Costs for MIS

[NikChillin]

Can anyone give me an idea of the costs involved with an MIS system and any recommendations?

[creese]

SIMS (Capita) has a fairly complicated system. Based on type of school, no. of pupils, extra modules etc.

[elsiegee40]

Are you in state or independent education?... it makes a difference.

 

Actually I can probably guess you're in independent... the state schools all have something.

 

SchoolBase and Scholarpack are both flexible and designed for the fee charging problems that independent schools have.... SIMS and ECBS Pass both work out very expensive.

[Max_Power]

as well as the other things mentioned it depends on what you want your MIS to do - basic legal obligations? Or more things such as write reports, email parents etc.

the more modules you use within the MIS generally means bigger liecnce / support costs.

 

Then there are server licence / setup costs etc - very difficult to give a figure without a little more information about what you want to achieve and the size of the school etc

[NikChillin]

We are a state run school and currently have an purpose built inhouse system. We would like to know the costs if we decided to adopt a new system. Something which would do reports, email parents, pastoral logs etc.

[creese]

Treat it like any other service or product, get a few companies in to quote for you. Also check with your local LA (or LAs local to you), some are very good at their job.

[Sivadam]

We are a state run school and currently have an purpose built inhouse system. We would like to know the costs if we decided to adopt a new system. Something which would do reports, email parents, pastoral logs etc.

If I was in your shoes I would get some quotes for your establishment from different companies and then go and visit some schools who use those particular MISs as high end users!

[NikChillin]

You're right but I hate the continuous follow up calls we get afterwards...

[creese]

You're right but I hate the continuous follow up calls we get afterwards...

 

I don't think you will get too much trouble with the main MIS suppliers. Certainly not with an LA team, lots of them are open to non-local support these days.

[babugs]

I agree with you. Sometimes it is very annoying. Have you approached ENGAGE MIS system. The system has a wonderful reporting tool which is very easy to use by a non IT person. Modules like profile, exam, attendance parents portal, auto emailing/alert has rich features. I don't say the product is cheap ! but definetly not expensive compared to SIMS, Chancery and Rediker software. They are very expensive!!! I don't know why?

 

But the issue with ENGAGE was the support timing. The main office is located in UK. The time zone difference!. Even though remote support from them is good. But we are 8 hours ahead of UK timing. Initial we struggled a lot. Recently they started an office in Asia ...solved the problem.