crAss-teacher

Pretty sure I will read my posts again , and decide whether its you or me who needs a trip to Barnard Castle. I don't think I've defended Capita, I will have offended myself more than you if I have. I simply pointed out that they had a SAAS product which might materially change who or for what reason they might be purchased. I am sorry that a contrarian view is not welcomed. I'll try and get into the spirit and say its awful but .. to be honest I haven't seen it ... so prefer not to pre-judge Since then I have tried to defend some dedicated people I know who worked there in the past , but mostly ended up having to defend myself ! Don't work for Capita but feel like I have encountered a bunch of people here who work for Theresa May's Hostile environment home office department ... won't waste anyone's time with further posts

I don't have a role at Capita I don't think I am or appreciate being labelled an apologist (or wouldn't remain so for long ! ) I do however know people who used to work for SIMS a thankless task being mis-managed , but on the whole (because there will be exceptions) people who worked there were quite dedicated to bettering education software in the UK , more so than filling the pockets of Capita shareholders. They probably share your frustrations ! Thank you for the PHP history lesson , most useful !

Not anymore. There seems to be a grudging acknowledgement that SIMS has a Live SAAS product, and this may be of material interest to a potential buyer or its future. Regardless of the "opinion" and educated guesses at its viability , the thread is now better informed, slightly more balanced , though none the less opinionated. hope I have quoted this right ... struggling with the 1980's PHP bulletin board style

I thought SIMS had a new SAAS offering as well a Hosted SIMS one, I heard they had a small number of primary schools and a fair number of pilots , and were just figuring out how to roll it out to those 21,000 schools ? Maybe I am misinformed or may be this thread is ill informed ? If they do have such a product then that might make a material difference to a potential buyer. Knowing SIMS it will probably all be Microsoft stack which may not appeal to the likes of google. Surely they cant have been sat around on their laurels for the last ten years... Maybe rolling out a big SAAS project for such a complex product with such high market expectations isn't as easy as it seems... anyone here done it? maybe thats why other big players have failed and those with limited customer base and a greenfield appear to succeed. Clearly Corporate Capita are only capable of Corporate vandalism, milking a good business of their own, that is their business model, and now need to Sell ESS to cover up failings elsewhere. Now they can concentrate on consulting on other peoples businesses.... Could it be worse? At least as a Government outsourcer Capita were sensitive to the influence of Government and DFE , would Google , Pearson or a venture/vulture capitalist? what will an open market do to vendor pricing ? I am sure at a SIMS level they must be equally frustrated , on the whole I've always found their staff knowledgeable and dedicated to supporting the UK Education market place. maybe spare a thought for them in these uncertain times. As employees not customers they probably have even less influence. I expect that their contracts forbid them from defending themselves here. Definitely a turning point for Capita, ESS and education software in the UK !