Anjelica

The 21k is purely re-licensing plus annual entitlement (there is an early bird discount in there of a couple of K). Our Annuall Entitlement doesn't cover support so we will have to buy that too year on year. There is no training / on site support in the package. Our LA run what they call Central Sims - they host the database, backups etc. We didn't buy in because they couldn't do SLG (we were one of the very first schools to use it) - they can do it now but as we had already bought the kit and spent time getting it working we stayed standalone. There was some jiggery-pokerey a few years ago and we were "persuaded" to buy their support. Turned out that because they upgraded all the other schools centrally they didn't think it was fair that we got upgrade support from them when the other schools didn't so they refused to help. Now tell me guys, "when is it that your support contract really pays?" - when you are upgrading the system!! Interestingly we are now also talking to ISAMS - they want to get into the state sector. Watch this space.

Looks like we get to join this debate after all. Last week we had a visit from Capita to inform us that we would need to buy licences etc - Total cost for Year 1 about 21k then 14k+ Year 2 onwards (Annual Entitlement + Support). The Governing Body have told the SMT to look into another MIS; we are after all spending public money and have to be seen to be getting best value. We had our first demo today and have another one later in the week. All quotes have so far come out cheaper from Year 4 onwards. The product viewed today was browser based and is even upgraded automatically by the company concerned (our biggest worry as our LA refuses to support the Sims upgrade process). For myself - I had thought I would using Sims until I retire but now it looks like this old dog is going to have to learn some new tricks. Oh yes and I'll be in the high Arctic while it's all going on!!!!

Oh good grief. I feel like a fool now. Just spent the afternoon with my head of ICT trying to write a macro to merge my .xml files. We gave up. I got home and typed Merge Multiple Documents into Google and got this: Combine and Merge Multiple Documents in Microsoft Office Word 2007 » My Digital Life It's so simple too. I couldn't merge all three hundred in one go but it can certainly manage 30 at a time on my laptop. Will try more with a more powerful PC at work.

Chris: That would be great if you could. Even if you could steer me in the right direction I would be eternally grateful. A virtual pint in the virtual pub would be waiting for you!!!

This has been mentioned in another thread but I'm still struggling. I want to find a way of combining a group of .xml files (all in the same folder and now renamed sequentially - File001.xml, File002.xml etc.) into one file that can be analysed. Each .xml file contains a small table (3-5 rows with 8 columns). I used to open each one individually and cut and paste the data. OK for a small group but now my head of 6th form wants all the students in it (380). There was a bit of code for a macro in the previous thread but it lost me. Can anyone make any suggestions?

Sorry LosOjos - I can't offer any help here. I spent the first 10 years of my school career dealing with this. (We are a 3 site school and from when the three sites amalgamated in the 80's the tutor groups were named 10W1 - meaning on the west site; 10E1 - meaning east site and 10C1 meaning centre site. When some wag decided we would start a house system I wrung my hands and worried for ages about having to make wholescale changes to Sims. When I had made the changes, I then realised I had lost this problem. Perhaps you could make this suggestion!!

Sophos here. Have been for years. Easy to push on the network and a doddle for those PC's not on the central system (laptops that teachers leave at home all the time). We have it running on out of the box PC's running XP/Win 7 as well as RM CC4. No problem on low spec PCs. I first started using it Win95!!!

I opened my mouth and told the SLT Discover would be with us when we did the Spring upgrade. When will I learn? (I first saw it in Nov 09 so have been waiting a long time.) Hey, (sneaky smile), I didn't say when the Spring Update was due - if I hold off 'till Discover is ready they will never know!!!

Sivadam - This kind of tip isn't going to help your quest to get back into the red!!! Thanks anyway

And more power to your elbow!!

Gosh, it's the first time I've heard of anyone wanting to be "in the red". Still, if that's what you want I'm sure can manage it Sivadam ;-)

No, no decision has been taken to definately change (as far as I know). There would have to be massive cost savings, I'm assuming, but now the question has been asked I have to look into it. I have asked Capita about costs but our situation is complicated by the fact we are supported by our LA at the moment and the school is talking about a move away from there too.

As one of the largest schools in Oxfordshire we are consulting on the possibility of moving to Academy status. We have been using SIMS since God was a little girl but today I was asked if there was a better MIS out there and how easy would it be to convert to something new (retirement certainly looks good at this point). I'm now expected to come up with costs, converstion suggestions etc etc at the drop of a hat. Is anyone able to offer tips having looked over to the other side of the fence? Do we have to have an MIS? I'm not suggesting we go back to paper registers and mark books etc but what happens if you can't produce things like the School Census in the required format or offer access to parents. Can anyone tell me how much Capita have charged them when they have converted to Academy? Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated!!!

Strange that Phil can get this done so quickly. I had this as a support call with my LEA years ago. The answer they gave me after weeks of discussion was that Capita couldn't do anything about it. Times change so perhaps the coding is simpler now or something.