PARS/PARS Connect vs SIMS Lesson Monitor/Attendence

[Geoff]

This isn't really a technical question, but I thought some people here might have an insight anyway. We currently use PARS at the moment, however we are considering ditching it and just using the relevant SIMS modules. Does anyone have any thoughts on this, eg how the two packages compare? Is there anything PARS can do that the SIMS modules can't for example?

[Quackers]

We run PARS, i would not do it, biggest reason being TASC Provide the best support i have ever seen from a company so far.

 

Also PARS loads quicker than SIMS, you have PARS Connect offering a web browser based version, so nothing need be installed on the client, which is handy.

 

Suppose they both take registers, just PARS looks and feels better put togeather, IMO its a better product, and our staff like it.

[Geoff]

I see. The PARS Connect sounds very interesting too. Are you actually using that? Or using the bespoke client?

[Geoff]

*tumbleweed* :/

[pete]

Tasc are more responsive to feature requests and left-field requests than Capita are. My end-users prefer PARS as an interface to SIMS than using SIMS, ymmv. Ask your users, demo both and see which way they lean.

[Quackers]

I see. The PARS Connect sounds very interesting too. Are you actually using that? Or using the bespoke client?

 

Yes we are using it, some staff use it, just 1 click from the Intranet to load pars, some users use the full client.

[Geoff]

Yes we are using it, some staff use it, just 1 click from the Intranet to load pars, some users use the full client.

 

Is there any reason your mixing things up like that? Is it user preference? Or just because PARs isn't installed everywhere?

[Hecate]

We dropped it. While staff liked the interface and it was good for registration it didn't integrate well with structures we had already set up in SIMS for behaviour and assessment and we didn't want the confusion of staff having to use PARS for some things and SIMS for others or giving ourselves the chore of redoing it all in PARS. If you haven't got much set up on SIMS already and can use PARS for your behaviour management and assessment it's well worth considering

[jenny_urey]

Hiya

 

Thought a little input from the horses mouth wouldnt hurt on this occasion after reading posts.

 

Behaviour on all aspects from logging incidents to referrals, detention registers, On Report Target levels (dont want to give too much away due to competitive eyes) .. is completely configurable by a school and I have not yet found a school who cannot use our behaviour feature. Data entered into PARS can be seen in SIMS if required. If PARS is configured as required, there is no need for teachers to have to jump between systems and all is available.

 

Grading is extremely easy to configure whether it be grades only used in PARS or Assessment Manager links allowing grading data to be read/write back into SIMS if required. With the Connect functionailty offering teachers access to enter data from home in their own time writing back to ASM.

 

I am not going to give comparisons of software on a Forum as it will only enable other potential competitiors to see what is available from PARS.

 

My advice is to contact the office; we have seminars running in July for all PARS users to update them on what we are doing due to many new features added over the past year. We have a team here who will be happy to visit onsite to update the school on the software if required and support are available here at anytime to call.

 

If a school has moved from PARS, its usually due to not realising what is available or pressures from outside sources who once again probably unaware of how PARS has helped schools. (Very frustrating!) We do also have schools who have left us and come back again....one incidently located in Cumbria.

 

Thanks

 

Jenny

[Geoff]

Indeed, it looks to be 99% sure we're going down the PARS route. We're also hosting one of your Seminars.

[Sivadam]

For some reason these forums genarally give a negative view of SIMS. If you posted query on SupportNet then I am sure you would get a different set of opinions.

I have never used Pars so cannot comment on it. All I can say is it must be very, very good in deed if it is better than SIMS! And, for me, SIMS Support is nothing short of excellent!

[russdev]

Hi

 

One of the things about Sims is as people have pointed out on other forums such as supportnet some people do not understand the potential a MIS can have. To be fair there a lot of people on here technical and non technical who do know that. Even if some people on SupportNet do not think that.

 

The fact that we have a very good relationship with Capita as they welcome the feedback that they get form places like EduGeek.net and SupportNet.

 

Problem is you always going to get a positive outlook on SupportNet same as get positive feedback on RM Communities as you always will do on official forums. But best feedback for any product is from ones that have moved away.

