GREED

Sorry... how many years have we all known XP support was going? We have had Windows 7 which has been pretty good for years too, ok it is no XP. There has been plenty of time to organise upgrading. It is a ridiculous situation

No rush!

Pahaha, if I can get 'Thanks' for good intentions I'm well away!!!

If I were still on SupportNet, I would! I has been about 5 years since I was last allowed on there!

Nick Thanks for your feedback. I will edit this later, although the meaning will be the same. Note for suppliers, please answer this question in your own survey as appropriate (if any of you read this!!).

Update: this week I have had 3 more suppliers contact me with intent to supply responses, really great news! Big thanks to all who do who take time out to support the community with this project. In other news, the survey is now available for download from the website for any school or LA who may wish to use some or all of it in their own procurements... Why reinvent the wheel! Completely free and unrestricted to use, although out of courtesy it might be nice to acknowledge it's use, but more importantly get in touch to let us know if it wad useful and how you got on with your procurement! There is also a resources section for any and all free resources we discover out there surrounding data and information management.

It does store that in admissions, I wonder if it does store it just doesn't display it...

So then, the question is @plus4schools do you want to be included in the MIS Challenge (Survey) like everyone else?

Well do let us know what you find out, we are building a repository of MIS information and things like this will be very useful!

Only know 'of' them so far. Tribal are big in the FE sector and I know they are brining their MIS to the state market now. Think they only have a couple of schools currently. I can't help you (yet) on the Google Apps part... but watch this space.

Indeed. That is the market analysis of what suppliers have what market share, numbers of customers etc. Connected to the survey, but the survey itself is separate and are responses directly from all the major suppliers that are know to the market. If nothing else, it is a good starting point for you!

Plus! for Schools is new to me, and probably many on here. So they have not been included, however should they interact on here or wish to take part they would be welcome to, more the merrier! Confused as to what you mean by not fully representative of all school. The suppliers represent all the known players in the MIS world in the UK, Primary and Secondary, state and independent sectors.

Welcome to the forum. You have probably asked the most contentious and interesting question possible! But we'll see if we can help you. Firstly, I'l like to invite @scholarpack to respond to you comment, that doesn't sound like them at all (no offence to you at all, I have just spoken with them a good few times). Scholarpack does focus specifically on Primary schools so your secondary age needs may be what makes their response a little more considered. Allow me to direct you to some other conversations on this forum that may help you decide on what/who to look at. There are currently 13 suppliers out there to choose from all having different capabilities and specialities, but all do the basics: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/131286-mis-challenge-market-analysis.html And somewhat older, and slightly off topic, but useful still: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/76154-something-keep-eye-dfe.html My advice would be to identify what the key things your school needs, as many as you can, and then ask suppliers. This was the basis of the MIS Challange and if you came back in a couple of weeks (I hope!) then the suppliers will have responded and you could freely see what their software can do. I am about to publish the survey questions on the website hosting the MIS Challenge, free for all to use how they wish, you may find it useful in knowing what questions to ask... And above all, ask questions, ask us all questions. There is a wealth of resources on here in the form of people, but just be aware you will get a lot of personal opinion!

That is the document I have seen and used, so big thumbs up for that! I love how the breakdown for each data type has different retention periods. Would love to see an MIS with a built in tool to remove aspects of a pupil record at certain times!!

... I will see if I can find the data retention docs... tisk. .. more work!

Expected, definitely. Not sure it is in statute though, more of benefit to both sides. I know we had reference requests for ladies who had left 15 years ago when I worked in the independent school. SIMS didn't go back that far but we had records still.

Me? Oh I don't know. I think ironically that is the point that it isn't easy to find. Info I had was from old procurement sessions with LAs and more recently conversations with DFE folk during my secondment. Some might even have been on their intranet (which would have been even more ironic)

Well... I'm confused. The MIS Challenge was to get suppliers to open up to the whole market about what their products can do. If anything this could or would assist your mountains of requests for information. An ideal end goal would be a school puts in an RFI with a caviat 'are you on the MIS CHallenge'. Schools may start to use the questions in their entirety and so if you have responded then schools can refer to those answers and may even request that. My goal has been to ensure schools know as much about everyone to help them make an informed choice, so they do not miss anything from anyone. Of course for suppliers, it's a great piece of advertising, and an opportunity if it does get used as well as I hope. For the LA Challenge im not convinced of what the market benefit is to spend the time on that. Obviously for suppliers there is benefit, to schools as a whole? Personally, I don't see any, and so it isn't something I could entertain being involved with. This is very much down to you and other suppliers to be doing. Particularly as you are wanting to know what is a driver for them to go to tender... do schools or other LAs want to k ow this? I only see benefit for suppliers, so is a very commercial thing... and sorry but I don't spend my spare, unpaid time on such projects. Convince me of the value and there may be scope. @vikpaw is right there needs to be involvement and push from DfE. I'm finding it interesting trying to get the information out of you suppliers... and I know most of you! LAs would not go near anything like this!! Without a push from above mind... I'm also confused as to why you are not putting any effort or interest in with individual schools when proportionally there is far more opportunities out there, and potentially easier to 'win' with the right solutions. Given too that winning an LA doesn't not guarantee any sales (remember, I have played in this arena ). Gives schools some attention

Thanks @CAM (although I beg to differ, perhaps the difference between picking holes and moaning is a different in my book! ) Anyways, I have gone back through all the information and gone through the merging steps again, a huge task I might add! I have found that the process isn't flawless given that the data from all four years, plus the information in Edubase (where school details are kept) is not all there, which is what was throwing off the calculations when merging. If i had one difinitive source of information on all of the schools, this would have been easier (plus, schools have closed/opened since 2010! And will continue to close and open). Upshot, the figures are much more accurate, and by comparison are aligned with other references. One my say why bother, and just used the other sources... feel free to, it is all the same data! I guess it depends on how details you actually want the data... LA and School historical level... The website page will be back live again in the next 20 mins.

FYI I have taken the page down temporarily while I go back through all the steps... again... There are notes plastered all over this that says this is info from the DfE, as well as the extreme difficulty in marrying up 21000 records 4 times (those darn schools open and close doesn't help!). I did say this was to be used as a rough guide, so I must admit I'm a little ticked off to see all this moaning about it. I'll go back through the process from the raw data tonight/tomorrow (i'm know the process isn't perfect to date, but i'm buggered if I am gonna marry 84000 records manually... the new process should be a little more accurate ) So apologies chaps, will be back available again tomorrow for you to moan at some more

Raw data is in the spreadsheet... I want people to be using it! I worked too long and hard for it to go to waste!

Agreed. Although I suspect it is the interpretation on the column, the figures are not skewed... ironically the issue is they SHOULD be!

It shows this, it shows the numbers gained since the last year.

Oh believe me I know 0 is a bugger of a number to work with. Don't get me wrong I completely agree is looks odd, however to keep everything fair I couldn't put any negative weighting on that. Take a look at the downloadable excel file which will give some clarity, if you have an suggestions on other ways to present this I would like to hear. I did have a % market share change too after that but everything was so small it was pointless having it on there (it is in the file still).

Thanks buddy