moriartythemundane

Did you ever get to take up on this Arbor MIS? We are actively looking at this in Wolverhampton now and I would love some feed back? Nick

Used google email and apps for nearly four years. It is very very good and an effective tool but it is not really a VLE. We are almost certainly moving to a sharepoint based VLE in September(New BSF School) we will miss our google alot. One thing I would say, you can set it up in a week and if you did it next week inside a month you would know if its for you. Also, consider making a simple intranet page that can have links to all the various elelments eg, blogger, youtube, sites etc so that it looks more cohesive than it is. New option of google drive is useful so all in all its a way forward for free. Moriarty

This is something we have looked at but the idea of the BSF contract is a rollover cycle of the contract AND hardware every five years! The problem is 3s and 5s don't fit until 15! So a 6 year rollover or 3 yr roll over would have been better I suspect? Who is your new provider? If its Capita have you any job descriptions yet? I cant get one for love nor money. The school want them so they can see just what they need to cover that we will no longer do and they cant get them. The LA HR says they cant get them and Capita say they have given them out! Draw your own conclusions but the terms "smoke and mirrors" or "divide and conquer" come into my mind along with "Mushroom Syndrome"!!! (Keep them in the Dark and feed them sh*te!) If anyone has Capita Job descriptions for NWM and Techies can they pm me with copies attached? Moriarty...

RTFM... We are allowed to enter competitive tender for kit/software/whatever, but there is an individual charge for eg putting a pc onto the network. There may be a legacy item we want to keep and have network enabled that may want a ram upgrade, re imaging whatever and they will ask us for a charge to do that. We have to factor that in to all our costs. Interestingly enough, Just before Xmas we tried to by some heavy duty RM laptops, the quote duly arrived and I had to run this by Capita. So far I have no laptops, the special offer of a "Free" trolley from RM has gone and I suspect that if I do end up buying them from Capita it will cost me more, but worse, if I end up buying them from RM that too will now cost me more!! This whole scenario is depressing/frustrating/costing us time and money. Capita(read ex Ramesys) should in truth be competitive. Does it bode well for the future? Only time will tell... Moriarty...

Well guys you have all come up trumps again and I have decided that in todays meeting I will, on balance, recommend we go down the ESS front. The maths for our establishment seems to add up in favour of ESS, I just need to convince SLT and Capita that that is what we need. I think Capita are on my wavelength!??! Thanks to all who responded... have a good week! Moriarty...

Hi all, Our school goes live under BSF in September 2012 and our outsourced ICT provider is Capita Systems. They have asked us yesterday what licensing system do we wish to use? Do we want to go the MS ESS route or buy the licenses outright as we have always done. The model appears simple enough if I have been told correctly. That, under ESS the licenses are yearly paid, in three year blocks, based on the number of staff in school...NOT the number of pcs/applications etc. On top of that, upgrades are free during the three years. Simple maths tells us this is a considerable saving for us, however, what happens in three years time? Yes we could roll over for another three years but what happens if Microsoft change the ESS to something else or do away with it altogether. What happens come five years and possibly Capita are no longer our provider? The worry here is that the school could be faced with a huge licensing bill when we come into work one Monday morning in three years time! Sadly, Capita can advise us but they won't push us in any direction as, presumably, they do not want us to moan at them if it all goes wrong!! So, my question is what have others done recently? Have you gone the ESS route, or bought outright? Any advice would be gratefully received as we only have till Feb 2nd to make a decision (allegedly) and it was dropped on me late yesterday... Have a great day... Moriarty...

Thanks must go to KenObi-D for a very pragmatic view of life for us in BSF under Capita. However, In many ways it makes my worries worse reading what you say! My eleven years in ICT have been on RM Networks where we use RM's control panel for everyday tasks. When/if I move to Capita I know it will be a vanilla Network and in all honesty, put me on a server and ask me to deploy an app I would be lost. Yes... I can learn, Yes, if training is available I will learn. However, at nearly 56 I wonder if I really want to?!!? Is it time for a career move...I dont know! Now, Synaesthesia....hmm! At first read of that post I would imagine most people would think "bitter and twisted"... "had a tough time"... "got out, hates the company"...but having been in a similar situation back in about 1995 I read that post in a sort of "between the lines" way. Frankly, I can well believe that a company that big see's you purely as a number and if your face does not fit, for no matter what reason, whether it's personality, ability, costs to the company...whatever... I could see it would/could be terrible! Many thanks for your "warts and all" approach! Obviously, the truth lies somewhere in between and only time will tell! Moriarty...

Hmmm... your thinking along the same lines as us. Our jobs are protected for three years we have been told but there are numerous reasons, I suspect, that that can change! As my techie says, if they downgrade him his job will be worthless! I suspect his job will remain though and mine as a Network Manager will get hammered!

