Dr_Zeux

So you can all see that this is not just my views, here's a survey of over 1,000 schools: https://thekeysupport.com/blog/what-do-schools-really-think-MIS-2023/ Though I appreciate Bromcom have been growing their resources since and development ideas have finally started to progress... I think their reputation has gone downhill in the last few years!

Wow - your experience is so different from ours. Support has been mediocre with Bromcom - our first year was awful with both transitional and helpdesk support! More recently, they can't resolve our Virtual school issues and offer the wrong advice, last year we had a few cases for older than 6 months, and often don't resolve cases for 2+ weeks. We still have a case from last year open, which is now 1 years old! So, I can't say that i'm too impressed with their support - many of the cases I log require a software fix. Customer care is appalling. The MIS itself goes down, and has so many bugs/glitches on a regular basis! But thanks for the advice on the Community - I stayed away for so long as I had a different opinion about it, probably relating to Customer care, Helpdesk support, development ideas, and their poor comms, but i'll be glad to be proved wrong!

I have zero faith it won't happen again - there have been so many outages in the last 2 years! Some don't even get onto the Bromcom status page... You are unbelievably optimistic Supportman! In the report of what happened, it says, "The change was approved for the early hours of Sunday 1st September." Why was this change approved in September at all!? It also says, "Microsoft have now confirmed in several statements to Bromcom that the issue was related to UK regional Azure issues that they experienced Monday 2nd September and resource allocation issues that they experienced Tuesday 3rd through to Thursday 5th September". Again, why were they adding resources between 3rd to 5th Sept!? Having known how many new schools signed up (400+ from NI) back in Summer term, why weren't these changes requested and resources added then, well before the summer holidays? Why wait until beginning of Sept... I think that says something about the planning and the Chief Operating Officer's priorities... Major Incident Root-Cause-Analysis 2nd-5th September 2024.pdf

Just curious - do you have an Account Manager or CSM? And how long have you been with Bromcom for?

Thanks - it might be worth considering, but our teachers currently don't use mobile devices in their classrooms... Though, I am aware of how I can set it for users to allow them to switch between new and old interface, Bromcom helpdesk actually configured it for my school to force users to use the new UI, without informing me! I'm sure you can see the issue of being forced to use the new UI, without being consulted...

So, today's problems - I found a problem yesterday and reported it to Bromcom, re: registers not working in the old UI giving an error message. Helpdesk confirmed it was a bug with the old UI and said if teachers choose the new UI, this wouldn't be an issue. I explained this to teachers, but they hate the new UI - much harder to navigate, cannot record behaviour easily and it leaves the register up as the default home screen - surely a bit of a GDPR issue!? Anyway, today, it seems when helpdesk replied to the ticket, they took it upon themselves to change MY SCHOOL'S system setting and 'force users to use the new UI' - no notification, or a request to change the setting, just a global change without my permission!!! Then, the teacher complaints started.... I can't even complain to customercare@ (customer lack of care) as they do not respond to emails! Anyone else having a nightmare with the new UI?

Same here...

Just got it - CAS-362499-L5R6S9

Waiting for helpdesk to send me the ticket for the case...

Don't know what to say Darren, other schools are also saying the same thing - but thanks for testing!

Our own server - but I cannot see these emails in our sent messages... All other emails are sending!

I have done the reset myself - it's just the email is not getting through to the users!

Yes, that's one of the reasons i'm still in a queue on the phone to report to Bromcom, teachers aren't getting reset password emails! Phone support currently - awful! - - - Updated - - - Same issue....

Yes, we have a few of these issues as well - Attendance now has new glitches as well, since their upgrades...

Is anyone else having problems with loading reports - they are taking ages to run!!! Can't get through to Bromcom support at the moment....

Look at the updates today on the idea: https://ideas.bromcomcloud.com/ideas/BRCM-I-4802 - so many messages in my inbox relating to this! On the positive side, this idea actually got implemented - well done Bromcom!

