[sims] Death of SIMS Mobile

[matt40k]

SIMS Mobile Support

 

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

This news item is to announce that from the SIMS 2012 Spring Release, SIMS Mobile will no longer be supported. If you have any further queries, please feel free to contact me by email at ben [dot] jones [at] capita.co.uk

 

Our offering in the Mobile Market is Emerge, more information on Emerge can be found at Emerge.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Ben Jones

 

For those that asked about SIMS Mobile and what my I thought of it. I want to say I told you so, but... I TOLD YOU!!! Finally the end of of a truly horrible add-on. You have my sympathy if you rushed out and bought it and got a load of Windows PDAs, wonder if they'll do a trade-in or a Windows PDA app?

[irsprint84]

I remember at last school prob was 20% of jobs, mostly losing connections even though it supposedly would write to SD card

[localzuk]

Oh wow, that's really going to make some schools angry. I'd be fuming if we had bit the bullet 2 years ago and bought it.

[matt40k]

Yup, still you should have run a mile after reading the quote and the manual.

[vikpaw]

Now why, in today's market, wouldn't somebody have thought to allow people to migrate to the new product or get a discount or other benefit.

It's basically saying, whoops, we realised it wasn't that good, but you can go here and pay these guys now.

What's the potential loss to a school.

[NorthernSands]

I do feel for the schools that implemented it, but even two years ago, WinMo was a dated system, and weren't the requirements WinMo5?

 

Regarding Emerge: why, oh why, is it just for idevices? Sure, they are popular devices, and for good reason, but they aren't a business tool (and I'm not saying Android is either) and do we really expect schools to stump up the cost of even an ipod? Or is the expectation that teachers will use their own personal devices? Who's going to provide support? Up-skill the technicians? IOS devices may have had greater market share, in terms of a single mobile OS / single manufacturer than any other single mobile OS / single manufacturer, but that market share was still way less than half the total, so not the most popular overall. And the writing has been on the wall for a good year with regards to the uptake of Android. Sure, they had to start developing this some time ago, but the choice they made to only support IOS lacked foresight. How are they going to support Android? A new native app? What about Windows Phone 7 (if it ever takes off)? Only developing for a single OS / manufacturer forces users down a specific route, or discriminates against those who won't (I also think this of forcing Windows use). Developing multiple native apps for multiple platforms is a waste of time and money when they can all share a common platform: web tech.

 

All smartphones now have a decent browser and all support a lot of HTML5 and other modern web standards (CSS3 etc...). Surely that's the way forward?

 

Pros: Develop once but use on multiple devices, automatic support for any new devices that appear in the future, better support for current low power devices that struggle with the current client (nettops etc...), if following the strict standards support becomes a browser issue (not Capita's), established encryption and security, better handling of different screen sizes / resolutions, Capita have already said they are heading for the cloud rather than specific native applications, schools can choose exactly which product to go for (nettops even those cheap Chinese Android tablets).

 

Cons: er, Capita don't get that marketing buzzy crap about getting on the idevice band-wagon, they may have to provide a compatibility support list.

 

Anyone else thinking this way? Or is it just me?

 

Sorry, bit of a rant. I just get frustrated when companies listen to their marketing bozos rather than actually thinking it through. Please, Phil Neal, explain your reasoning and prove me wrong.

 

PS.: Hope I haven't offended any idevice users!

[vikpaw]

@NorthernSands - have you seen the sticky thread at top of the MIS forum, perhaps your views would be better placed there.

 

The main reasoning for iDevice, or so i'm told is the inherent security and protection that comes with it. Android and Win7 are in development and i believe due to be released shortly.

 

I do agree with the idea of going web based rather than OS oriented.

Edited April 12, 2011 by vikpaw
typo

[NorthernSands]

Ha! You're right Vik. When I started writing it I didn't intend to make it like that, but got carried away! Must stop doing that.

 

I should indeed migrate to the stickied thread and read that...

 

But hey, if it went web based, then all those WinMo devices the school's have bought might still work!

[Iain.Faulkner]

I'm sure our business manager will be delighted at this, guess what route we went down about 2 1/2 years ago (just before I arrived I'd hasten to add) :-)

 

Sadly though the school are incredibly keen on our PE department doing wireless registers....wonder where we're going to find the money to buy ipod touches/ ipads from as well as new software?

[wizzard]

I'm sure our business manager will be delighted at this, guess what route we went down about 2 1/2 years ago (just before I arrived I'd hasten to add) :-)

 

Sadly though the school are incredibly keen on our PE department doing wireless registers....wonder where we're going to find the money to buy ipod touches/ ipads from as well as new software?

 

Didn't you know? Money grows on trees

[matt40k]

To be fair Capita normally says replace on a 3 year cycle, and it'll be 3 and half year by next year.

[NorthernSands]

To be fair Capita normally says replace on a 3 year cycle, and it'll be 3 and half year by next year.

 

True, in terms of hardware. Not true in terms of licencing. I don't know the licence / maintenance model of the old mobile system, but if it's like pretty much anything else in SIMS, it's a steep licence cost, with a cheaper yearly maintenance charge. You don't replace your licence every 3 years.

[matt40k]

All depends on how you think about it, if you got a 4GB pen drive a few years ago it was hundreds of pounds, now they're about a few pounds. Hopefully they'll give a nice discount if you swap over, failing that a few days of onsite training.