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4197792399

I have also logged a ticket with Wave 9 Support.

Our broadband and filtering is via Wave 9, and we have a Sophos XGS2100 Firewall onsite. I have already flagged this with them and they told me that it was an Amazon issue, yet Amazon say it is a filtering issue.

Hi, Not sure if anyone else has come across this issue. We are having issues accessing the Amazon UK website. We keep getting intermitent issues with the pages loading or being stopped. We also keep getting stuck in a loop where the website keeps telling us that something has gone wrong and to try again. We also get messages like: We’re sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site. It also says that the error is with Amazon, yet when we have checked this out Amazon keep saying that it is a filtering issue our end. Does anyone know what could potentially be causing this issue? or have a list of addresses that need whitelisting for Amazon? Thanks in advance

Hi All, I have been working as an ICT Network Manager in Birmingham now for 4 years, and previous to that I worked in Sandwell for 10 years as a IT Technician and Network Manager. In both locations I found that events outside of the ones organised by the local authority were very sparse and not very well attended. Leaving many schools blindly signing up year after year with their LA, and leaving schools out of pocket as the LA packages and deals were often with companies such as Capita. I looked at setting up a meeting for Network Managers and Technicians in Birmingham and the surrounding areas, and I got some very good feedback that was very helpful and led me to think I was doing the right thing. I then suspended my efforts when another group came along that I thought was offering what I was trying to set up. After a period of time later and on reflection I am now looking again at setting up a meeting for Birmingham and surrounding area IT Network Managers and Technicians. I would be interested to hear people's opinions on what topics they would like to see discussed at these meetings and what sorts of products you would be interested in seeing. I would also be interested to hear people's ideas for particular focuses to meetings. I would also like the group to enable networking and signposting between suppliers outside of the LA and schools, to show what is out there for everyone in education. Equally I would also be interested to hear from any suppliers that would be interested in potentially supporting a Birmingham based meeting for IT Network Managers and Technicians from Birmingham and the surrounding areas. I am looking for your honest feedback to enable me to bring these meetings into reality as soon as possible. If anyone wants to talk privately direct message me and I will get back to you, Thanks for your help,

Hi all, Not sure if people all ready know this but thought I would share it anyway. My school has been using a 13 year old version of Junior Librarian for a very long time, and we have struggled to find any sort of alternative to it that is affordable. I have had the Reading Cloud product pushed at me quite hard as this is Junior Librarian's successor. But this product is simply too expensive for a small primary and probably most other schools too. The only plus point of the Reading Cloud was that it is in the Cloud and they look after all backups. Recently though I have discovered a librarian platform called Libresoft Librarian. This software is cloud based, and has all the functionality of Junior Librarian and the ability for pupils to review books, and post recommendations to other pupils. All the backups are done for you online so there will always be a backup, plus the support for the product is thrown into the price unlike other products where it is a separate charge. For my small 210 pupil primary it was £295 ex vat per year all in. We have been using Libresoft Librarian for about a month now, and I can say it is a vast improvement on the old platform, more user friendly and the support we have received during the transition and since has been great. Would be happy to recommend them as an alternative to Junior Librarian. If any one wants any more details or direct contact details for them pm me and I will pass them on to you. Hope this is useful!

I had a Linked In post come from my account manager, saying that he was trying to find jobs for his 40 staff before the business was formally wound up. So sounds fairly terminal barring miracles. All communication methods now seem to be dead, and emails are bouncing or not being replied to. Companies House is still showing them as trading, but I think it is a matter of time before it will update. Their website is still operational at the moment, but I don't know how long it will remain.

I have just heard from my account manager/contact at Millennium Business Systems that the company has formally gone into administration as of this morning. All of the company assets have been frozen and they have no working capital left. All employees have been told to find alternative employment so this looks terminal. If you are a Millennium customer I would phone them as a matter of urgency to check where you stand. Just thought I would let you all know. If I hear anything else I will post it here. It seems to be sweeping around Linked In as I type this.

Thanks again @RichCowell for organising the ANME Birmingham 2 event. Found it very useful. Looking forward to the next one in March/April 2017.

Will look forward to attending the meeting. Thanks again to @RichCowell for organising another meeting for us in the Birmingham/Midlands area. Hope to see lots of techs and network managers there.

Thanks to @RichCowell for setting up the meeting, found it very beneficial, good supporting companies, and a good venue. Looking forward to the next ANME meeting in Birmingham.

If anyone has missed the deadline to attend the Birmingham 01 ANME meeting, there are a couple of places available. If you have not already registered to attend, you can go to: Association of Network Managers in Education ANME

Hi All, Just a quick note, that any one who wants to attend the first Birmingham meeting of the ANME (Association of Network Managers in Education) which is being held at the Edgbaston Campus of the University of Birmingham which is being held next Friday (17th June), the closing date for registration is today (10th June) at 4pm. If you want like to bring another member of your IT support team they will receive an invitation if they join before the deadline of 4pm today. The meeting is open to all Technicians and Network Managers in and around the Birmingham area, and we would be pleased to see people from the Sandwell, and Dudley areas too. For more information on the first meeting go to the ANME website. www.anme.co.uk If there are any other questions @RichCowell should be able to answer them. Hope to see everybody there.

