TechMonkey

How many devices, pupils and staff is that supporting? I'd say that is more the deciding factor. EDIT: To be more useful myself: 3 sites 360 staff 800 pupils 1500 devices (roughly) 4 staff; IT Manager, Senior Tech, 2 technicians

Dig a bit deeper and see if you can find reasoning why the suggestion was made. Is it in the spirit of 3 quotes, wanting to ensure the school is getting best value? Or is it a lack of understanding of what is covered by M365 or Google. Do they realise that it would effectively be a change of philosophy? Do they understand the level of change that would be needed? I'd say as long as the school is happy to make a wholesale change then you could save money. BUT the issue will be when certain departments or staff want something that doesn't fit. I could go on and on about the comparisons to make, the caveats and the additional costs that may be overlooked. I wouldn't say that a comparison would be a bad idea but find out what they are actually after before putting a lot of work into it, only to find out they thought it was as simple as opening Google instead of Word.

I use Trilby, but slightly miss Xibo. Good points for Trilby: - Really simple setup. - Good content provided. - Can add external content pretty well. - Android player so we can use cheap devices or built-in. Things I don't like (or miss) - proper data handling missing, even RSS. It can show RSS but you have no control over how it is displayed or formatted. - Regions. Would be nice just to have a bit of control of what is displayed where. But this isn't a biggie. - presentations, even online ones, don't auto progress even if timings set. Again, no biggie and I have a feeling Xibo now doesn't do this. - Groupings and access control is a bit convoluted.

Ultimately staff need to be told they are using a free service supported by ads. That they are then getting upset that they have to sit through ads is a bit Pikachu face. If they don't like what comes with a resource, get a better resource. They could use something like https://safeshare.tv/ or https://watchkin.com/ to cut back a lot of the issues with YouTube, but ultimately the ads are part of the service, and it is always going to be a running, whack-a-mole battle to keep them at bay. Not wanting to tread too close to the political line but with what is happening in certain areas of the globe and how certain companies seem to be pushing the tech agenda to be as free to do whatever they want as possible, it may be time to look for alternatives.

One thing I have found was in-place archive mailboxes are missing. Which is annoying.

To give the alternative view, I did an MIS migration over the summer. We did an initial data transfer Easterish time, did the training over the coming months spread out, allowed key staff to play with the initial data and then did a final data transfer over the summer holiday and then a rollover. Staff were told when we were changing, so stopped entering or adjusting data when we started the migration and then started on the new system when we were complete. We did mass training sessions with the academic staff on the inset days and concentrated on registration and retrieving pupil data as key skills. We built up other areas as we needed them, like report writing. This was a Prep school, so no exams, and 600-650ish pupils. I felt it worked fine and didn't cause too much stress. This was about 7 years ago though and the school wasn't that reliant on the previous MIS.

Get someone to check the contract, depending on the percentage increase it could be a get out of the contract. Get your ducks in a row NOW, ready to move. Don't stick your (as in organisational, not you specifically) head in the sand.

All fine here.

Hi all, I've seen a couple of posts about home filtering that mention Qustodio & I know Quoria took them over and is the parent company of Smoothwall as well. Question is, has any further testing been done on the two products interacting? We have a boarding pupil that is apparently having issues with some access while having Qustodio installed on their Mac and iPhone. We haven't got hands on the device yet, so it may be a VPN issue, but just checking if there are any known clashes? Many thanks

Gawn, what was the suggestion?

The once feature that always catches my eye is that have a great image report that thumbnails what images have popped up within the reporting period and reporting target, which is a great way of eyeballing any issues. I'm not sure the full ins and outs, it is one of their show pieces in a demo. I'm trying to remember the other features (as that does sound a bit pony when written out) that caught my eye, just little quality of life things. I'll drop you a DM if anything else comes to mind.

The Recruit I found as a great antidote to The Night Agent. Had similar feelings to S1 of The Night Agent, I made it through but there is just something not right about the filming, acting or staging. Not bothering with S2 The Recruit on the other hand has just enough silliness to keep it light, but enough action to keep engaged. Don't expect hard hitting CIA reality, but I like its mix and you can almost see working at the CIA being like this!

It does depend on what requirements you have. Are you BYOD, 1:1 or all school owned? Are you trying to filter off site? Can you limit what OS you are needing? What about Guest users? Personally, I haven't used anything else bar Smoothwall for years. It just hits all the bits I have needed with the fewest compromises. One thing to bear in mind is the way KCSIE and the DfE requirements seem to be gradually tightening up. I can't guarantee it is going to happen but I could see actual real-time content filtering become a recommendation and then a requirement in the near future. This counts a lot of systems out, though they will say the filter content as they stop you seeing the content if the URL matches. Be very careful of sales speak here. Anything that is only a DNS filter I would discount, full stop. My list: - Smoothwall - Opendium - Fortinet - Sophos Reasoning: - Smoothwall as it is what I have used successfully for a long time - Opendium is one I have had a demo of a few times and although lacks a modern UI, has great features under it and the team seem really good. Closest to Smoothwall I have seen & wish Smoothwall would take some of their features. - Fortinet if you want one device and need a new firewall too. Not education geared and you need extra modules and beefy hardware to use it but it looked good and they seem to have the global coverage to pick up threates and new trends - Sophos is one I have heard good things from but never had a need to use. Another not Education geared but seems to have a good reputation.

You don't have to lose access to the DB. You can still access it but only from one IP, usually your School internet IP. You need to get Support to give you the details. I access the DB for reporting. One alternative is to go with something like Locker or Salamander, that access the API and pick out new starters and triggers a workflow. Sounds like Salamander would be better, as I have found it to be more flexible and able to accommodate more workflows. The other is to pay for an upgrade Power Automate license to access the API yourself and write a flow that monitors for updates and fires off a workflow.

Yeah, I'm happy to support them on this. If they implement Leveson1 in full and support Leveson2 (electric bugaloo).

Blocked MFA? Check this pane https://entra.microsoft.com/#view/Microsoft_AAD_IAM/MultifactorAuthenticationMenuBlade/~/BlockedUsers/fromProviders~/false/fromNav/

Sorry, not directed at any one post or person, but there seems to be a lot of stuff flying around about this deal and how it will change Bond. Even the BBC has an article titled "How an American takeover could change James Bond forever". But it has been run by Americans since day dot. I hadn't realised Cubby Broccoli was part of the Bond films from the start, the only British bit (ignoring the content) of the films was they were produced in the UK to take advantage of tax breaks.

I'm confused. Everyone seems to be worried about Americanisation, but the Broccoli's were American, so Bond has been in American hands for blooming ages!!

Just seen this on ours. It isn't an app, it is in the Waffle of M365 and just takes you to the old O365 page where you can see your recent files and search your tenant. Stupidly labelled as Copilot bu I can't find anything AI about it. EDIT: Just clicked on the Learn More link and it tells you that it is the M365 Office app is now named Copilot.

Looks like a great bit of fun!

Just go for and be done with it.

Haven't tried it yet but what about update-AzADUser? https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/az.resources/update-azaduser?view=azps-13.2.0

Thanks @Will_Townsend. Couple of comments. The salary drop down only has other (this may be intentional) and I couldn't choose to sign up to the newsletter but not the career advice. Had to have one box ticked, which meant I had to say I didn't want the newsletter (though I did)

Yes this. Saw the flapping and panic over the weekend of people getting twisted up by Microsoft dictating what devices user can and can't use, but it is OEMs and what systems can be supplied with an MS license. This will not affect end-users.

GPRESULT on a device to check the correct setting is being applied?