StArbiter

Anyone see the Panorama program last night ? Some of our staff, pupils and parents are now asking about the safety of the Bromcom wifi system. If John Condon is still watching please put our minds at rest and post something on teh forum.

Alumni - what do you mean by alunmi package options ? I see it's your first post but some of us need a little more help than others ...

Maxine - how many school customers do Frog have ?

anyone know how many schools are now using Frog - I have heard it could be 30 or 300 ?

Mike I have now had a chance to look closely at your software and am struggling to see anything it can do that my exams officer cannot do for me in 2 minutes using SIMS. What are the key features and benefits 4Matrix provides I can't get from my MIS ?

Mike - I fit your description of a school IT professional with experience of exporting data but cannot help if you can't provide answers to the very specific questions posed in my reply of April 10th.

Welcome Mike. If you are looking for specific help on these forums you may need to provide a bit more information. Phil's question is a good start as to why your report may work with 80% of schools and not the others - is it the way you have constructed the report or could it be the quality of the data in the schools SIMS system ? 1. When choosing the file to export, the narrow display box can clip the last characters of file names - often the date. Trial and error is then needed to find the right file. >>> we found using the Third Party SDK removed all the user generated errors in exporting SIMS data - any reason why you are not using this simple tool ? 2. The data gets 'rolled over' and often can't be found again >>> can you clarify and expand what you mean ? Re:2 We include an option in the RepDef to choose a date (prior to rollover) >>> by rollover do you mean year end ? e.g. you may be exporting data for a group no longer on the school roll ? 3. Data exported for the correct cohort sometimes has blank fields e.g. no subjects and grades >>> do you mean all the cohort or only some ? Re:3 We were told that this last problem occurs when a school didn't do its housekeeping 'Export to DMS'. We have documented this but it rarely solves the problem when exported files are blank. >>> do you mean fields or files ?

I believe the SIMS integration is done by using PARS software from TASC. Read data from SIMS is quite cheap but the write back requires the purchase of a full PARS licencne.

Hi Crispin - good post - can you name any authorities that may have suspended their procurement process due to the complaint you have posted with the EU ?

If a product is not on the list does that mean we cannot use the 121 Standards funding to purchase from a non Becta approved supplier ? When I googled for more information I came across the following page http://www.alphalearning.co.uk/ojeu/TW_lette.pdf. I think if my LA were to read this it may cause a tremor as they are going down the only Becta approved route. Wonder what the EC will say.

and of course these tools are for school use only. Any third party wanting to use them will require a licence agreement with Capita. Not that we get any companies on this board - only humble school techies.

Bossman wrote I have asked my LEA support team and they just frowned upon it and told me that they don't encourage it end of story. - which LA is this ? I suggest you contact Capita and they may supply the SDK documentation direct. I have been working with a company called "School Software Company" who developed a behavioural piece of software namely Seuth and have gone on to integrate it with Sims doing exactly what we are discussing. Will let you all know how that goes later on in the year when it should upgrade the kids automatically fingers crossed. - interesting software. We were quiet enthused with this a couple of years ago but it seems to have stood still compared to SIMS .net. It only allows data to be imported from SIMS .net through a couple of reports you can download. Not exactly integration - and no plans to write back. I think we will slowly move to using SIMS.net only fairly soon.

Have a look at this thread on the Moodle forum http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=15012 - the IMS route is the way that both SUN and Parrs Wood are using as it prevents having a direct connection to the SIMS database - frowned upon I believe.

I spoke to a SIMS reference site regarding the Mobile software and came away thinking the install package was a necessity. The network manager was very clued up (much better trained than me) and said he learnt far more from the engineers than he expected. We also went through the new install notes which are a considerable improvement on the orginal. In the end it will come down to how much you value your time - I'm paying :x for someone else to do it this time.

Nova is proven to work. If you install the Untis software there can't be any guarantee the timetables will make it into SIMS. I know what my school would do. :idea:

I know that Keith Johnson Timetabler works with SIMS .net. I suspect it's up to GP Untis to do the interface work - the information is available if GP Untis wish. How many schools use this product - I have never heard of it before. There is a lot of useful information on interfacing on the partners page of Capitaes.co.uk.

contact your account manager ?

also see my reply on this thread - programatic data extraction from SIMS.net Data Base

I think you will find that any school can use the Third party Software development kit at no charge. This allows you to read dynamically read data from SIMS.net using the reporting engine and extended data dictionary. We have used it to populate our home grown systems and it works a treat. All that is required is you contact your local SIMS support team for a copy of the documentation.