GREED

Is Facility even still for sale?

Others are available just for balance...

Thanks I will flag this up

As I understand it, National Security matters trump GDPR

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/data-protection-information-handling/188145-gdpr-ebook-training-opportunity.html

Sorry I am late to the party. I would firstly advise you to contact Meritec as for the majority of Xporter partners they provide the initial support. Failing that, give our support line a ring we'll be happy to help.

Hello all. I am pleased to be able to provide for you the brand-spanking-new eBook: GDPR in Schools, from Groupcall - https://www.groupcall.com/gdpr-ebook-for-schools There is also the opportunity to join one of a number of GDPR training sessions, tailored for schools. If you are interested: https://www.groupcall.com/gdpr-training Thanks

Welcome

The guidance document is still 2013

Thank you for this, I believe this does confirm and support the original advice given to Groupcall on the topic some time ago. Does this answer the concerns of certain individuals here? Are we more happy this is official guidance from the DfE (and not a commercial organisation driving an agenda)?

This is my understanding too

OK so setting policy is not the right term. A DPO should have access to the highest levels of management that will be setting policy, but also be independent to be able to lead data breech investigations. Is anyone on the board sufficiently independent?

One would need to ensure that such a role does not present a conflict of interest in terms of setting data policy and all that - you may argue either side that the board of governors (anyone) are or are not suitable for this. GDPR next year will 'enforce this' come next year.

You are welcome - we were worried if it was Xporter doing this! It might be worth other users experiencing this to check to see what other services (data extraction or otherwise) might be in play?

I have only just spotted this. Yes it is still going strong. I would like to briefly address the app store reviews elephant: When this was first launched we took a decision not to directly support parents in their use of the app, and rather point them to their school for when they cannot login for whatever reason. This was a very bad call, and in the last couple of months we have opened a direct support line for parents in their use of Xpressions. That has made a difference in the feedback we get directly, and has allowed us to solve a lot of issues parents had, 90% of which are down to the data in the school MIS not being right in some way (though not in all cases). There is also the issue that parents excitedly download and get into the app, are disappointed to find that they cannot access the core student data, because this is a paid for (by the school) extra that the school have decided not to buy - unfortunately some schools do not make this clear and so it is our fault. In no way saying it is perfect and has been though the mill until we got it stable. With regards third parties, this relies on those third parties integrating with Xpressions - we have a few that have for posting messages, less that have for full interface but both is available to any third party. Obviously this is me saying these things, but wanted to clear up the reasons for the app store reviews.

Thanks Adrian. Allow me to comment here - there have been some balls dropped here at Groupcall in this instance, and after getting involved myself at (unfortunately too late) this stage agree that the service and support given to you has been poor. Our management team are already on the case here, and while I have done this privately to you I will publicly apologise on behalf of Groupcall for this string of events. I think it fair to mention that the technical issue that ultimately prevented you from using the product was down to a rather niche way you were trying to do things that in fact Messenger does not really support rather than ParentPaperwork - it is the first time a school has tried to use it in that way, and this was only necessary because your MIS does not supply that information. It is a basic electronic survey mechanism, it isn't perfect, it does what it needs to do, but like any system there are some fundamentals that need to be in place for it to work right, which unfortunately were not available here. The bigger frustration as I am sure you will agree is that the advice you were given was completely wrong - again this is being closely looked into.

Have sent you a PM with the offer to give me a ring to talk though this and see where things have fallen down here. Thank you for the feedback on the product, I have forwarded these to ParentPaperwork for consideration, with strong backing from me.

I think that is what I was offering It would take a little while to create your own custom forms, if the build in sample ones were not suitable or close enough to edit (Not that I assumed they would be out of the box) ParentPaperwork works on a schedule, sending messages out in bulk in 15 minute windows (if you choose to send immediately) - it is just the way it works. This sounds a little odd, I will take a look at this. I will take this to the developer to see if initially we can make this clearer at design time, but also into the limits imposed and see what can be done to improve this.

Hi Adrian I can clearly see you are dissatisfied with the customer service you have gotten from my colleagues (at Groupcall). I have read through all the communications you have had these past few days with said colleagues, and would like to apologise for the less than stellar service you have received in terms of getting ParentPaperwork switched on within Groupcall Messenger. I am the Head of Products at Groupcall, very much apart from the sales/customer service team. I would be happy to firstly answer any questions you seem to have about the product, that you have not gotten from your communications so far with my colleagues; I would also be happy to separately look at how you have been let down these past couple of days. Please feel free to get in touch with me, either via PM or at [email protected] Of course, anything product-related I am happy to discuss (or be retrospectively posted) here for the benefit of other users. For information, over 100 Messenger customers use ParentPaperwork (perhaps with it being the summer holidays, responses might be low). Regards

Very fair points. Cannot argue. It does beg the question why did we bother asking for the clarification if the first place?

This was an offical response from the DfE - not some bod on the phone but official guidance on the matter published by via their official enquiry channels. I am sure if you were to do the same the guidance would be the same from them. The fact that the guidance is contradictory or not is another matter, but this is not 'some company trying to justify the need for the UPN', Groupcall have no use of the UPN nor real opinion on the matter, we act under guidance from data controllers - here we have acted on behalf of a large portion of the market, third parties and schools alike, to publish guidance for all to see. To be honest, this conversation has really run its course now, the end result being there is no real answer (just opinions) - it is very much down to each school to decide if they want to have the UPN just inside one system (the MIS) or more than one system - and up to them to make a judgement on the advice from the DfE both before and now.

I see. Groupcall have never used the UPN in any of their products. In providing a service as a data processor, under guidance or agreement from the data controller in each case, we have provided the UPN - but that is all.

Sorry... 'You'?

So the guidance they sent this month... Is wrong? We ignore that?

And so Company A needs to build in a matching feature - fair. Schools are happy for this onus to be on them?