FloraDora

Funnily enough Bromcom contacted me a while ago as apparently they are being contacted by independent schools looking for an alternative MIS (I work for an independent school). They don't currently have the functionality to deal with independent school requirements e.g. fees, but it's interesting reading & these comments and those on other platforms about the problems users are facing with Bromcom, in particular there seems to be quite a few down time incidents...

@ric_p Yes.. its on the roadmap and hopefully there will be an update about it's progress in the next Product Update Webinar on 26 November. I was asked about 6 months for my views on some of the proposed changes so I know that they are definitely working on it.

We use iSAMS [4 years in current school] and I've been a user since the early days. As Danp says it's not perfect but some of that is down to our "non standard" way of doing things and not actually system or design issues. We are a boarding school with some day pupils and we can manage most of what we need via iSAMS with integration for other applications for specific functions e.g. Evolve, SOCS, Toucantech etc Student Registers are in my opinion, a great asset to the system as it allows you create "mini" modules for any of the school specific things we do to be recorded and viewable in other modules. This has helped us greatly in keeping our "core" data in one system. We have created registers for recording CEM data, Interview records, external GCSE results, and scholarship registers etc The downside is the admissions portal as that doesn't do everything we would like and hasn't seen any real development lately, so we don't use that but the portal forms can be embedded into a website so at least we have online applications. We don't use Central as we have our own dashboards and if you get access to the DB (write only sadly) you can create your own reports and subscriptions etc I've seen quite a few different systems over the years and I believe iSAMS suits independent schools best but it's all down to what you as a school want/need. There are other systems trying to break into the market but I wouldn't look at anything else unless they do better than iSAMS and can manage UK exams!

We have dual contacts as that was the recommended "type" for parents when we migrated 4 years ago from SIMS. We also use iFinance / Fees Billing so have joint billing contacts from that. However, I know that there is a contact rewrite in progress (won't be ready for at least 2 years as so complicated) and the contact structures will change and move towards individual contact types. If you are considering moving to single types then I'd say go for it. Dual contacts are a bit of a pain in my opinion and cause confusion where some are single (split parents) and others are dual contacts.

We set up the cloud portal a couple of months ago due to iSAMS stating the "legacy" portal will be deprecated at the end of August. LOTS of issues, particularly with styling, incorrect filtering on things like Exams (i.e. all exam cycles displayed in the drop down instead of those applicable to the pupil), unable to view academic reports, Medical Centre displaying very odd Condition Types which are displayed in the Visit Type field etc The homepage displays the widgets but you don't need to be logged in to view that page.. literally just need a login screen and the widgets displayed behind that security. Interactive forms menu no longer exists. Statement of Account & Pay Invoices - Unable to view any statements of accounts and no ability to pay invoices. My biggest bugbear is "View as Other" has disappeared... got a weak response from iSAMS. Everything above was reported to iSAMS back in March.. am still waiting for a meeting with them to discuss these problems and have not had an answer about deprecation plan for end of August....