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All Does anyone have a formal schedule of testing and an associated policy for it. I have been asked to formalise our testing schedule and was wondering what everyone else does. At the moment I have knocked up a shared calendar that my team populates with roll outs of software and hardware updates. Any advice would be most welcome.

Weve just purchased Polycomm CX5000 camera and are using Citrix Goto meeting. The sound quality is excellent even from the built in mics. The camera itself is great (old Microsoft 360) it follows the sound of the speaker focusing around the table and sanpping to whoever is speaking. In Skype it will also do a panorama of the table but it is not quite as good. I have to agree with Dos_Box we found that with web cams you pay for what you get this little baby cost us just short of 2.5K but worth every penny. http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ_CYBAyFoDwQylkAfLgaRO9inTjzwwvNqoHBK1l9dEXqCmwP0CGQ

I have had an update re this ongoing problem. see below. Hi Andy, To be honest we’re really struggling to find a way around this… The only thing we can thing of now is to limit the number of attendance codes in Emerge to 7 which you will need to choose from your list of 13. It’s a real limitation with the API that we’re gutted we can’t get around. Would the proposed solution work for you? Nick So the limitations with the API mean that schools that use more than 7 attendance codes for Lesson by lesson reg are scuppered.......

Lawrence this seems like a good solution and will certainly help with prefilled attendance codes. We currently use 13 codes for lesson by lesson but i am sure we can lose 6 of those providing the teachers can see the pre filled values. Have you got a time scale for this fix?

We are a SERCO school and had our trial install scheduled for about a fortnight ago. During the install it became apparent that the app was just not going to work for us this is because the API that groupcall use for reading and writing data to and from the server supports just 7 register calls that can be mapped to the register codes used in school. We use on a daily basis 13 different codes for lesson by lesson registration. The problem comes when the software doesnt understand what a code pre input into a register is. For example if we were to input a student holidays into the register using a 'H' but then EMERGE doesnt map the 'H' to its software then on EMERGE that student would have a blank field and a teacher would assume when the register is called that he/she was absent and mark as such overwriting the original code pre input into CMIS. We are now waiting for Groupcall to sort out a work around with SERCO to allow us to use our full set of register codes. We shall wait and see!

I agree Progresso does look the bussiness, however there is one bit we need (events) that we use for behaviour that will not be in the initial release. I have spoken to our account manager about biometrics and SERCO and she has given me one contact in Derby so will see what he has to say. As for the list of partners only one mentions Biometrics and they can not help as thier software doesnt work fully yet. WiFi we have site wide but PE staff are unwilling to take devices outside incase they get wet, damaged, lost or stolen.... Groupcall are in contact with SERCO re fixing the emerge app to take into account more registration codes.

Yes but we wont be looking at the move till at least January 2013, That give the software time to have its main bugs ironed out, Allows Serco to publish the modules that will be missing from the initial release and finally this will be the time that the self hosted solution will also be available. Basically I think we will be taking up release 2.....

Vikpaw I agree the API is somthing that CMIS should fix, and from what they were saying at the Progresso launch event i went to last week they have. But i doubt the changes in the new system will filter into the older API. We too have got a biometric scanner for the library and have had one for the last 4 years. It works absolutely fine, is robust, quick and easy to use and is one of the reasons that i am keen to explore the technology in other areas.

I have already had a look at Emerge for CMIS/e-portal, the problem is the api will not suport all the register codes that we use. Groupcall are trying to find a work around but at the moment if the code does not exist the register for the student is over written. Biometrics seems like a clever solution but I have to adnit i am having problems finding schools that have implemented it successfully.

Has anyone got more upto date info on this topic since its last post in 2007. I am looking to see if a Biometric solution would work for registration in PE and need more information. Is anyone currently using this type of solution successfully with Facility CMIS?

We fianlly made the decission to go with a hosted eclipse.net solution. we have had it for about 3 weeks now and i must say iam suprised. Everything has just wored briliantly. The support has been there when needed and apart from one muppet have been able to solve all our queries whilst on the phone with them. Click view has inegrated fine and the hardware (biometric scanner and barcode scanner) worked a treat after some minor adjustments to our policies. Even the remote scanner works like a dream. The next step is to integrate CMIS. All in all it has been painless conversion from Alice and so far so good.

Wils86 have you had any luck resolving your last error. I am getting exactly the same thing. I can create new items, delete existing items but can't open/download existing or new items. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Either, letting someone else take care of the DB is one less job however there are concerns with reliability and server up time so hosing on site is also being considered.

We are currently looking at upgrading a rather dated Alice LMS to a new one and are leaning towards either Eclipse.net or Oliver. Has any one got views on either of these systems? Did the conversion of the data if you had an upgrade go ok? Have you had any problems with them hosting the DB for you? Any other info that would be of help kindly accepted.

Here is a general question, and is relevant for all MIS's. I have been asked to supply usernames and passwords for use by multi agency support teams to access the schools MIS (CMIS) My question is this. What are the legal implications of doing this, does it breach data protection and safeguarding children policies? Do any other schools allow multi agency access? I know for example that if a police officer comes to reception you are not allowed to pass information about a student to the officer unless they have a warrant.