[sims] What's wrong with Capita

[matt40k]

Common mistake, you've looked at the total bill, cut out all the bits you ended up picking up, look at cost of what you originally required. The core SIMS license is peanuts, it really is cheap, it's all the extras. Schools get into that, well, whilst I'm here, I might as well get, rather then going else where.

 

OK, it's going to be cheaper to get milk from tesco if you have to drive 5 miles to get to ASDA - the driving being the cost of integration. If you get into a group - like an LA, you either get the economy of scale and only send 1 person to go get the milk from ASDA, or you can make it worth while for ASDA to build a store next door ( ie integrate with what you've already got). You could always switch superstore, but the problem is people like Tesco bread, but ASDA biscuits or ASDA bread and Tesco biscuits. Basically what I'm saying is, Bromcom shouldn't have tried to become an MIS, it should have continued to push e-registration. Capita shouldn't push into other areas, if it does, it has to except it's going to be the poor man option - pricing should affect this. They don't, they claim it's better - mainly due to "integration" - however this isn't correct.

 

I'm guessing the poor mans option would nark a few engineers off at Capita, but it's true, having a small team fighting Capita for resources even on the inside vs an entire company with a single focus is never going to win.

 

If I had a time machine, I'd "OpenStack" the SIMS core - that would be open and controlled by a charity, then have a business arm that supports the charity - support, training packages and add-ons - like InTouch

[Tired_of_lies]

The Tesco idea is a very good one, and let's take this a little further and look at Tesco's question of accountability. For example on the Horse meat issue.

 

Once this became a real public issue, they walked their way back down their accountability trail, found the problems, admitted where the processes were wrong and fixed it for the future - because their customers can go to Asda or Morrisons quite easily..

 

Using your time machine, let's go back to approx 2011 when the scandal about the parents of the dead student were sent a letter from SIMS threatening them that their deceased child could not go to the Prom unless they improved their attendance.

 

Unfortunately though that one issue was fixed in the SIMS system, as the customers could not switch to the other suppliers so easily, all the other letters and instances where parents will receive other letters even though their child had died that could be fixed were identified and not fixed - because it does not make commercial good sense to fix them in the full profit model.

[vikpaw]

But i need teh extras cos teh school down the road has those extras and i don't want to look like a cheapskate and at one point teh government said i needed those extras, then they changed the type of extras, then they just plain backtracked but you get what i mean

Now they are part of my setup, and i have to keep buying batteries, and pay for wear and tear, and cleaner to make it shiny, and i've hired staff to look after it.

It's just lucky Tesco do own brand, so i can go cheap on cleaning cloths rather than get Vileda, but i can't scrimp on batteries.

[enjay]

Using your time machine, let's go back to approx 2011 when the scandal about the parents of the dead student were sent a letter from SIMS threatening them that their deceased child could not go to the Prom unless they improved their attendance.

I don't recall the specifics of that incident, but isn't that down the school not removing the child from the registers rather than an issue within SIMS?

[matt40k]

Thought it was something like the 80% attendance rule not classing being dead as reason for leaving. I'd be surprise if they hadn't fixed the letter to deceased by now. Again, goes back to the get the core business right, else people will leave. Just remember it takes time for such things to change, SIMS is small fry in the grand schemes of things.

 

And you got any linky to the Wirral comment earlier? And @vikpaw, yer, surprising how well that works - IT: you need a new server, head: we don't have money, IT: school down road just got a new big server - Head: we'll take the bigger one.

[Tired_of_lies]

The Wirral data? - I thought everyone knew. Again way back in 2011 - do you remember the SIMS training data suddenly got issued again for an 'update'? Well if you wander back into the Training data from before the update you will notice that a whole load of records from the Wirral got quietly deleted from the data. If you then look up the children using the internet you will see they were quietly deleted because it was live data on real children that was issued - I think from about 2009 - and not noticed. The really embarrassing part about that was that a lot of training providers had built in and included that data in their packages, and someone from the Wirral happened to be on one of the courses and thought that the data looked a wee bit familiar. Edited August 20, 2013 by Tired_of_lies

[vikpaw]

They are not the only supplier to have used live data in training / marketing materials!

[NormalDistribution]

SIMS is like a two bedroom house, perfectly functional for what it does but the house builders seem to keep revisiting the house and wanting to try adding a conservatory, landscaping the garden and potting about in the shed. Stick to building the houses thanks.

[vikpaw]

To me it's more like a dromedary trying to grow a second hump.

I think I've been in the sandpit too long.

[enjay]

SIMS is like a two bedroom house, perfectly functional for what it does but the house builders seem to keep revisiting the house and wanting to try adding a conservatory, landscaping the garden and potting about in the shed. Stick to building the houses thanks.

 

Nothing wrong with that in principle. The problem Capita have is that they employ cheap builders to do the extension and then wait for the person renting the house to tell them that the roof leaks.