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Sorry I have just re-read your message. A copy of SmartAdmin goes on the PC where your ID card printer is, along with CardExchange (https://www.cardexchangesolutions.com/) You print card using SmartAdmin which sends it to CardExchange; that then puts the card no into NRS land and it syncs through to Paxton and TrustE.

Yes. In NRS world it is "Smart ID". I don't know what Civica call it but my account manager recognised it's name and function when I spoke to them in December. Peter

We just have it in RMMC > Registry Policies > User Policies > Global > ALL Users > General > Specify programs to run after logon. "c:\Progra~1\papercu~1\pc-client.exe" -silent "c:\Progra~2\papercu~1\pc-client.exe" -silent One of them is Program Files, one is Program Files (x86). Probably historical that either/both were in there.

They don't belong to one, and from memory they break when you assign them System Administrators Both are full Domain Admins so should be able to see Windows Updates already unless you've changed something - either changed their group memberships, or removed Domain Admins from the local Administrators group. We definitely use SystemAdmin for this purpose when diagnosing problems with Windows Updates.

Hi We're about to swap Engineering and ICT/H&SC departments (between two buildings) over the next 12 months which gives me a blank slate for 3 brand new IT suites including new PCs. Below is our default benching everywhere else with custom legs (2 per stack, 2 chairs between each stack) but kids are constantly pulling wires out from behind or in front, or the PCs 'fall' off the legs. Has anyone got any nice solutions that work well for them that achieve the balance of tidiness whilst still being at least reasonably accessible to IT Support, under lock & key or otherwise? Peter

I’m with you. Stopped Sept/Oct/Nov updates and haven’t touched anything since!

‘Initial Term’ means the initial term of this Agreement specified in the Agreement Summary or the Portal; ‘Renewal Term’ mean each subsequent period of thirty six (36) months after the end of the Initial Term [From my SIMS Direct Renewal Quote]: The initial term of your new contract will be 3 years, giving you the certainty of a fixed cost in year 1, and a capped increase of CPI (Consumer Price Index) + 2.5% per annum for years 2 & 3.

15.6 Unless stated to the contrary in the Agreement Summary or the Portal for Software and/or Services, ESS reserves the right to increase the Charges once each year to have effect from the first day of the next annual charging period by a percentage no more than: 2.5% plus the CPIH for the month ending 120 days before the first day of the next annual charging period (“Max Charge Increase”). For example, if the next annual charging period was 1st April 2022 then the CPIH percentage applied would be the CPIH percentage for November 2021. Where practicable, ESS will inform the Customer of such increase no less than 90 days before the first day of the next annual charging period. Furthermore, ESS retains the right to revise the Charges by more than the Max Charge Increase by giving written notice no less than 120 days before the end of the Initial Term and/or any Renewal Term, provided that ESS serves a valid notice of this change. If the Customer does not agree to the increase in the Charges, it may elect to terminate the Agreement in accordance with clause 16.2. 16.2 Either party may terminate this Agreement by giving at least 90 days written notice to the other party prior to the end of either the Initial Term or a Renewal Term, such notice to be effective from the end of either the Initial Term or a Renewal Term in which notice of termination is given. As I type/paste this, I'm wondering - the Initial Term is 3 years so 16.2 on its own implies your termination is effective at the end of 3 years, but that doesn't make any sense if you're terminating due to increased charges 1/3rd into the contract.

This is a very good point. I had read the contract to find out what increases were likely (let's face it, they're gonna increase them). I've just re-read and (my paraphrasing): "We can increase the charges after 1 year, and we'll try and tell you about it, but if you don't agree with the increased charges you can terminate the contract". I can't find anything that mentions any penalty or requirement to pay the 2nd and 3rd years if you terminate the contract on these grounds?

My BlueSky target last year was to work with the Deputy Head and Data Manager to consider whether SIMS was right for us, and write a report by 31st July recommending whether or not to procure an alternative. Due to TAGs, I was only able to do my own investigations as they were both unavailable. We reconvened conversations in October this year but regardless of cost we cannot undergo a consideration, investigation and procurement exercise in the 6 weeks between the SIMS renewal being published and the deadline for renewing whilst giving appropriate due diligence to it. I don't see us still using SIMS in 18 months, but in the meantime we have no choice but to renew.