Hi All, After much thought and consideration, I have decided to pool my Birmingham Network Manager/Technician meetings with the ANME (Association of Network Managers in Education). The ANME are holding their first meeting Midlands meeting in Birmingham on Friday 17th June at the University of Birmingham (Edgbaston Campus). The meeting is being supported by big names such as Fujitsu, Impero, Groupcall and Schools Broadband to name a few. There will also be a presence from local ICT companies working within the Midlands area, and supporting the inaugural meeting are Wave 9. This is a chance to meet, chat and share good practice with fellow professionals about the issues important to ICT Network Managers/Technicians. The meeting is free for members of the ANME, if you are not a member already you can sign up for free at www.anme.co.uk. You can also find details about the Birmingham (01) meeting on the website. If that was not enough refreshments and a 2 course lunch will be provided for members attending. I hope that as many ICT Network managers/Technicians from the Birmingham, Sandwell, Dudley and surrounding areas can join us on Friday 17th June. Hope to see you all there.

I have heard from BCC sources that cash is practically non existent. But they are in dialogue with the providers of CRISP to see if a workable on-line solution can be found, and eliminate the need for the UAG.

Schools who are already outside the BGFL are going to neighbouring schools who are still connected to the BGFL and using their own user credentials to login to CRISP from there. I have consulted with Link and asked if I am allowed to do this, and their short answer was "yes". So we have arranged to use a computer at another BGFL connected school to do our CRISP return when needed. Therefore a saving of £1,432 in year one and £1,005 per subsequent year. The word on the street is that CRISP is more than likely going to be super seeded by something else in approximately a years time. It could also be moved on to an external facing web platform similar to HR which would eliminate the need for UAG.

Here is the letter from Advanced Learning:

Sandwell schools are more than welcome, worked in Sandwell for 10 years myself before my current Birmingham stint. I am looking at a few venues in Birmingham city centre for ease of access for everyone. If there are any areas people would like to put on the potential agenda please let me know. I have quite a few keen suppliers who want to show their wears in then Birmingham area.

If I can get these meetings off the ground, how many people would potentially be interested in coming?

I have spoken to Advanced Learning and they are telling me that they have done a new deal with Link2ICT to allow Link to sell the Licenses for CMIS and Progresso again, but the support will be directly with Advanced Learning who are moving their technical team up to the Mailbox to support us. They told me that Link had agreed licenses and behalf of a whole list of schools including mine. When I queried and said well what if I don't want to buy the license and support through Link and want to buy direct through Advanced? They told me that the deal with Link was done and that we were expected to just agree with purchasing everything through Link as before but the support desk would be with Advanced. Like a whole load of other Bham schools I got a direct quotation from Advanced to match what support I was having from Link, and I found that Advanced's direct pricing was a lot more competitive than Link's price. The Advanced rep could not believe I was paying over £2.5k a year for support alone. So I am now going to email the MD of Advanced to see if I can go direct and save the school £1.5k for the same license and support. I have got a copy of the letter from Advanced to Link customers if people want to see it. There should be a copy in the post to most schools on the way.

Interesting so far, curious to see what NetSupport has to offer.

These are all questions I put to them yesterday, with no answers forthcoming. It will be interesting to hear what details if any we hear about this tomorrow.

I spoke to Link for a while yesterday afternoon, and it is true that Link are no longer going to be supporting Advanced Learning products CMIS and Progresso. All the licenses and support will cease on 31st March as negotiations with Advanced broke down. Advanced wanted to implement 13% increases to their license costs and took the finance only option of CMIS off the table. The only options I have been told about is we take our chances and go to Advanced directly for licensing and support but we could be subjected to 13% price increases, or we can take a potential offer from Link to migrate to SIMS at a reduced cost. They told me that this cost would equate to the same money we are currently paying for license and support from Link for CMIS or Progresso. However I spoke to the Birmingham rep at Capita yesterday and he said there was no way that all the migrations and conversions would happen before the licenses expire. At that point he couldn't even confirm that a deal was in place with Link to take all the CMIS/Progresso customers. I am hoping that some more information will come out at the Link conference tomorrow, as we now have 4 weeks and counting to sort out this mess. I spoke to someone at Advanced this morning to be told there was a queue of Birmingham schools contacting them and that they would get back to us in due course. So who knows what is going on now? I await the next update from the MIS team. Hope this has cleared things up for everyone.

I have got a PDF copy of the document that was sent to me by Link at the end of January. Can email you a copy if you have not seen it. Drop me a PM and I will send it over. Who knows what will happen when the support stops from Oracle. We might have bedlam all over again....

I expect everyone in a Birmingham school will have received a document from BCC/Link2ICT regarding UAG access to internal BCC systems. It outlines that any school wishing to operate outside of Link2ICT for Broadband will have to pay a one off fee of £1,432 and then an annual charge of £1005 per year to access our own information. The only system I can see that this will affect is the CRISP system, as HR Portal and Finance operate through a public facing website. I have had a lot of resistance to moving away from Link and no that I have finally told them I am going, this UAG is now being used to claw some of the money saved back. I would be interested to hear from other schools that have left Link2ICT for Broadband and what experiences/arrangements you have regarding accessing the internal BCC systems.