SouthCoastSaint

Thanks Vic. Trouble is, it isn't the output of the reports that has gone, it's my list of scheduled ones that tell Sims to run them every night.

I have just looked at my scheduled reports to change recipients for a couple, and apart from 4 they have all gone. They are all set up with an end date of 2014 to make sure they are still working on the first day of next term so it should be a date thing. We had a big system crash just before the Easter hols and everything had to be loaded from back up and re-built but as these are held in Sims I can't see how this would affect the reports. We have 77 reg groups so setting these up individually for each one takes ages. Does anyone have any suggestion what may have happened to them?

Do you mean to say that when you use the batch PDF conversion, it writees every document again to DMS and attachs it to linked docs but this time in PDF form? Or do you mean no way to delete from showing in Insight?

Hoping someone can answer another Insight question. We use Sims Profiles and are looking to publish PDF documents on Insight for parents. Currently we do that via SLG by selecting within Sims which reports to publish then converting. With Insight, it appears that you put a From and To Date to dictate which reports are published. I generate multiple times in a Profile session which can last 4 weeks, and obviously I don't want profiles published before they are finished. However, during this window, some individual reports may be finished and need to be published. Has anyone mastered how to run this to suit the reporting calendar?

Tools - Setups - SEN Setup should enable you to select the staff member(s) as SenCo and delete any out of date ones.

I have raised two queries this morning (we are still at the setting up stage) and both times the issue was replied to within 10 minutes. The cost is a fixed price per pupil I believe. Definitely worth chasing as we had a demo to use and show to our SLT.

Thank you both. We will continue to use AD accounts just not through Sims. As for users and roles - don't get me started. No one in our database seems to automatically move to the correct role when appropriate. We have 1750 on roll, and yet we have 2485 in the 'Student' roll group. None at all in the Ex-students. Oh, and exactly 900 parents (in reality more like 2500). I have never managed to find a way to clean this up, so I am looking forward to avoiding adding any new users in Sims!

Zag (and anyone else that has moved from SLG to Insight) - wondered what the provisioning implications are when you don't have SLG anymore. We have 3000+ parents provisioned that now are in Sims as users. Presumably if SLG goes, does the ability to provision go too? And if so, do all the parents/students previously provisioned stay in Sims as users forever? (They do at present, even when unprovisioned eg parents of leavers). The very fact that they are in Sims as users creates hassle for me. As an example - scheduled reports - when assigning to staff, all the provisioned parents/students appear as users BUT WITH NO ROLE TO FILTER THEM OUT. So Teacher John Smith looks exactly the same as the student John Smith and the Parent John Smith. It's a case of Sims not keeping up with its own new developments.

Disappointed to read this thread. I had a meeting with a Progresso rep a few months ago - and then last week out of the blue I had another sales call. I asked how a neighbouring school was getting on so that I could visit and see it in action to be told they had not yet migrated. However, no mention of any issues with the product or migrations. Even had a follow up sales email. I don't think they should be actively recruiting new schools until at least some of the major problems are ironed out.

I will try and explain everything that has happened - it's all related to Options. Something was changed in the Sims Permissions a little while back (to attempt to cure a separate issue with Attendance Letters). We then came to log in to Options (first time since last year) and it was asking for a password. The technicians then gave us explicit permissions to the Options folder in Sims which cured the problem. I did the import from T6 which all went through OK and a few days later, the DHt (Timetabler) went into Options to create classes. It was at this point that he received the message - Unable to save as program in use by a different user. If he logs in to any computer with his Windows login he gets the same error. I can quite happily log into to his computer and it will work for him on his Sims login. Yesterday, the technician deleted and re-made his profile which I hoped would cure it, but he's still getting the same error. Capita can't really help as it's a obviously a problem with our network rather than Sims, so any ideas would be very welcome!

Person affected can log into SIMS on my PC when I am logged in to Windows, and it works ok. He cannot log in anywhere with his own Windows login.

