School Sports Admin

[Anditic]

How do these MIS systems companies charge for their software? And how much? Is it a flat fee per year? Or is it based on the number of users within the school?

 

I'm not in the IT department and trying to get a sensible answer out of the bursary has been problematic. I'm a sports master - new here - and keen to introduce a system I've seen recently that will help us manage all sports fixtures, team creation and manage communications. It looks great but I'm being met with the 'it looks a bit expensive' routine. But in the context of what? I can't get a straight answer.

 

If anyone of you knows what the typical costs of a school admin system is I'd be very grateful. I'm thinking about PASS, SIMS and iSAMS. We currently run SIMS and there's talk of a switch to iSAMS.

 

Maybe this would give me the information to be able to go to the Head with some better understanding.

 

Thanks.

[Netman]

Most are sold on the basis of a 'core' package that holds all your student data which covers day to day administrative use. You can then add to this by buying extra modules, for example, reporting or sports management (as you mention).

Why it would be seen as expensive to a burser is that say for example your MIS doesn't offer a particular module that you'd like (eg. sports!) but another one does - then your school would have to ditch the existing system and spend quite a lot (time and money) on replacing it from scratch.

 

In your position it would be best to get others on board by showing them the features that iSAMs has that your existing solution doesn't. Organise a demo and invite key people along - particularly your network manager!

 

I won't post costs here as they are protected by a privacy clause in the quotes, but suffice to say we are soon to be moving from PASS to iSAMs ourselves...

[Anditic]

Thanks Netman.

 

I'll do just that. The system I have seen is specifically for managing school sports and events etc. So I'll get them in for a wider demo to a group (including the head of IT). The system I've seen is called SchoolMaster by a company called CHQ. They appear to specialise in the sports/events area and it seems they can sit alongside/work well with whatever system the school decides to go for. Have you come across them?

 

They propose to charge on per pupil basis (so smaller schools such as ours pay less than a larger one) and I wondered if that was out of kilter with the way that the typical core MIS guys package.

 

Completely understand the confidentiality of pricing on a public forum. Maybe offline?

 

Thanks again. A.