 

Again Capita is bit like RM they are always going to be seen as the bad guys. All you can do show where you have had positive examples from a product but be aware other people might not have same experience of a product that you have had (heck Tony reminds me this all the time when we talk about RM).

 

Russ

[Sivadam]

I have been a reader of these Forums for a while before I started contributing.

The reason that have started to respond is that I am apalled by the lack of knowldge re. SIMS Systems by some contributors and/or the way that some schools have SIMS set up so that it will not deliver what it is intended to do.

This in itself is not what I take issue to, but it is the fact that many of these contributors actually blame SIMS itself (or Capita) when in fact SIMS will do most what we want it to do in a very efficient way.

Edited June 23, 2009 by Sivadam

[pete]

For some reason these forums genarally give a negative view of SIMS. If you posted query on SupportNet then I am sure you would get a different set of opinions.

I have never used Pars so cannot comment on it. All I can say is it must be very, very good in deed if it is better than SIMS! And, for me, SIMS Support is nothing short of excellent!

 

To be fair, Edugeek gives a negative view overall of most MIS, hell - most software. We (as IT people) generally see end-user software in two states a) while we're installing it b) when it's misbehaving. Hence ASSAHS.

 

Sims works fine 99.9% of the time here and for "X is broken, how do I fix it" type problems the Capita helldesk are good. Where they fall down is the left-field, not completely straightforward queries that require some input from 2nd/3rd line or developers - these issues often appear to have been abandoned (though they haven't) because of a lack of updates.

 

From my point of view, where Tasc differentiates is that they're smaller and it's easier for them to respond and implement a feature request (i.e "can we have a button on X that does Y"). I know why Capita can't be that responsive, but I like the fact that Tasc can.

[Hecate]

Hiya

 

Data entered into PARS can be seen in SIMS if required. If PARS is configured as required, there is no need for teachers to have to jump between systems and all is available.

Jenny :

 

I don't want to get into a huge debate on this because there was a lot about PARS we liked but I would like to take issue with Jenny on this one point. When we were using PARS (up to last July) we couldn't get the assessment and behaviour data across into SIMS in a form we could use with our existing report templates etc and we decided we didn't want to junk 18 months work spent in setting up SIMS and redoing it in PARS. If we hadn't had so much already set up we may well have stayed with PARS

[jenny_urey]

For some reason these forums genarally give a negative view of SIMS. If you posted query on SupportNet then I am sure you would get a different set of opinions.

I have never used Pars so cannot comment on it. All I can say is it must be very, very good in deed if it is better than SIMS! And, for me, SIMS Support is nothing short of excellent!

 

PARS suport is 'very very god indeed' and proud to say it!

[jenny_urey]

I don't want to get into a huge debate on this because there was a lot about PARS we liked but I would like to take issue with Jenny on this one point. When we were using PARS (up to last July) we couldn't get the assessment and behaviour data across into SIMS in a form we could use with our existing report templates etc and we decided we didn't want to junk 18 months work spent in setting up SIMS and redoing it in PARS. If we hadn't had so much already set up we may well have stayed with PARS

 

Hiya

Could do with finding out what school you are in as I ony know of 3x Cumbria Schools with PARS: 1 went to CMIS to which we dont work with, 1 left us and came back and the other left us as they did not have the hardware infrastructure in place and teachers were unabe to log attendance & behaviour so until the hardware had been put in all rooms there was no point continuing until this was sorted; I dont know the school you are in.

 

In behaviour configurations there is a button allowing data to be written back into SiMS behaviour module. ASM links is a quick click of a few buttons (used to have to import via csv, not anymore) so data can be seen in PARS thus allowing teachers to enter grades from home writing back to ASM (if required)

 

As mentioned I do not know which school you represent and certainly not aware of any issues with regards to read/writing PARS/SIMS data. If either myself or my support team knew of any issue, we could have directed you into the right place or tick box within PARS allowing you to use as required. Issues like this occur when permissions have not been setup as you require. It will basically be configurations.

 

If we know of requirements, we will either direct you to the correct place on PARS or add the functionality for you.

