Parental contact via SMS or eMail

[kmount]

We spend less on sending texts/calls through KKS than we did on ringing mobiles.

 

But that's our findings thus far only.

[browolf]

another +1 for groupcall, pretty easy to install/use. the last update made it go a bit slow on our system tho...

[Bromcom_John]

We have one as well, our eContact product sends SMS, Email, Voice mail. It can also be automated to send messages for truancy and the like.

 

Again all info at the website Bromcom Computers Plc | Management Information Systems for Schools & Colleges

 

(plus a rather good short training video on setting up eContact monitoring lists by yours truly although that may be restricted to the users area..)

[Willott]

Like I said though, some reports that generate CSV files and the Janet-provided system is far cheaper.

 

The Janet system sounds interestingly useful... and there are APIs for all sorts of programming languages, so surely that plus the SIMs third party SDK should allow for someone to program something for sims directly (I may look into it myself if I get time). But the CSV file option looks like a good way to do it as well. There doesn't seem to be all that much info about the control panel side of things though, is it good?

[Edu-IT]

I didn't realise KKS cost that much! I thought you just paid for the messages you sent.

[Ric_]

The Janet system sounds interestingly useful... and there are APIs for all sorts of programming languages, so surely that plus the SIMs third party SDK should allow for someone to program something for sims directly (I may look into it myself if I get time). But the CSV file option looks like a good way to do it as well. There doesn't seem to be all that much info about the control panel side of things though, is it good?

 

I need to give it a try and will probably wait until the end of our KKS trial. The biggest benefit will be if we ever need to send an SMS to the whole school. 1100 x 6p compared to 1100 x 4.5p is a saving of £16.50 in one go!

 

The Janet offering also has a very interesting HTTP POST option which I think would work rather nicely with Nagios.

[Willott]

The only thing about using a HTTP POST method is I would be a little worried about the transmission of personal data (phone numbers), and the username and password through unencrypted means. Before further consideration of this, I'll have to check with them as to whether they can do SSL.

[TheCrust]

Thanks everyone - some useful feedback there for me to chew my way through when I get a moment.

 

 

Again all info at the website Bromcom Computers Plc | Management Information Systems for Schools & Colleges

 

Cheers John - though having experienced Bromcom at my last school, I won't be in a hurry to go down that particular route again.

[IrritableTech]

Just a quick not to anyone on a Keep Kids Safe trial.

 

Check the trial agreement... if you don't cancel within the trial period, you are automatically entered into a three year contract of service!

 

So if you are not VERY happy with it. I would cancel whilst you can.

[robins]

As we use SIMS for registers I went with Schoolcomms. It reads SIMS to work out who is AWOL so you can text them and can be used to write back the outcome of texted replies into SIMS late/absent comments. In this respect I think its uniquely intergrated with SIMS at least?

 

That said there is room for improvement and developers are apparently hard at it. They need to make it more functional for multi-user and multi-purpose environments by allowing individual inboxes / folders / archives / reply-tos for emails etc. If this happens I'll happily upgrade the license and use it for things like replacing permission slips. Parents like it but take care to apply it sensitively.

[Sylv3r]

As we use SIMS for registers I went with Schoolcomms. It reads SIMS to work out who is AWOL so you can text them and can be used to write back the outcome of texted replies into SIMS late/absent comments. In this respect I think its uniquely intergrated with SIMS at least?

 

That said there is room for improvement and developers are apparently hard at it. They need to make it more functional for multi-user and multi-purpose environments by allowing individual inboxes / folders / archives / reply-tos for emails etc. If this happens I'll happily upgrade the license and use it for things like replacing permission slips. Parents like it but take care to apply it sensitively.

 

We have started using schoolcomms today for First Day Response - Parents have liked the system in the past for school closures due to snow etc - but I have warned the Pastoral Support Managers to ensure that the attendance data is correct before a TXT message is sent as parents will soon become irate.

