grahamd22 Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 Has anyone dived in and got schoolcomms as we use SIMS.Net and SLG here but we are currently using TruancyCall/Callparents and just wondered whether its worth moving over not just financially but if it works better with SIMS?
Sivadam Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 (edited) We have been using Schoolcomms for quite a while now - Just one comment to make - 'Brilliant'. I cannot comment on Truancy Call - never used it as we wanted to get away from contacting Parents via Phone (if you see what I mean! ) Edited January 26, 2010 by Sivadam
mullet_man Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 We use a system called Keep Kids Safe, we moved from Callparents. Our attandance officer loves it.
Sivadam Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 (edited) Pity it doesn't write to SIMS Attendance like Schoolcomms does! (Or does it now, since the time when we rejected it!?) Edited January 26, 2010 by Sivadam
Sylv3r Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 We've used schoolcomms for about 12 months with no issues - I had a quick look around BETT and most companies charge a similar amount. I would recommend schoolcomms but I haven't tried its competitiors. Do a search on here this quite a few similar topics with pro's and con's for most companies.
mb2k01 Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 There was a similar thread not too long ago which I posted some feedback in. Rather than repeat, I'll post the link so you can see the other comments too http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/44350-truancy-call.html 1
THERADIOTUBBY Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 Schoolcomms now has web client so I can text from my old rocking chair in front of the roaring fire. Support has always been excellent.
Sivadam Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 Or from a 3 foot snow drift high on Kinder Moor via your Mobile phone. (Now don't all go rushing to see where that is!) Assuming you have got reception that is .......
superfletch Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 Sorry if this hijacks the OP - it isn't meant to. Can I ask those of you who have already implemented these sorts of systems. What did you have to do before going ahead? What I'm getting at here is... Did you need to get parents consent first (and how did you approach it)? Depending on the comms system you use - does the s/w actually hold data (and if so where is it held - local / cloud) or does it simply ask your MIS for the information as and when it needs? TIA
vikpaw Posted January 27, 2010 Posted January 27, 2010 we use schoolcomms, but i wasn't involved in the implementation. i run the client and log into their system and have to run an import which taps into SIMS and extracts all users / groups onto their system. teachers is quick, student / parental contacts takes 40-60 mins from the overseas connection. the import at the moment is manual and their are no reminders, though i talked to the MD at BETT to try and get a 'you last updated x days ago message' on the admin screen. It only takes priority 1 contacts or 2 if you specify. It only takes the main email address. Bear this in mind, i have posted elsewhere about this as SIMS allows you to mark more than one email as main, so you have to be careful how your data is entered in sims. I have a customised data collection form to take account of all this. It complains if there are any contacts in the system with no priority even if the student already has a priority 1 and a priority 2. texts/emails are then sent from their system and the copy of our data. for us the phone numbers therefore need international dialling code prefixes. one recommended set up is to request parents to agree to using the system, and sign up to it. that is not necessary and we just insist on usage of it, due to the environment we live in. it works really well and is used for emergency notices, parent evening reminders, exam reminders if need be. the new web interface is pretty cool too. support is good and they are happy to take change requests, unfortunately these don't appear to be published so other schools can vote on them as with SIMS, so unless many people request exactly the same thing they tend to get lost. ( i don't see any reason to call parents now, if you can email and text the majority, and handle the responses that come back, in terms of absence and write back to sims, it's pretty top notch as far as i can see.
mb2k01 Posted January 27, 2010 Posted January 27, 2010 That is an interesting question... As with so many things, I got involved with this technology at a late stage - i.e. being expected to install it when the decision had already been made by Leadership! I may be wrong, but I don't think we asked parents at all. We simply identified an issue (absence calling being inefficient) and implemented a solution to make it easier and more efficient to manage and useful to Parents. While we could have just had the Truancy Call (automated absence calling) package by itself, we also bought in to the Call Parents (Customised Text/Email messages to Parents) and Text Someone (Asking pupils or parents to text us - reporting incidents, concerns etc). The Call Parents package was well-used during our snow closure period, and feedback from parents was great. As for data, it's a bit more complicated with these packages. The physical applications (i.e. software installed IN school) links with SIMS. When you log in to the application it also logs in to SIMS in the background, and pulls attendance and contact information through. Data is therefore still in school, and also doesn't really leave SIMS. For Call Parents, there is a web-based product for use outside of school. This requires the uploading of contact information to their site... which I'm guessing links with your question / thinking. I will do some digging on this... Sorry if this hijacks the OP - it isn't meant to. Can I ask those of you who have already implemented these sorts of systems. What did you have to do before going ahead? What I'm getting at here is... Did you need to get parents consent first (and how did you approach it)? Depending on the comms system you use - does the s/w actually hold data (and if so where is it held - local / cloud) or does it simply ask your MIS for the information as and when it needs?
glennda Posted January 27, 2010 Posted January 27, 2010 Has anyone dived in and got schoolcomms as we use SIMS.Net and SLG here but we are currently using TruancyCall/Callparents and just wondered whether its worth moving over not just financially but if it works better with SIMS? We use both, the systems see to work fine Toby
Sivadam Posted January 27, 2010 Posted January 27, 2010 Vic - if you contact Schoolcomms then you can change the priorities! And it seems that you are missing out on the Absence bit of it with the write back facility to Attendance!
