers to work from home as well as meeting the enguaging with parents adgenda. SLG is an extra.

[vikpaw]

Hang on a minute, it runs on MS SQL server and you have to have client access licences. Surely that is what is being referred to...?

 

My old school only had a 20 concurrent user license for SQL which we had to increase when teachers got access. We had about 120 teachers, and along with admin, when migrating to SQL 2005 we chose to buy a per processor license as the per user system got v.expensive.

 

SIMS itself probably doesn't need access licensing, but i'm sure the SQL backend does. I hope i've got that right....

 

As for the home use, VPN access to the school network is the best way to go: Citrix, Terminal Services, Remote Desktop, all keep the data at school.

 

You don't want data saved locally on the laptops as you'll have to maintain it and synchronise, i don't even think that's an option now to use that method. Plus upgrades would be a royal pain.

 

By far the best way is to go for the SIMS Learning Gateway, we are looking at implementing that ourselves at the moment. So access is available through a simple web brower.

 

This thread refers to home access:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/22303-sims-home-2.html

[button_ripple]

Your bursar may be referring to a support contract that is for 8 users - that is more than just SIMS.

 

So we would need to purchase a different support contract? I have spoken to someone on the sales line and they have said that as long as you have a contract you are covered, and it doesn't matter about the amount of users. Is this right?

[button_ripple]

Hang on a minute, it runs on MS SQL server and you have to have client access licences. Surely that is what is being referred to...?

 

We already have a per processor licence for SQL

[vikpaw]

As far as i know, the number of users doesn't matter. It's the school that is supported.

 

It's handy to have someone at the school to co-ordinate though and channel the support through them, then you can build up a knowledge base locally.

 

Perhaps you originally only had an 8 user SQL license but that has been superceded by the per proc' and the bursar isn't aware. . .?

[button_ripple]

Perhaps you originally only had an 8 user SQL license but that has been superceded by the per proc' and the bursar isn't aware. . .?

 

Probably!

 

Thanks for the help

[PhilNeal]

Button_Ripple, if you drop me an email I will find out for you. I still suspect that this is about your support contract rather than licencing. Some of our support contracts cover PCs.

[button_ripple]

Button_Ripple, if you drop me an email I will find out for you. I still suspect that this is about your support contract rather than licencing. Some of our support contracts cover PCs.

 

 

My manager is going to speak to sales tomorrow to find out. Thanks for the help!