[Sivadam]

It seems that many of you guys are missing out. Schoolcomms is simply the best! No other system integrates with SIMS (particulalry first day absence reporting) as well as Schoolcomms does. Edited March 5, 2009 by Sivadam
Spelling

[thinkdifferent]

Not sure that that is correct I understand that ParentMail also has a SIMs link and does a pretty good job of simplifying first day calling using texts.

[Sivadam]

But does it have the ability to write the response text directly back to SIMS in terms of Absence Code (decided by Attendance Officer after reading the response text) and Reason for Absence without even being logged into SIMS via a separate SIMS LogIn? This is just one of the advantages Schoolcomms has over other systems. Edited March 5, 2009 by Sivadam

[thinkdifferent]

That I dont know as I dont work for the company nor am I promoting it. I was responding to your comment that the others dont have a SIMs link.

[Sivadam]

I now realise I have missed out a few words in my original post. These words are:-

..... as well as ..... (Now corrected)

 

I did not mean to intimate that others have no connections to SIMS. Just that, in my experience, are not as well integrated. The Schoolcomms link is even sat on the SIMS Homepage (tho' all useful side links are due to be moved to Focus Menu later this month).

Edited March 5, 2009 by Sivadam

[garethEds]

At my last school we used Call Parents - Welcome and also Truancy Call - Welcome. This links in with most MIS software.

 

Used here as well. Very effective.

 

GJE

[marshharrier]

Hi Folks,

 

I *think* I looked at them all and even had a few demonstrations! (I do remember that Schoolcomms wouldn't come into school to demonstrate & KKS were flippin expensive with lots of what I thought was unnecessary functionality?)

 

ParentMail won easily for me and not only because they were more cost effective. They seemed to be the only ones who were trying to tackle the issue of parents changing their email and mobiles, utilising a push reminder (e-capture) process to prompt parents to check and update online! It's great that we won't have to do it & we get emails from the system when parents change their details

 

They also seem to listen and they tell me they'll be driving updated contact data back into SIMS soon

 

The web interface and multi-user licence were useful too. Lastly I too didn't like the inability to change the email template but ... true to their word they've just introduced html emails which allows us to do more by way of configuring.

 

Hope this helps ... and NO I don'twork for them

 

Harry.

Edited March 29, 2009 by marshharrier

[marshharrier]

Did a bit more research into why the Schoolcomms link appears inside SIMS.net

 

Here's the lo-down;

 

Schoolcomms are 'commercial partners' with Capita which essentially means they pay(in one way or another) Capita to endorse their product (with a link inside SIMS.net)!

 

There are various types of 'partner' to Capita where the partners pay Capita for access to SIMS.net, but only commercial partners pay for endorsement by Capita - as I understand it.

 

Not sure I feel comfortable with particular products being endorsed 'for commercial gain'! I'd rather endorsements were done 'on merit' and not by big corporate types with other agendas.

[Tester2001]

Bromcom have a module called e-Contact that sends e-mails and SMS messages to contacts. Maybe you should contat them or look on thier website.

[Edu-IT]

With regards to Truanc yCall/Call Parents does anyone know the type of number they use for inbound calling? Or, are they simply given the option to leave a voicemail?

 

For example "Your child wasn't at school this morning. Press 2 to leave a message" or whatever?

[Bev]

We use HomeContact. When I looked into it it was the most reasonably priced, and it's very easy to use. It doesn't have any bells or whistles, but we can send texts and emails quite easily.

 

Our LEA are pushing us to use SchoolComms but we are already established with HomeContact and can't see any reason to change at the moment.

[mgothorp]

At my school we use a combination of our school website, Our parent Portal and a company called Parent Mail.

 

I feel that Parent Mail was used well when we had our snow in December but as the credits this system uses ran low there has been no talk of topping them up. The other thing parent mail dose well is distribution of emails to parents. Trying to get parents emails is another problem.