Sylv3r

Updated on my Macbook Air and iMac at home with no problems. Attempting the schools Macs later this week.

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As Penfold mentioned, on the very rare occasions we have needed to contact support we use the live chat and 9/10 they have been able to resolve the issue / query straight away. A couple of things that we identified were bugs and were sorted for the next release. Releases tend to be made available probably once every couple of months. I am not sure what the support times are, but theres always been someone available when I have contacted them during the day UK time anyway. We used the previous release initially and it didn't take too much configuring - their support team would also I think setup the system on your own kit if you give them access via a RDP connection or root on a linux box. The support staff love the product, the teachers haven't known anything different so they don't really have anything to compare it with but i've had no complaints. We take a lot of out of hours requests from students and parents also for password reminders to our Parent Learning Gateway etc and the feedback from parents is always pretty good too. If you think of anything else, give me a shout. Kayako put us forward to speak to someone working in a university and this is a copy of the e-mail I sent back to answer some of his questions which may also be helpful. · What version do you use? We currently use the latest release of Kayako. 4.? We have used Kayako now for around 8 years moving from version 3 initially to the latest version now. The initial migration to version 4 was a major issue as the product clearly was finished and it seemed very much in beta stage with updates constantly being released to fix issues. For the last 12 months has been very stable and the number of updates have been reduced. · Why did you choose Kayako? We initially created our own system for inhouse support, and although the system did the job, it did have it's limitations and it needed a lot of work done to it to get it to be a business standard product. Kayako was one of many we trialled and it seemed to tick the boxes and met the needs of our school. · Did you look at other systems? We looked at various systems, although off the top of my head I can't remember all of them. Spiceworks was one, but I felt the helpdesk module was a bolt on rather than the actual main product. · What has the feedback from end users been with Kayako? Feedback is generally good, we don't provide logons to the end users and all jobs are reported via e-mail. I.e. the member of staff, parent or student e-mails directly to: ithelpdesk@*******.co.uk and they then received an automated reply to say their request has been logged and will receive e-mailed updates throughout the progression until closure. We felt providing staff with an additional username and password would be too much + it didn't really offer anything in addition. · Do you just use with IT or have other departments started using it? (premises..) We currently only use it for IT, although I am considering rolling it out to the premises team. They don't seem to get too many requests though so I am not sure if it will complicate things. It certainly can however cope with multiple helpdesks running. · Have you purchased any ‘add on’ modules to use with Kayako? We use the Kayako Fusion product which I think is the product with all the add on's. We utilise the chat and VNC capabilities for when parents have issues logging onto our Learning Gateway from home. We can remind them of their password or even take control of their screens remotely to see exactly what error message they are receiving. We also have started to utilise the Knowledgebase to provide small helpguides and short videos on how to the most common requests we get through the helpdesk. The Live Chat is available on our website http://www.*******.sch.uk or the Knowledgebase at *********** · Who did you buy it off? We bought it direct from Kayako. · Did you install/setup yourself? If not who did you use. We installed it ourselves onto our hosted webserver, the help guides available are generally pretty good. The support is also very good as whenever we have a query they appear to know the product well and generally can let us know the answer or will dial in and make a change to the config etc.

I think its a known Sharepoint issue with Safari, Chrome etc. This should sort it for you, I think I did something similar to resolve our issue. SharePoint 2010

No requirement as far as I am aware. The majority of our NQT's have their own, if anybody is struggling we loan them one or buy them one from the NQT pot.

We got a call from the production company last year asking us if we wanted to do it - we said thanks but no thanks.

We use Sisra and SIMS Marksheets.

For our surveys we tend to use Google Forms. The outcome isn't pretty and needs a bit of calculating but it's doable for nothing.

We use Sharepoint 2010 here.

We use SIMS Profiles for our student reports which links to assessment manager etc. I don't think it will do pretty graphs etc but it will pull out attendance information - we show % attendance, number of late sessions and % absent in text form. I think you can now set a traffic light system up so it will colour code the grades if they are on target, matching or under - or it may be due in the next profiles release I can't remember - we don't use the colours up to now. The templates are based in Word so they are as customisable as you wish. It's a bit of a pig to get working, but once it plays nicely it works pretty well.

As mentioned above - we use Help Desk Software, Live Chat Software and Customer Service Software and love it. It probably works out quite expensive and a little overkill for your needs but it ticks all the boxes you require on your list.

Never bought from them before, but I recently invited them to attend our local Network Managers group meeting and myself and the group were suitably impressed with what they had to say. I may be tipping my toe the next time we need to buy some kit.

We bought them four or five years ago for our for our polish students to help with their english and maths skills. I must admit, I don't think they have been used for a while as i've never seen them for a while. They did work well when we first bought them though.

Pleased to see a few people say http://www.schoolassetmanager.co.ukis good. I've got someone coming in next week to give me a demo.

Have you tried for argument sake to add the domain prior to the username: MYNETWORK\admin I know I do it every time I roll out the agents, but I can't remember whether it's just habit or it doesn't work without it. Is the firewall running on the server also?

We offer the home use program with our staff also - you just have to be careful they don't start sharing the details with friends and family as I think you are only entitled to the same number of licences as your Full time numbers as per your EES agreement.

Us IT Staff like all staff here can choose to do a paid lunch duty if we so wish - £12 for 50 mins plus a free lunch. I must admit I don't but my Network Manager does as he is saving up for his wedding next year. Whether they can force it upon you, probably comes down to the any other tasks or duties as designated by the headteacher part of your Job description - I don't think theres an issue with you supervising students.

As default they are locked, but theres nothing stopping the staff clicking the padlock (can't remember what the exact terminology is) and over writing the marks. Which you would want them to do if a student is marked as absent but then arrives and you need to go in and change the mark to a late code.

The lightspeed MDM is another alternative to Meraki - although I must admit we use Meraki and love it. The lightspeed MDM product has a RRP of £5 per device, but I am sure theres some flexibility the more licences you require.

As far as I know, the contacts dont need a e-mail to provision. I tend to only provision the mother in each household - we then have a seperate report for single families or dad as the Priority one who I then set an account up for.

We have one box for our Sharepoint site but will be upgrading it ASAP. I was going to do it during the summer but ran out of time.

Good point about Office 2013 compatibility with other software. Our Sage BI package doesn't work with 2013.

We use 1608's - no issues here and simple to setup.

We've gone to 2013 this summer with no issues. 2003 > 2010 or 2003 > 2013 Is going to be a massive learning curve for both staff and students no matter which one you choose.

I take it the staff code on SIMS matches the code set on NovaT? If its a code you have used previously with another member of staff who has now left the school have they been made a leaver on SIMS?