[acs] Getting An MIS To Talk Across The Consortium

[6Foot2]

We are in a consortium of three schools and we are using Serco Facility/ePortal. Each school has its own database and there is another for The Consortium [sixth form]

 

I have been asked to see if there is a way to get our databases to work in the following way:

 

Student 1 from school A registers at school B. The database at school A is automatically updated.

 

Teacher from school A has students from all three schools and has reports to write. He also has reports to write for students for the lower school [his home school] He would like to be able to login to ePortal for school A and complete all report without having to log out and in again to write The Consortium reports.

 

In fact is there a way to enter/extract data when logged in to the home school database and have the data automatically synchronised across the databses. [Do other Consortia have this working already: If yes how did you do it?]

 

Many thanks.

[matt40k]

If you were using SIMS, it would be called Partnership Xchange. As you don't I guess your after a SIF solution.

[6Foot2]

Is Partnership Xchange able to cope with differing day patterns across the schools?

 

[eg: School finishes at 3:00 on Wednesday and the other two finish at 3:30 while school B has 7 teaching periods all week while school C has 6]

[matt40k]

Pretty sure it could, but not sure if it works with non-SIMS MIS systems. @PhilNeal would be the guy to ask (we'll ignore the fact he'll go ask Andy Sykes or someone)

[APC]

This is exactly what we have been told Progresso will be able to do at no extra cost - I'm lead to believe that Partnership Exchange is fairly costly and some local authorities have had lots and lots of issues with it...

[matt40k]

It's getting better from what I hear. Not cheap, but not sure if that's come down as well.

[Banjo]

You could try CLM and group call to solve the attendance problem.

 

To write a report the teacher would need to login to a eportal write the report, and then that school exports the reports as a pdf to be uploaded to the other two schools doc storage. Not ideal, but a work around.

 

Or you could just wait for Progresso

[michael2k6]

I believe Partnership exchange currently works with Facility too and even at consortiums of a mixed SIMS / Facility implementation. But yes, progresso does solve your problem out of the box, as long as when you move to it, you let us know that the schools are all part of the same 'cluster'.

 

Mic

[6Foot2]

Thanks to all who have replied. It looks like we should wait for Progresso to solve this.

[michael2k6]

If you would like more informtion about Progresso and how it deals with this please give your account manager a shout or PM me for my details, If you're happy to wait, I'm sure you wont be disapointed, but I also don't want any ambiguity about what it will and wont do, I dont' want you wasting your time or feeling mislead!

But as I say, from your description, you're sound. Just if you want more details.

 

Mic

[penfold_99]

Is Partnership Xchange able to cope with differing day patterns across the schools?

 

[eg: School finishes at 3:00 on Wednesday and the other two finish at 3:30 while school B has 7 teaching periods all week while school C has 6]

 

it can a bit, from speaking with the capita developer at the SIF conferences, this is one of the common problems they face.

Edited December 2, 2011 by penfold_99
added quote

[penfold_99]

I believe Partnership exchange currently works with Facility too and even at consortiums of a mixed SIMS / Facility implementation. But yes, progresso does solve your problem out of the box, as long as when you move to it, you let us know that the schools are all part of the same 'cluster'.

 

Mic

 

Given how partnership exchange implements SIF, it uses a custom message broker to allow multiple schools to be in one zone, it wouldn't be possible to add facility to the mix. I haven't heard of any implementation that is uses it. I will double check at the next SIF UK technical board meeting next week.

[michael2k6]

Sorry, I was going on a conversation I was involved in last week where a school was told that they could do exactly that - I know nothing about it other than this conversation.

 

My advice to the OP would be to check with your account manager directly, or PM me so I can put you in touch with the person I've got this information from.

 

I do know that we have a SIF functionality somewhere in the mix and that we're also partners with Capita (i'm not sure that the terminology of partners is correct, that's my own terminology not that of either Serco or Capita, someone please feel free to correct me), so it's not beyond the realms of possibility... as I say I'm just repeating a conversation I was involved in between someone else at Serco and a customer.

 

Mic