Correct. And per that page, I have to consult our school's procurement rules, which say that I need 3 quotes for between £15,000 and £50,000 or that Single Supplier approval may be granted if x, y and/or z.

Our renewal is a little over £13,000 per annum, and our internal limit for needing 3 quotes or a single supplier approval from Governors is £15k. It’s for that reason that we went to Governors last night for the renewal.

The contract allows for annual increases of (roughly quoted as) "up to 2.5% plus the published CPIH (Consumer Price Index with Housing)" which at the moment is 2.5% plus 3.8% CPIH. Ours is going to Governors to approve the three year renewal tonight; not that we want to but we're not willing to procure and jump as quickly as SIMS would dictate.

Did anyone attend the webinar? I was going to but completely forgot about it. Any feedback?

I got 21H2 deployed ok last week via WDS. We're not using it yet, we're an RM CC4 school but I was testing alternatives for when we leave.

We're 1800 pupils. MDF is 25GB LDF is 2GB

I don't know if this helps or confuses things: We have three year groups in the Sixth Form. Students belong in, are taught in, and have HOY teams in "Year 12" and "Year 13". However there is only 1 dummy Registration Group in these years. We then have a "Sixth Form" year group which has all the Registration Groups in. This has no student members; they're all in their correct Y12/Y13 year. In August we move everyone into Sixth Form whilst we put them into mixed registration groups, then move them back into Y12/Y13. Peter

Not great for a cloud-based MIS https://docs.bromcom.com/training/recent-webinars/ was showing a DB connection error all morning, then it went to 404. https://docs.bromcom.com/ now has the Wordpress setup page where you start off by entering DB connection details.

Are you asking for this feature to be implemented, or for this feature/ability to be highlighted as really useful that can be done but users don't know about it? (I'm not yet a customer, but hoping to be within 12 months - and this is certainly a feature we'll be wanting to use regularly. I presume(d) it already exists within the Live Feed area) Peter

Dan, can you explain how that roadmap page works? I see items there posted in September 2019 that you are "Working on now". Is this correct or is there a date discrepancy? I'm imagining if you started working on something in September 2019 that it would have reached fruition by now?

Great question. I was going to post a new thread but I might as well put it here. (Unless mods want to tidy up some of this whole thread into different posts/sections?) For those who find videos and reading support documentation useful in evaluating what the salesman/demo/trainer doesn't tell you, the following links may be useful. (Arbor is easy to find; I couldn't find Bromcom until I got a direct link from another post yesterday) https://support.arbor-education.com/hc/en-us/articles/360007105434-Full-list-of-our-videos https://docs.bromcom.com/training/recent-webinars/ https://docs.bromcom.com/ If anyone knows similar for iSAMS or Advanced, please let me know and i'll add to this post.

This morning's contains a link to the previous one.

That's a fair point, but can I ask in general. (And no, I haven't yet read the documentation...) I'm familiar with say a photocopier/MFD CPC procurement where there's 6 suppliers and you have to send them the same documentation then award using whatever criteria you stated (including Most Economically Advantageous). I'm also aware of pre-tendered frameworks where we can go to NYCC and place an order with whoever won the pre-tender. GCloud doesn't have small lots, it has about ~400 suppliers on the "cloud software" lot. Does that mean we could just pick randomly whichever supplier we want, without any conversation, demo or interaction with them, and send them a PO using the pricing on the framework? We can't send a tender/procurement invite to 400 suppliers surely?

When I started looking last year, before TAGs put a brake on things, I was very interested in the "live data" from Arbor, meaning we can use Word to mail-merge absolutely anything we want from the live data, and it be refreshed every time we open the document. We haven't got anywhere near a demo/trial or speaking to salespeople yet so I don't know whether i'm way off the mark. That's very interesting and useful to know; thank you.

I think SchoolsWeek and the Key are both using Edugeek as their primary sources at the moment.