vikpaw Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 I'll be at the BETT show next week, and will get a chance to speak to some high level people, so: If you had 10 mins to talk to the MD / Product Manager of your MIS what would you talk about / ask them? You can't necessarily waste time talking about problems or unique issues, but what would you want to know? Some of my initial ideas: Looking at where we are today is this where you expected to be? What developments are coming in the future? Where do you see the market in 5/10/20 years time? How will new technology be utilised? How is the development resource / budget split across the various product areas? Is interoperability between systems high on the agenda? Which part of the software is developing the most? What extra areas do you see the company expanding into? With more and more competition in the market, what makes your MIS the one to choose? What would you like to know? I've not mentioned any particular MIS to try to avoid any really software specific questions, but if you have them, please post, as some things are very unique.
featured_spectre Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 Why is there such a long period between OS/office releases and their adaptation to them. They have access to RTM products so why does it take so long to make the tweak when RTM is usually out for 3-6 months before public release for this type of thing! 1
pete Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 It would involve cross-browser support and testing. I'd also be interested in how support/development and training budgets (for the helldesk) are split between products. There are often disconnects between where I expect a product to be (support/dev/helldesk-wise) and where it actually is, especially if I jump from one product to another less-used product. 1
sparkeh Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 One question: Why can't we have an msi for SIMS deployment?
sted Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 One question: Why can't we have an msi for SIMS deployment? or why cant it run as a web app/run the main app from a mapped drive on a server so you dont need to keep fixing the ****er when it decides not to work on 1/2 the schools pcs for no obvious reason 3
CyberNerd Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 When will you make this an operating system independent Web application? It is long overdue.
sparkeh Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 or why cant it run as a web app/run the main app from a mapped drive on a server so you dont need to keep fixing the ****er when it decides not to work on 1/2 the schools pcs for no obvious reason Even better! I wanna change my question
Michael Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 When will you make this an operating system independent Web application? It is long overdue. I have to agree with CyberNerd here. Good question
GREED Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 When will you make this an operating system independent Web application? It is long overdue. Very good question. Come see me on J6 and I might just show you.
GREED Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 I'll be at the BETT show next week, and will get a chance to speak to some high level people, so: If you had 10 mins to talk to the MD / Product Manager of your MIS what would you talk about / ask them? You can't necessarily waste time talking about problems or unique issues, but what would you want to know? Some of my initial ideas: Looking at where we are today is this where you expected to be? What developments are coming in the future? Where do you see the market in 5/10/20 years time? How will new technology be utilised? How is the development resource / budget split across the various product areas? Is interoperability between systems high on the agenda? Which part of the software is developing the most? What extra areas do you see the company expanding into? With more and more competition in the market, what makes your MIS the one to choose? What would you like to know? I've not mentioned any particular MIS to try to avoid any really software specific questions, but if you have them, please post, as some things are very unique. Vik I have to say your last question there is the top: Just why should you buy from them? Even worse, what will you do to help with the transition between systems? Some others I think of: > What connectivity do you have with 3rd parties? What connectivity do you have with Learning Management Systems? > What do your students get out of this system? (That is why we are all working, right?) > What innovation does your software have over the others? > How do you make staff lives easier with your system? 1
CyberNerd Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 Very good question. Come see me on J6 and I might just show you. It could save us a fortune in forced MS updates
FragglePete Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 A question to ask; "Why is it your company was the only software company that forced Schools to relicense your software at a very high cost when they converted to an Academy?" Pete
GREED Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 A question to ask; "Why is it your company was the only software company that forced Schools to relicense your software at a very high cost when they converted to an Academy?" Pete Can I be there when you ask that director the question?
Sivadam Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 I would not ask him anything that I would not feel free to ask at any time. No need to do that at a public event!
GREED Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 Mike!! Long time no speak! Are you coming to BETT??
Sivadam Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 Mike!! Long time no speak! Are you coming to BETT??Sorry, fraid not! Currently I am off work too with v.bad head cold! And on a v.special birthday! :-(
vikpaw Posted January 9, 2012 Author Posted January 9, 2012 Thanks for all the great input guys. Don't forget, it's not necessarily one MIS i was considering, but i see where you are with some of those sims questions. It's not just that this is a public event, i'm not planning on getting up on stage with a microphone, just wandering what info people might like. Anyone can ask these questions, but with 25,000+ schools, if everyone raised there hand, they'd spend a year writing responses and not developing the products, this gives us a chance to push some questions collectively and share the responses.
matt40k Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 My question... what? No chocolates at Christmas! My birthday's in March, what you getting me? When will you make this an operating system independent Web application? It is long overdue. Oh god, another person jumping on the cloud bandwagon. I agree for most teachers, a pretty web front end would be better then a bloated .net application. I miss the old bromcom winfolder, didn't matter if it was out-of-date and it was under 10mb. One question: Why can't we have an msi for SIMS deployment? I've said this before, so search for my more detailed answer. It's possible, but it won't help everyone, centrally hosted would have to have a transformation tool and MSI introduces more problems. Was just having fun today with s3 agent, didn't know it was even possible to have the same msi installed twice!! Personally if you're high look at either SCCM (which with the new MS licensing is peanuts) or SOLUS3 (can be a pain, but free)
CyberNerd Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 Oh god, another person jumping on the cloud bandwagon. I agree for most teachers, a pretty web front end would be better then a bloated .net application. I miss the old bromcom winfolder, didn't matter if it was out-of-date and it was under 10mb. It doesn't necessarily need to be in the cloud, onsite would be fine -I just need something that doesn't have to be installed on the clients, something that is operating system independant and supports web standards. some of our teachers are crying out for android/ipad devices and (certain) .NET applications are becoming a huge barrier to how our teachers want to progress teaching and learning. It's starting to get very expensive (30k p/a when including MIS licensing) if we're buying MS licenses, SQL, Server, CALS etc essentially to run a MIS. 1
matt40k Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 something that is operating system independant and supports web standards. some of our teachers are crying out for android/ipad devices and (certain) Key point - without any extra cost!!
vikpaw Posted January 9, 2012 Author Posted January 9, 2012 Terminal services or remote apps?? But saying S3 'can be a pain' is an understatement
matt40k Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 More money tho isn't it and another set of problems.
CyberNerd Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 More money tho isn't it and another set of problems. Indeed. all the MIS systems I've seen are relatively basic compared to the plethora of web 2.0 apps around. This isn't 1995. Capita should really move this forward; at the very least to save schools a few quid in support and licensing.
matt40k Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 Mmm... I don't think web 2.0 is the answer to all the problems. HTML5 should be a good step forward, but not the miracle. Certain things can't be done and I think it's important to remember that. Personally the biggest problem is, soon as Capita release a web MIS, they're going to be stupid and force only hosted, which lets face it, they're pants at. Let's hope I'm wrong about them forcing it.
localzuk Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 Mmm... I don't think web 2.0 is the answer to all the problems. HTML5 should be a good step forward, but not the miracle. Certain things can't be done and I think it's important to remember that. Personally the biggest problem is, soon as Capita release a web MIS, they're going to be stupid and force only hosted, which lets face it, they're pants at. Let's hope I'm wrong about them forcing it. What can't be done in HTML5 + AJAX + DOM stuff? There is much more complicated software out there which is entirely web based - just look at Zoho!
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