Banjo

You could open up the .xml census file and copy and paste the names/UPN into Excel and then look at whose missing?

The SIMS manuals are quite good, but like most, are technical, rather than good practice 'How to' based. At least Capita produce manuals for SIMS, you pay x30+ times more in AM fee's for ONE, but don't get a manual. You do however get a Capita 'Knowledge Specialist' @ £1000+ per day !!

We had a school that purchased it -They liked it, but there must have been falling out between Capita and FFT as the coefficients have not been updated to the new exam specs.

You can also add maths (subjects) as the Course Link in the templates. If the person is set up as coordinator (HOD) they get to see all their marksheets for their subjects.

Doesn't work anymore :-(

I know there have been problems with S2S (Access Denied - last week). This may be a hangover from that. I'd try again with the CTF.

If it's a simple choice between those two products then SIMS is the winner. SIMS is still be developed and supported whereas Facility isn't going to see any new features.

I'm sure you can buy it and run it locally on your own network. I've used it at FFT conferences, dragging and dropping to make some fancy chart and graphs. Once you get the hang of it then it's very powerful. I think you can link it to SQL, see below. https://www.tableau.com/learn/tutorials/on-demand/connect-databases - Watch this video to learn how to connect Tableau Desktop to relational databases. This training covers connecting to multiple tables via Tableau’s interface or using custom SQL as well as how to share these connections with others.

You can also do some pretty cool stuff with https://www.tableau.com/ FFT are using it https://public.tableau.com/profile/fftedu3897#!/ If you could point this at your MIS db you could produce some interesting profiles.

Becta no longer exists, tha academy/free school program has changed the educational landscape. EU procurement regs will likely cease in 18 months’ time. Schools now have more choice in the type of MIS and the differing capabilities and functionality that they now offer - More of the same is not necessarily a good thing, and we don't need a homogeneous marketplace. (diverse doesn't mean more)

The fact that Capita doesn't put a username and password on the UI does worry me. I'm going to give it a go as well, lets see how I get on.

Not seen that done before - Might be easier to move the whole of S3 to your workstation than to split it up.

I think the world has moved on since Becta produced that report. It has become more diverse with reduced barriers to entry into the marketplace.

Can you login on the Server to FMS (SQL2014)? As has been said, most likely a local FMSconnect.ini on the workstation that needs changing. As a quick workaround put a redirect for FMS on the 2008 instance to point to 2014.

This is a good starting point. You can drop the results into a text file on the sql server. SELECT Left(report_name, 40), Left(report_description, 40), Left(last_updated, 12) FROM sims.sims.rpt_report_summary order by last_updated DESC It looks like this, but you can add other fields from the table to it. Result Sets: Imported Mar 14 2017 Templates: by Supplier Mar 14 2017 Result Sets: All Mar 14 2017 Registration Groups (Dated Gender Sort) Mar 14 2017 Aspects: by Category Mar 14 2017 Aspects: No Results Mar 14 2017 Set to Receive Pupil Report (Labels) Mar 14 2017 Grade Sets: No Aspects Mar 14 2017 Grade Sets: User Defined Mar 14 2017 SEN - Assessment Mar 14 2017 Population Analysis (Dated) Mar 14 2017 Templates: by Category Mar 14 2017 Home Language Not English Mar 14 2017 Data Collection Sheet (font 12) Mar 14 2017 Population Analysis (All Year Groups) Mar 14 2017 Data Collection Sheet Mar 14 2017 OMR Templates: by Module Mar 14 2017 Grade Sets: by Supplier Mar 14 2017 Categories: by Type Mar 14 2017 Marksheets: Complete Flag Mar 14 2017 Aspects: by Module Mar 14 2017 Detention Non Attendance Report Mar 14 2017 ST Definition Mar 14 2017 SEN - Reviews Due Mar 14 2017 Avery labels J8160 - Address Mar 14 2017 SEF B4.1 - Exclusions Mar 14 2017 SEF B2.14 - Leavers Mobility Mar 14 2017 Ethnic / Cultural Analysis Mar 14 2017

I don't think it comes cheap, hence why not that many 3rd party apps have write back functionality. Maybe Phil can give you the answer before he takes up his new role.

Give us a clue to your MIS?

Haven't used T4 for a while but I know you need a licence file with T6. If you are a current SIMS user speak to Capita and they will send you the details

True, but the DfE do seem to be moving on this project. "We should finish our alpha development stage at the end of July. We’re conducting user research, internally and with schools, LAs and suppliers, to validate user needs and what the new user journey might look like. We’re creating an API to move relevant data (census data that is used to calculate funding), providing validation back to the user. Based on our research, we’re also planning what we could build for schools and LAs and develop the service to allow web-form and bulk uploads where it is not possible to send data via an API"

The DfE have plans to replace the current way the Census is collected, so I wouldn't worry too much about that going forward.

The migration tool is really designed for SQL upgrades rather than complete server moves. Yes, run the SIMSInst.exe file and select Workstation, Doc Server and SQL. You can then choose your new existing SQL instance in a later dropdown screen.

If this is for primary you can save some $$$ and use SQL express 2016. If you are using SQLExpress 2016 then if you extract you can run this batch/script to install. "D:\SQL2016\setup.exe" /q /ACTION=INSTALL /INSTANCENAME=SIMS2016 /INSTANCEDIR="D:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server" /FEATURES=SQLENGINE,REPLICATION,CONN,BC /SQLSVCACCOUNT="SYSTEM" /SQLSVCSTARTUPTYPE=AUTOMATIC /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="BUILTIN\ADMINISTRATORS" /AGTSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\Network Service" /SECURITYMODE="SQL" /SAPWD="YOUR-SA-PASSWORD-HERE" /ADDCURRENTUSERASSQLADMIN=True /TCPENABLED=1 /NPENABLED=1 /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS After that you will need to copy the SIMS setup folder across to the new server and run the sims instance.exe. Follow it through & create a new blank db. Then unattach the blank (using dbattach) and also the live db on the old server and attach the 'live' db to the new server using dbattach. Login, check/amend Doc Server settings. Open up a students record, upload a dummy file. The copy the old doc server folder over to the correct location on the new server. Delete dummy upload. SIMS is now working on your new server. If you use Discover you can install and bring across. If you use Solus3 you can install and then deploy.

Facility works with both Access and MSSQL it's just a matter of backup and restore. I would also export all the core student level data to Excel files before the move.

If you run this query via SQL Studio Managment SELECT 'Collation', SERVERPROPERTY('Collation') As ServerCollation, databasepropertyEx('Sandbox','Collation') As DataBaseCollation You hopefully get back this below. If you don't you may run into tolerance errors on the upgrade. Latin1_General_CI_AS You can also add this to a script (sqlcmd -s) to pull out this information if you have more than db that needs upgrading.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away - Facility came on an Access Database by default after the conversion process from Derby. Open up Facility create a new connection and point it at a blank access database. Facility will build the tables and then ask you for your licence. Restore you templates/datasets and away you go. You can then point Excel etc at the database to look at any reporting you need.