Sivadam

Now that would be interesting to see! All based on experience of just ONE MIS too!

We are a Partnership School. This status is awarded to schools that are using the Software in an efficient manner. Most Partnership Schools offer the facility for reps from other schools to visit and see for themselves how SIMS works! Anybody is welcome to use this school as a reference site!

Well said!!!

Interesting ...... Could be quite significant as a first ever post! Or is it my suspicious mind again .................. ????? Start a new decade off with a bit of controversy eh?

One wonders what farce this could turn out to be ............. Will it be as bad as their 'approval' of Learning Platforms - none of which appeared to match their own criteria, especially in terms of interoperability!

It is where it should be! SupportNet HomePage and SIMS Releases link!

Ah ........ But Ben Abbott does not attend Handsworth Grange! Maybe you should look at a real site and not at a demo!

Our staff do have full SIMS access in School with the Option of SLG at Home ...... or on the beach in Spain ...... or on the bus on the way to school!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! It would be s trange world if we all fancied exactly the same things!

We use the Capita Hosted Service. I cannot praise it enough! And that is echoed by our Staff and Parents who are using it! Even the technophobes are happy! We had a school closure on Tuesday because of snow. Many Staff were delighted as they could catch up on completing their Assessments from home! Pitfalls? 1. Before you start you need to ensure that your data is clean, in terms of Contacts etc. 2. When staff are using it they must ensure that they click 'Save' often. Because it is web-based, any data entered will be lost if there is a loss of connection or they navigate away from the Data screen they are using. 3. Err.......... It is improving all the time and big things are on the horizon! See the SLG Roadmap on SupportNet.

FMS6 might be hideous but it works! ...and it links to SIMS ...and the new link to Web Ordering looks like it will be a big help when the initial teething problems are sorted. Roll on FMS7! (.... and EO7 .... and Sysman7! Anybody think of any others?)

Not half as much as I put into SupportNet! Tho' I have been spending a little more time here lately!

Capia/SIMS also had the sense to buy out THE best system a long time ago! I mean Nova of course. I hated SIMS when I first had to use it as I came from a Nova background and, for me, it was way in advance of SIMS in the early days. (Sorry Phil!) But you are right about the Testing. If some of those schools that say they had severe issues after Upgrades actually volunteered their data for testing then many issues that they report could be resolved before a release!

I think you will be delighted when SIMS Discover is available! Wow! http://agent4change.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=473:bett-gets-school-admin-software-concept-car&catid=93:administration&Itemid=463

I would just like to wish all Edugeek MIS Users a very Happy Christmas! And here's looking forward to many more debates in the New Year!

I spent a lot of time studying and analysing the Rules of Edugeek a week or two ago. I came to the conclusion that I was nowhere near breaking any of them - which I could not honestly say about the people whose posts I was responding to at the time! I reckon you are in exactly the same position Graham!

Well said Graham. And I know that Phil and the Product Managers at Capita will vouch for the fact that I criticse when things go wrong or want amending, as well as offer praise when they work well! My perceived unfair negativity is exactly why I started to contribute here instead of just being a casual observer! It was time for somebody to jump in with both feet and try and set the record straight - and I didn't mind being the one to do so! What I really hate though is those that knock a system for not being able to do something when I know that it does. I guess this could be lack of knowledge/expertise by that person - but they should not be blaming the system for that!

Tiny, Small, Medium, Large or Massive ............. If you have a MIS that does everything (well nearly - I always want summat new!) then you are going to support it........ arn't you? That doesn't mean that you are knocking others!

He may also have been following the lead of others, who in my opinion, are sailing very close to the wind in terms of advertising their products! The last time that I intimated that then, I got my wrist slapped, so maybe I will again! Seems that it is happening less now though, so maybe somebody did take the point. Glad to see that Phil is not doing this, although he must be very tempted indeed when he reads some of the Posts!

Eee bah gum lad! I gonna miss thee wen tha's gon! I'll be on my own again! Still........ .......... that never shut me up before!

And I was responding to a query about Schoolcomms because we use it. I could not endorse the other products because we do not use them. Though we did visit a number of schools running different products before we made a decision to opt for Schoolcomms. That included the one that the LA were recommending and which I resisted adopting, because I knew that Schoolcomms was better than this particular product! A number of schools have since visited us to see how Schoolcomms is used here and also visited other schools to look at other products. As far as I can remember, all those that have been to see Schoolcomms in action here have actually purchased it.

I thought we had covered the delays to Upgrades in another thread! I may well have caused delays myself in the past, via UAT (don't think I actually have - as any issues I found were probably corrected before you other guys got the Release!)

.......The issue I have here is that support requests must go via our LEA...... Then isn't this more a rant against your LA Support? If not satisfied then do what I pursuaded this school to do - opt out of LA Support! In my case it was no reflection on the LA - just that we were using far more of SIMS than the LA was supporting anyway - including Field Trialling!

Some people would actually disagree with you re. SLG as well. And the enhancements that will be coming will make it even more user friendly. It currently does the job it was designed for - and does that very well. And I did not have the problems that you seem to have encountered! Our system must have been 'busy' when I provisioned. One wonders how 'busy' it would need to be to get the error ....

Maybe the answer is that SIMS is such a very, very good Product. Yes, there may be other good systems out there but once you have become skilled in the various aspects of ALL of SIMS then there really is no point in looking elsewhere. Very few systems can do MORE than SIMS and there is absolutely no point whatsoever in using add-on systems, when SIMS systems are so good in the first place. Skunk, maybe you should post your Issues with Capita Support Desk. One wonders what they are however ......... If the product is as bad as you say then why don't people like myself pursuade the school to go elsewhere? There is absolutely no way I would even contemplate that!