Hi all, sorry for the long post but it will become clear... Wolverhampton is in the throws of BSF and the winning ICT supplier is Capita systems. Our school is one of the first to move over this coming September (2012) so we are all in preliminary talks re TUPE, New Hardware/Software etc. The school is a part refurb/ part new-build project and is probably 50% up and done. At first I was all for it, the thought of moving to a larger company, the possibilities of further training and job enhancement seemed good. However, best part of a year on and after recent talks with Capita personnel I am having second thoughts! I asked will we perform…. • Server work – No, to very limited • Updates – No automatic • Repairs to pcs – No - swap out and return to manf. • Repairs to laptops – No - swap out and return to manf. • Anti virus – automatic • Cabling if required – No - outside contractors • First line helpdesk with problems – staff to call helpline in Nottingham • Changing toner cartridges – Staff will perform their own • Second line helpdesk – Yes to change pc’s laptops via the swap out system • Third line support – No • Whiteboard repairs/moves – No - third party contractors • Specifiying equipment - No • Setting up equipment eg assembly – No – staff will do their own Exasperated, I asked just what will we be doing then? I was advised…. • Don’t worry, we will keep you busy! (With what?) • You will be asked to support the attached special school as they will have no techie. (With/doing what?) • You may/probably will, have to go to other schools in the borough (My techie will now need a car) When pushed for more info, their was none specific, however, it was stated that a few techies change jobs as they do not want to move to Capita and others moved within Capita to projects around the country… As you can imagine, call me naive or what, but, I was expecting more than that! So, my question is... If you work for a Capita BSF school as a Network Manager or Techie, just what do you do? Do you do what you did before BSF, do you do more/less/nothing like before or what!??! Thanks for reading, please reply and put our minds at rest...(hopefully) Moriarty...

Thanks for the reply I will look up this app and see what its like! We have numerous staff members with android phones so this could be good news...I will of course keep you posted on anything we come up with. Sadly, or should that be hopefully/thankfully, Sept 2012 we will have a new network under Bsf and hand held devices are very much catered for... Keep in touch!

We have bought around a hundred of these I pod touches and a few ipads over this last school year and they have been used predominately in Geography. They are about to start using them in English and Maths. Geog has had a massive success using them as the teachers involved are young and that way inclined. Syncing them with parasyncs is good but slow. My problem is getting work off the ipods into a students workspace on ourCC3 network. We have been advised to look at web dav but its not something I have used and I feel its akin to the same problems as usb sticks when it comes to viruses! What have you/others done to get around this problem? Cheers Moriarty...

The process is quite protracted and they do check out your school. You cannot rush through the system you have to do it in stages. These stages are notified to you at each point. It takes about 10 days overall to set up not ten minutes I am afraid. You always appear to be waiting for the next step to come along but trust me once its set up you wont look back. I gave you my number in a pm so why dont you call and we can chat? Moriarty...

We use, very successfully, Google apps. You apply for a Free education version and over a period of less than a week, following googles guides and timescale, you implement it in stages. We have used this successfully for nearly two years now. Every department has an email and a website (or more if needs be) every staff/student member has an email address allowing them to make personal websites, access the apps "in the cloud" chat if needs be plus other "stuff" like wave for collaboration and calendars. With the recent update to the control panel we can now extensivley control access/permissions to all tiers of school! We have coupled this up with google blogger, flickr and as was mentioned above Tasc Softwares cracking Pars/Pars Connect for e-registration/texting to parents and are looking to provide access with their portal addon. This is fully interactive with Sims and cheaper...for us any way! As a new trial we have just installed PHP BB (its free) to allow some form of discussion and interaction other than by email and if it takes off like google apps it will slot in beautifully. We have restricted membership to only allow the school domain email addresses for additional security. This took less than a day to implement...then as long as you want to make it look pretty. We are going through BSF at the moment and the school is a building site...we have just been assessed as to our ICT standard where we are/need to be etc and the result was truly encouraging. Apparently, we dont do anything excellently but we do everything well. But, we do more than any other school in the borough...by far! The bulk of this was free and easy to set up and works well. I can heartily reccomend it. Just as a caveat... we tried Moodle and tried to integrate it with our old CC3 network and it was not good. The uptake was poor in trials and it was deemed not needed as we would have a VLE for BSF. Then we tried Google apps and it took off, literally in a fortnight...changed the school completely! Try it, what have you got to lose? Moriarty...

Last year we implemented a whole school email system, free for education, from Google . Try that as a start...

Spot on! Had this conversation not an hour ago with a deputy...GIGO...garbage in.... garbage out... You need a strong leader to implement it. Staff that will follow it, training for those who need it and the hardest part in my opinion...the P45's for those that fight against it! Only then will it succeed at our school...sadly!