Sivadam

That is obviously a change of plan then Matt. Even more reason not to move at the moment then!

After 9th November you will be able to ask Capita directly. As far as I am aware they are supporting it from the Autumn Release. One assumes the problems with FMS etc will have been sorted by then. I hope that the delay with Autumn Release is not because of this!

No - there is a problem here too.

The Permissions in SIMS as defined by System Manager are EXCELLENT. Sometimes this cannot be said of the ability of the person appointed as System Manager. It is vital that this person fully understand how SM works so that fears expressed in the original post are allayed.

This sounds good Matt. 'Cos I ain't technically minded (well not to any great degree) I'll alert my colleague, who is, so that he can look into this for us. I would have thought that Capita would have been provided something similar though.

One wonders why one would want to run SIMS on a new platform before it is supported by Capita ..........

Good job I was out with a group of kids for the day then. And we did not get wet before you ask! I wonder if my Forum colleagues missed me ........... I made up for it tonight tho!

You just need to be consistent in naming Aspects, Gradsets and Resultsets. AM7 Reports and Profiles7 Reports are also designed and named according to certain criteria. We are fortunate at my place in that I have been involved with this from Day1 of the school using SIMS - a very long time now. And I have insisted that all AM7 Management Users have followed the conventions I initially set up all those years ago .................. I would urge you to make use of the Categories. In time you will no doubt have thousands of Aspect etc and finding the one you want can be a real pain. Narrowing the search by using Categories is invaluable.

Capita are currently looking at this issue so that reports can be saved to Pupil Records in PDF or similar format rather than the original Word doc. So watch this space .............

One wonders why anybody would want to have an extra piece of software to use in place of SIMS if they are SIMS users anyway. There simply is no point when SIMS works so brilliantly in these areas!

I am sure I referred to exactly that above ............. Mind you - some of them are user defined and not globally defined.

Check Support net:- KB86810 - Homepage refresh times and rates

We have such a school in Sheffield which, I believe, uses SIMS.

Try bombarding them with Missing Register Messages. If that fails then set a Senior Manager on to them. It helps if you have a couple of the fierce variety! And why just single out LM7 for praise? ALL of SIMS is great! Any issues on the system nowadays are annoying but pale into insignificance when you consider what it can do successfully! Such anomalies normally occur in new features anyway which are then looked at with later updates.

And it is working too! One or two staff that were not so diligent before are starting to learn!

Capita are actively looking at replacing IEP V.3. It is archaic to say the least and my contact at Capita is in agreement. I have already been consulted about how we can improve this and I am currently consulting with our Senco, who uses it, to try and get a picture of what is good about it, it's faults and what he would like to see included in a future product, as well as any other suggestions for improvement. I assume that this new product will be linked in some way to the new Reporting procedures.

Ain't SIMS wonderful when set up correctly ...............!?!

The inital cost is probably just a one off and you can then use it for ever, so the real cost per annum is then just over £2k. It is so long since we bought into it I cannot remember if we had to make such a large payment for the initial purchase. Installing is quite easy!

It is certainly a lot less than the figure quoted above!

It is being worked on right now from what I hear .................... !!!!!!!!!!!!

You ain't missing anything. You will need to get the staff to configure their own page somewhat so that they get the best from it. It depends which type of Lock you use as to whether they can configure or not! I have forced several panels on staff and explained how to configure to their specific group/needs, be it Reg Group, Year Group or Whole school.

August (V,7,112) is the most recent releases. No Speed issues for us on this. Autumn Release (V7.114) is due on 19th October. With it is the facility to move to SQL Server 2008 - when it will be supported by Capita.

Yes and I could go on responding to your comments too! Maybe we should call it Duece! Whatever MIS you are using then you need to know how to access all areas. There were obviously parts of SIMS that you did not use at the time. Profiles and Performance Analysis spring immediately to mind. As you say tho' - can't spend any more time on this thread - so that is my final word too.

It looks like we will be going ahead with SQL Server 2008 on to a new Server during Half Term - providing that the Autumn Upgrade appears in time. It would be crazy trying to move before that happens and before Capita support it. Also - the documentation will undoubtedly come with the release! It may well be that the Support Document has been withdrawn to be updated inline with the Autumn Release.

And I thought that SIMS was far more configurable then Serco was! One of my colleagues told me that they used to had to pay Serco to set up basic things that we can do quite easily ourselves in SIMS. Especially in areas like Assessment and Behaviour/Achievement Management. SIMS does not dictate how you do things at all! Yes it provides basic ways but schools take these much much further if they are using SIMS to it's maximum. And one wonders how Serco is dealing with SWC with demands such as inclusion of Curriculum Details for TAs on Timetable, links into Partnership Exchange etc etc