 

I cannot comment on benefits of using PARS on this forum for various reasons and if you are not aware of the full functionailty then we have a team of people who can advise....including moi.

 

With regards to specific reports, as we write templates for schools with bespoke requirements in XML format, this means that you can have any information .. incuding attendance, behaviour and grading with calculations showing parents are on target if required... We have not yet had a deisgn request which we have been unable to offer. We do not use Word, excel formats; as these are too basic with limited layers of data.

 

Hope that covers the information you were looking for and if you want to speak to me directly or me to pop to the school then please let me know.

 

Thanks

[Hecate]

Jenny

 

I won't get into a huge debate over our specific issues as I don't think this forum is the really place for it. You can probably work out which school we are if you think about it and we did discuss with you (or your colleagues) at the time the issue of data in PARS behaviour being mapped to specific SIMS fields rather than most of it being dumped in the comments field and were told there was no prospect of any changes in the foreseeable future.

 

On reporting - we like the way we can design our own quite complex reports in SIMS and found it fairly restrictive to have to ask for templates to be designed for us when we wanted something not in the standard set. Also on at least one occasion I was told what we wanted couldn't be done and ended up rekeying data into SIMS to do it from there

 

I do agree that PARS has some really good features particularly the messaging which SIMS still hasn't caught up with. It just didn't work for us beyond registration

[Sivadam]

'Very very god in deed'

 

Should that not have a capital letter.....??

[jenny_urey]

I don't want to get into a huge debate on this because there was a lot about PARS we liked but I would like to take issue with Jenny on this one point. When we were using PARS (up to last July) we couldn't get the assessment and behaviour data across into SIMS in a form we could use with our existing report templates etc and we decided we didn't want to junk 18 months work spent in setting up SIMS and redoing it in PARS. If we hadn't had so much already set up we may well have stayed with PARS

 

Sorry for late reply...havent been on here for ages!

 

The easiest way to disuss this is over the phone really as I dont want to be seen as 'selling' PARS! I will get kicked off by the lovely Edugeek guys if I do (ps...I still wear your Edugeek T-shirt )

 

Firstly, did you mention to our support or even myself what data you wanted to see? There is one click button in behaviour preferences allowing data in behaviour to be written back into SIMS... merits & demerits. PARS cannot write neutral behaviour logging, referalls inclduing calls to parents, continual incident support logs showing all support based on a students behaviour, detention registers seen in timetables.... as there is no-where in SIMS to write back into. With grading, you can choose was aspects you want to see in PARS. Many schools I have worked with..infact most.. dont want to see ALL the aspects from SIMS in PARS basically as teachers dont need to see them all.. example, you may only want KS levels to be added. PARS Connect (PARS remote access) then allows teachers to enter data from home including ASM data which writes back straight away. text messaging, extra curriculum classes, homework diary, telephone message reporting logged in PARS cannot be seen in SIMS either -- once again as there is no-one to place it.

 

You certainly dont need to junk information in SIMS... PARS does give many features extra for teachers plus alerts to SLT and pastoral if required - depends how you analyse and what you want to see.

 

Many users of PARS do not know the full potential of PARS and how powerful it is and how data can easily be obtained without having to endlessly pull off reports... even if you did have to run reports, you can automate them and schedule tem for futures (example % attendance reports sent to HOY every Monday morning)

 

Data can all be generated in reports including bespoke designed options including colour coding, calculation, logos, pictures, (particulaly great for parents...green on target - red under target etc...) Reports can also be produced for parents showing attendance, behaviour and grading information and it is html format which means it can be sen in VLEs and *Parental Access (*subject tio who you are using!...obviously works in our INSIGHT)

 

So basically...if information is required to be written back into PARS, the answer is a phone call away.

 

Hope this answers your question

 

Jenny

[jenny_urey]

'Very very god in deed'

 

Should that not have a capital letter.....??

 

Good also however they are the answer to peoples prayers sometimes

[Sivadam]

One wonders why anybody would want to have an extra piece of software to use in place of SIMS if they are SIMS users anyway.

There simply is no point when SIMS works so brilliantly in these areas!