DoubleFirstChair

Hi Alloy20, May I make some comments regarding your post, please? First, I agree that you and your Bursar found more 'bugs' and 'feature requests' than any other school since Engage was launched which certainly took us by surprise. However, I would like to think that we supported you tirelessly through each of the issues, making frequent visits to the school as well. We recently learnt of further issues the Registrar was having. However, since then we have been advised those specific issues have been redressed. Is this not the case? Regarding the Timetable, our own research (and that of the timetable experts we employed at the time) never suggested 15 minute lessons may ever be required. Hence, it wasn't planned for and the upper period limit was set at 20. But I believe your Bursar is now working on another potential scenario which may be possible. Once you are able to use our Timetable, or indeed TimeTabler from Keith Johnson which fully integrates with Engage, you will benefit from, 1. All classes, staff, rooms and pupils only have to be entered once 2. Timetable draws from the curriculum models already set up in Engage. This means that one set of curriculum models serves the timetable, assessments and attendance – one point of maintenance 3. The timetable creation is seamlessly linked to the timetable printing system, meaning that individual pupil timetables and room, staff and subject timetables can be created. 4. The timetables can been seen in the staff, parent and pupil portals 5. The timetables can be used to set lesson plans 6. The timetables are used to set staff cover 7. There is a locate pupil and locate staff option that show where the person is right now, or at any time/date in the future 8. A facility to 'Find a Free Room or Staff Member' As I said to Tom in my previous reply, do please feel free to contact me either by email or mobile. Piers du Pre Double First Chairman [email protected] m 00 44 7971 171 171

Hi Tom, Having seen your post I am obviously concerned at your comments. We have many schools as well as the major schools groups (UK and International) using Double First Engage, so I would be keen to know exactly what the issues are about which you have concerns. Do please feel free to contact me either by email or mobile. I assure you we will investigate the issues thoroughly and report back to you. Regards, Piers du Pre Double First Chairman [email protected] m 07971 171 171

Hi Frankie, Did you make a choice? As I suspect you know, we re-named Hebron to Double First early this year when we started selling into the British Schools in the Middle East.... In answer to your question, Engage (the new name for hebron.NET) has fully functioning Teacher and Parent portals. More than happy to ask a consultant to demonstrate the software to you should you want this. The following groups have chosen Engage - United Church Schools, United learning Trust, CfBT, Aplha Plus, SEK, Aldar, etc etc. Best regards, Piers Double First Chair

As you can imagine, I am concerned to read some of the negative comments about Hebron and our software. Hopefully, the issues mentioned, and some not mentioned, have long gone. Let me try and clear the air somewhat. Hebron Engage (the new name for hebron.NET) is successfully in operation in many schools and colleges, as well as two well known and large School Groups. Technically, although we could have front-ended existing products, we decided to start again, and created Engage, a brand new product, from the ground up. Entirely written in C#, MS .NET, and Framework 2 and 3. The Engage e-Portal is written entirely in asp.net Kinny - I am sorry your experience was not good. If there is anything I can do to help, please pm me to let me know. Since 2006 Engage has come on miles and is a truly excellent integrated MIS - otherwise I doubt the two Groups above would not be using it. I would hope we could show you the issues you seem to have experienced have gone for good, and clear the air. eBell - Double First, as you say, is a good fees and accounts package, well proven over the years. We are about to launch a major upgrade (free of charge, as all our upgrades are) and you will find the few maintenance DOS elements have disappeared, and many of the recommendations put before us by our School Development Partners have also been addressed. As I have said, if you would like any specific info, or just a ear to 'shout at', please pm me. If you would like my personal mobile number, it is 07971 171 171.

Having read this thread, may I add some feedback direct from Hebron? Support Our recent success with hebron.NET has increased our customer base considerably and far faster than anticipated, and our Customer Support Unit (CSU) has recently been under strain. We acknowledge that, and we apologise. If any school is suffering, please let me know by PM and I ensure the matter is dealt with rapidly. To restore matters, we have had an intensive recruitment and training program running which should see support return to its normal excellent levels shortly where we receive nothing but praise for our support. hebron.NET hebron.NET is now in some 70 schools, including the whole Alpha Plus Group. Read more here. Web Access Hebron's VLE and eLearning module (Hebron Engage) allows full web access enabling teachers and staff to work from home (or anywhere for that matter). One school's buying criteria included Disaster Recovery. What if the school was shut down and no-one could attend. Since hebron.NET allows full operation in this scenario, it was chosen. Regards

As Russell says, this is real request for a trial site, and I re-confirm this is not a sales scam. We look forward to hearing from any interested parties.

Dear Forumites, Hebron is looking for a school or college with an FTE of more than 1,000 with which to trial Hebron Engage - hebron.NET's fully integrated VLE module. Hebron's MIS, hebron.NET, is now well proven and successful, and in use in many schools. The school we are looking for would have to have hebron.NET and two modules, Engage and Assessments, installed. We would recommend that the system is then used for one form year only, for a limited trial period, to be agreed. All costs would be borne by Hebron, but we would ask for co-operation in proving the system and collaborating with possible improvements. Currently, we have Engage installed and under trial in four schools, without problems. If you would like to enquire about this trial, would you please PM me, direct. For more information on hebron.NET and Hebron Engage, please visit the website - Hebron Software - and choose product from the left hand menu. This is a very real request, and I have received permission from the MIS Forum Adminsitrator to make this posting. Kind regards, Piers du Pré

Having seen the trauma experienced in users wanting to extract data from an MIS, I am pleased to say that we have written a Reporting System for hebron.NET which allows ANY and ALL data to be selected and sent to Excel. Hopefully this will be found helpful.

Thanks Phil.

Hi Russell, Thanks for the encouragement. The Hebron team and I are more than willing to answer any questions or concerns on our MIS and stand alone products. I had looked at IT4Schools's profile, to contact him (?) direct, but with nothing there I felt I had to post on the forum. Again, thanks for the encouragement, and let's see what happens. Regards Piers (du Pré) http://www.hebron.co.uk

One of the many schools which use our hebron.NET MIS software extensively and very successfully, has let me know of the negative post made by 'IT4Schools' - see above. As Hebron's Chairman, I am concerned at what 'IT4Schools is saying for two reasons. First, if we have a school which is unhappy, I would want to know which. Second, 'IT4Schools' has no Edugeek Profile, has only made 2 posts, both of which are identical, making it look suspiciously like a 'plant' from a competitor. So please, 'IT4Schools', let us all know who you are, what your position and work is, and the details of the school you mention. Regards, Piers du Pre Chairman Hebron UK Ltd http://www.hebron.co.uk

One of the many schools which use our hebron.NET MIS software extensively and very successfully, has let me know of the negative post made by 'IT4Schools' - see above. As Hebron's Chairman, I am concerned at what 'IT4Schools is saying for two reasons. First, if we have a school which is unhappy, I would want to know which. Second, 'IT4Schools' has no Edugeek Profile, has only made 2 posts, both of which are identical, making it look suspiciously like a 'plant' from a competitor. So please, 'IT4Schools', let us all know who you are, what your position and work is, and the details of the school you mention. Regards, Piers du Pre Chairman Hebron UK Ltd