We're in the same boat, and no doubt lots of other customers too... One of the responses to my tickets recently (that was 8 months old) from helpdesk was, "Thank you for your reply. I can only apologize again for the delay on this case. Unfortunately we accumulated a very large backlog since the September period until now and we did not manage to get back on all of them in time." So, they've had a huge backlog of cases from Sept until recently... We can only speculate why... I've still got a few cases open dating back to Sept!!

This is one of the frustrating issues of not having a CSM, and customercare@... who don't always respond! How else do you chase up cases?? I doubt you can post a comment on the Community, but if i'm wrong, let me know?? My old CSM used to advise to update tickets with a quick comment, "Any updates please", but this is a bit random in getting a result - can't say it was that helpful overall...

I would argue they are slightly different. That's a game, and yes, customers pay for it - so bugs are a nuisance, but the game is for pleasure. Bromcom is used for work purposes and if the software doesn't work efficiently, it impacts your productivity and output, not to mention frustrating as some of this functionality has been present in other MIS providers for 10+ years. We are paying customers and most secondary schools are paying in the region of £20k per year, so Minecraft pales into insignificance by comparison. There is an expectation that these ideas are escalated and worked on in some kind of priority order, and in an efficient way (clearly not happening). And both our old CSM and helpdesk would often suggest creating a development idea, if the software doesn't work as expected - they would suggest this a real workable solution! Which, if you think about it, isn't viable at all, if brilliant ideas are taking a minimum of 3 years to simply get to 'Planned' status, and not actually implemented!

This one will make you laugh: https://ideas.bromcomcloud.com/ideas/BRCM-I-4802. It has over 550+ votes (combined ideas), has been 'Planned' for god knows how long but still not implemented - the idea has been ongoing since Sept 2021! As a very popular idea, you can see for yourself how fast the development ideas move along.... Imagine if the idea was unpopular!?

Now that you mention it, yes, they're much slower than the other day (after they fixed the major incident related to performance issues on Monday)

Hi Steve. Read the comments on one of the development ideas from this morning: https://ideas.bromcomcloud.com/ideas/BRCM-I-3697 Apparently, a new team have been setup in December to deal with the development ideas, but I see no evidence of this at all and customers only getting more frustrated as great ideas that have combined 200+ votes and no updates since July 2023 when it was changed to 'Planned'... This particular idea, has been requested for around 5 years!

I feel your pain Steve, we've had so many issues with Bromcom since signing up, and no one seems to care - especially the so called 'Customercare@....' I could give you a list a mile long of things that have been so poorly dealt with, a number of complaints i've had to raise, bugs in their software, development ideas, assessment system nightmares, their limited resources, etc etc, but my time is now worth more and I can no longer waste my energy on Bromcom...

What about running reports? Ours are taking forever to run! Update at 1pm - they seem much faster and more responsive now. I think they've resolved the issues from this morning...

Hi Steve Their helpdesk answers calls quite quickly these days (compared to last academic year), but I agree with you in relation to some tickets and/or closing tickets before they've actually been resolved. I've had a case open for about 7-8 months now, and it's been closed and re-opened a number of times, but not actually resolved. With another case, it took 6 months to resolve, and I quote, "I can only apologize again for the delay on this case. Unfortunately we accumulated a very large backlog since the September period until now and we did not manage to get back on all of them in time." So, it seems as if helpdesk have had a huge backlog of cases since September - we can only speculate why... Helpdesk suggested that if I wanted to provide feedback on this case, to email [email protected]. I replied, and said there's no point - they don't respond to emails. Or perhaps it's just me Steve, as I have made 3 x complaints since September - to which, i'm still waiting for a response! Darren@ Bromcom is aware of this and I also forwarded these complaints to him, but still nothing. They haven't met their own criteria for complaints, which is clearly stated on their website: http://docs.bromcom.com/knowledge-base/how-to-raise-a-complaint-about-bromcoms-products-or-services/ Though getting Darren@ Bromcom involved, does seem to speed up the process... I was curious to hear other customers' experiences in relation to Bromcom, hence me setting up this thread in the first place. Thanks for your feedback!