Dancer Posted January 27, 2010 Posted January 27, 2010 When ever the schoolcomms/truancycall et al arise I generally feel that Truancy call is damned by the faintness of it praise whilst schoolcomm users are much more impressed. We have used truancycall/callparent for getting on 6 years and all the praise I can give it is that its ok. Never having used schoolcomms I can't compare directly but main difference is that TrunacyCall can send a voice call to parents about an absence whilst schoolcomms can't. An earlier post said they went with schoolcomms because they wanted to move away from calls to text, we on the other hand want a phone call that parent respond to - horses for courses. My biggest criticism is this We want them to link to MIS (I would say it essential in all but the smallest school for first day calling) but We have been texting sixth students (not thier parents) long before schoolcomm/callparent offered this functionality (we had to create a UDF to store the number in as the MIS didn't have anywhere to store student numbers back then). So we used (and still use for the sixthform) one of the many internet based sms services not linked to an MIS. These have a lower cost per text and no other fees (either to setup or ongoing - we choose to pay a small fee to have a number students can text us on) and it provide a much better user experience. The big issue is we have to keep running reports from the MIS to keep the contact DB uptodate, this works fine for 6thform - 1 student 1 phone number. Ideally I would like to (in a simlar way to mailmerge reports) direct out of MIS with the full reporting functionallty - we text parents of students who were put in detention to inform them. This is done by someone hand picking the students out the list of all students and sending a generic text. This is done by producing a report of those given a detention yesturday, the report also is used to produce a letter home - how much easier if the report also sent the text with some info on why and where etc(admittdly within the character limits)
Sivadam Posted January 27, 2010 Posted January 27, 2010 I think that, eventually, this functionality will be included within SLG. And it might not be that far over the horizon either. It would not surprise me if Schoolcomms was involved in this in some way or other.
vikpaw Posted January 31, 2010 Posted January 31, 2010 Vic - if you contact Schoolcomms then you can change the priorities! And it seems that you are missing out on the Absence bit of it with the write back facility to Attendance! i'm confused. The default implementation Schoolcomms told me is to only import priority 1 contacts, or 2 as well, if you specify. As i said: It only takes priority 1 contacts or 2 if you specify. The only quirk is, that if you have a contact that you don't put a priority on, the system complains during the import process. It's not really a situation that should arise, nonetheless it can and does for some of our data, and there's no need for Schoolcomms to whinge about it. What 'Absence bit' am i missing out on? : i don't see any reason to call parents now, if you can email and text the majority, and handle the responses that come back, in terms of absence and write back to sims, it's pretty top notch as far as i can see. I agree with you, that SLG will take over most of this sort of functionality in the future. Certainly the email side of things. Texting would still go through Schoolcomms i can imagine, and emails too if you want that link back to attendance. It's probably about time, Capita just bought out Schoolcomms and absorbed their systems... @Dancer - i like the idea of leaving a voicemail, but we prefer text or email. Still it's a nice idea. I can't believe that you don't have a link in to MIS, that should be a big push from all users surely...? We too have another texting service that we had before schoolcomms, in fact we don't really use schoolcomms for text, it's only email for pretty much all purposes. come over to schoolcomms, it will make your life easier plus you can say you got in before Capita took them over
steele757 Posted September 11, 2012 Posted September 11, 2012 truancy Call and Call Parents works with Sims...School comms is very expensive, there are alot of extra's to pay for aswell. Has anyone dived in and got schoolcomms as we use SIMS.Net and SLG here but we are currently using TruancyCall/Callparents and just wondered whether its worth moving over not just financially but if it works better with SIMS?
vikpaw Posted September 12, 2012 Posted September 12, 2012 truancy Call and Call Parents works with Sims...School comms is very expensive, there are alot of extra's to pay for aswell. That's news to me, we've been happy customers for years. All we pay is maintenance and the only extra is if i need to buy more texts! 1
GREED Posted September 12, 2012 Posted September 12, 2012 (edited) I was a very happy customer for many a year and still advocate they are a great company, service and product. Expensive? Not really, just your standard annual maintenance. Simple, easy product that just works, and is web based (apart from the integration client on the server)... so I likey very muchly! Surprised Groupcall Messenger hasn't been mentioned here... big advocate of these guys too Edited September 12, 2012 by GREED 1
steele757 Posted September 19, 2012 Posted September 19, 2012 I've seen on here with other comments suggesting they charge quite a large sum for extra trianing if it's needed and also pay more to have it on more than 1 computer. I've also looked on the website myself and it's extra for more than 1 licence?
GREED Posted September 19, 2012 Posted September 19, 2012 As far as I remember, the software is so easy it doesn't require much training! I know there is the additional multi-user licence cost. 1
vikpaw Posted September 20, 2012 Posted September 20, 2012 Yep there is a multi-user licence, but defo never needed training. We're thousands of miles away, and it's fine. The support is also really good, i even have one of their guys emailing me on a sunday. Not that i've much needed support, it's usually just my internet being flaky, or the last time a user's S drive not mapped correctly. 1
Schoolcomms Posted October 2, 2012 Posted October 2, 2012 I don't think we have charged a single customer for training in 2012. We only charge for training in exceptional circumstances - generally only if a school wants repeated onsite training for a large number of users. As the other posts here show, the vast majority of our users become completely confident in all aspects of the software during their free trial. We consider the quality of our support as something which really distinguishes us, and this is completely free for as long as you are a customer. Regards Schoolcomms 2
vikpaw Posted October 2, 2012 Posted October 2, 2012 For those not in the know, there are some cool new features: There's a web interface, so no more desktop client required apart from for Admin, You can send e-cards, which work great for primary, and staff! You can send timetables to staff and students, and there is an extra module they've developed which is to handle parents evenings. They're also working with GroupCall Emerge to integrate with that. Oh and some kind of payments system as well.
GREED Posted October 2, 2012 Posted October 2, 2012 I didn't know half of that (the latter half of that list) @vikpaw how awesome
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