We have a problem with one user being unable to use the Options module as it won't save. The user has identical explicit permissions to the Options folder as another user who can use it with no problem. (The Sims user makes no difference, it's the windows log in that appears to effect the program). It would be helpful to know the best practice permissions for the Sims root folder on the Sims server. This time last year Options worked for all users but we are unsure what has now changed with permissions that has caused this issue.

Mike - agree totally. (Richard above is our IT expert here). Why on earth can't they put a huge warning not to take the release if you have not already done so, but leave it available in Solus 3 for those in our position?!

We have a small number (29) of machines that we have not managed to deploy yet (Solus 3 has been deploying since Thursday am, and we still have some machines outstanding). Now we find we are unable to do this as the upgrade has been withdrawn. IT Technician is looking for a workaround as the teachers affected can't use Sims at mo.

@SouthCoastSaint You can see outstanding registers on the SIMS homepage, I have it setup so I can see outstanding for all teachers - not sure if you can set it for just your own though. I do use this panel all the time but looking at the way it's configured, it's more part of the 'send message' tool than for each individual teacher. If it's already there in some form though, might not be too hard for Capita to set up as an addition. I know there has been lots of talk in the past about the timeline being red until reg is taken then turning green, but I think a panel for it would be quite good too. Would also mean that it would still display even when tomorrow has arrived - this wouldn't happen with the timeline unless you rolled backwards.

Thanks Phil - I had noticed that, and it will certainly be an improvement (as long as you don't need In Touch to use the function). I just liked to idea of date stamping a collection, so teachers can see at a glance what is outstanding for them. Actually, this could also encompass missing registers. Could have a homepage panel for Teachers - WORK YOU ARE BEHIND ON. Although, would the screen be big enough for some?!

I wasn't thnking so much as the initial construction, but more of the day to day each individual student timetable. Moving 1750 kids round the school if no one knows where they are going would make registers a little irrelevant! Chicken and egg.... Saw demo yesterday of Progresso, and saw a nifty little feature that really would be time saving to me. When assessment collections are set up, a message stays on the teacher's homepage showing the marksheet as outstanding until it's complete. Then again, without AM7, I would be collecting grades on scraps of paper. Where do you draw the line?!

Scrap above - timetabling and student allocations

Hi Graham In a large school like ours, attendance is a major headache when Sims is down. However, that's because once you have lesson monitor, you try to maintain that level of detail when processing manually. I guess if we had no system, we would scrap lesson marks and go back to AM and PM reg collected manually. For me, the highest volume of work to do manually would be Profiles, but they are only done once a year per child, so it's all relative. Basically, wouldn't want to lose any of it!

I haven't managed to implement it successfully, as it doesn't seem to display any links between children and adults. So Dave Smith rings re his son John Smith and 3 Dave Smiths are offered. Too much risk of picking the wrong one. This also happens when scheduling reports (get offered ALL people in Sims but no role indicated for them), and also linked adults on SEN. Capita have not adjusted their software since AD brought many mord people in as users of the system.

The eye-opening thing for me was the extent to which appts had previously been 'shaped' to suit some teachers - so no appts avail after 6 for example. This system puts parents firmly back in control. After all, it's directed time....!

We have just completed our first two parent's evening with it. I LOVE it! Really easy to set up, and we had so many unsolicitored emails with positive feedback from parents. We opened our Year 9 bookings at midnight and 38 parents had booked by the time I looked at 5am. We had 4 office staff available in school to take phone bookings for those not wishing to book over the internet but for us the vast majority did it themselves. Price is reasonable and transparent (displayed on their website). The developers were extremely helpful and added a few useful features that I requested. ***** - 5 stars from me!

That's what I'm waiting for Vik. Wouldn't risk using the current filter, I could envisage scores of parents with blocked accounts as older siblings leave. Still not installed Autumn, but def still excited about this feature!

How do you allow for parents of younger siblings doing it that way? I couldn't trust deleting all leaver contacts in case they still had children in the school.

The release notes for Autumn have a whole section for AD. The improvements really look like Capita have listened to users, and one improvement is for better sorting for provisioning process. I think you will be able to identify and select parents with no students remaining at school. I'm looking forward to trying it.