mthomas08

Response from a SIMs specialist - yes - we need to give notice by the 31st December. And still nothing official from the DFE?

Can we post missing or new functionalities coming to MIS systems? With so many of us tendering, a thread containing a ton of information pros and cons would be useful?? or is it just announcements?

I'll double check with the guy at SIMs and see what he says. We did get told that notice needs to be given by the 31st and no later. If we can do this later, it makes our life a little bit easier.

Account manager at your school or? I've still not heard or seen anything official from the DFE/Government over this. And for us here, we need to know by Tuesday evening. We are making our official decision there and then.

We have heard it before and that is the problem. Since I joined here, SIMs has generally gone slow and the 'memory errors' which they denied was a problem.. magically fixed themselves 2 years after they admitted they existed. Why have they done this now? Their market is shrinking and this is the perfect time to force us in to a 3 year contract. Why? - Christmas period and people are desperately trying to make the break without topping over. How many schools have the time to tender? - Middle of a pandemic - some staff/students are working from home or covid isolation etc - They waited until November to tell us when our notice needs to be given by 31st December - Rival MIS systems seem to be catching up on what SIMs provides while offering other nice things within their packages What better time to do this to schools from their point of view. Even for us, our decision won't be fully made until next week and I wonder how many actually DO leave. Even in 2 and a half years, how many will decide just to stick around.... I'm not even confident we will be leaving.

Putting themselves first above all else. The contract/blog and all information being sent out is 'them first' and us 'second'. Our decision regarding SIMs is now moved to the next SLT meeting. This gives me time to do the final checks/questions on other MIS systems and within the time they want us to sign up.

I think the decision for us will be made today. We use SIMs for everything and there are certainly alternatives.

Arbor / iSAMS / Bromcom All offering a fast boarding option to get people switched over quick including the migration of SIMs data. Nice to see.

We got a phone call back within 3 days and he provided us with his direct email address to contact. I'm now booking a slot for our 2nd MIS review and then the 3rd. Already had 1 seminar demo and that looked highly impressive. It was recorded so I can pass this on to our staff and they can watch when they want. Two can offer fast track switch overs but that requires sign up by the 17th DEC. I get the feeling the 3rd will offer the same knowing full well that some have ditched SIMs. Quite a few in the seminar are in our position.

I've looked at 3 other MIS products and they offer a 12 month contract.

Even if schools get locked in to the 3 year contract, record everything you are going through with ESS. This information will be useful if/when you do your tender process. Customer experience and faith is an important part of the decision making - something I raised in Governor meetings.

Sorry to bump up this question but has anyone got an official response from the DFE? So far, these websites claim they are aware of it.. but seem to be copy pasted responses stating the exact same thing.

It would be disappointing if we had to leave. Management side of things in EduLink are non existent and sending the details out just take a few buttons. Sends account details through email.

Us. Although we haven't handed our notice in just yet - like you we have until Dec 31st. I'm reviewing the alternatives and seeing if they provide a like for like system. So far, the 1st issue is EduLinkOne only integrates with SIMs but it's on their list to change but they can't give a time frame. BUT if the other MIS systems provide parents evening / homework and an app for parents. Perhaps we can walk away from EduLink OR they integrate in time. I'm currently reviewing Arbor - they sync with everything else. After today I'll spend a day researching other MIS systems - probably Bromcom and iSAMS.

Same - rejected. 3 years or leave and zero flexibility on that.

Has anyone contacted the DFE direct? If so, have you got a contact name/number?

It makes people like me sway towards tendering other companies and avoiding Bromcom. There are certainly enough to avoid a few......... As long as we follow the tender process which we would do anyway. You also have to think about relationship and trust. Look at at EES with that contract and blog..

Well more fuel for our tender process - got iSAMS/Bromcom and Arbor so far. Arbor are offering a quick switch process dedicated for SIMs schools. Maybe the others will follow through with a ton of SIMs schools looking to switch. On your marks.. get set....

Will find out sooner or later, we've asked for a 1 year and no response yet after 2 days.

We will refuse to sign - our finance have replied wanting a 1 year. If EES don't want a 1 year deal - we will leave. This is now on our governors radar and could lead to a bigger discussion regarding EES. HTs are now getting emails regarding this approach and to hold fire. Apparently the DFE is now involved. https://schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-told-to-hold-off-on-three-year-mis-contract/?utm_campaign=National%20SIMS%20Renewal%20Campaign&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=186915426&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9U16-OsCisb0rlh134HpJAmZJMKIp7G7U62ysJOZncXgaJLBoQ-pZEwkrbNV55l6ZGUECH0-oGfuQdHb7vnsl6z8dXS9g6tSqdI5rjf3koLw_HVVY&utm_content=186915426&utm_source=hs_email *edit* I'll ask our HT if she can make a direct complaint herself to the DFE about this and maybe discuss it with other schools in her HT meetings. Maybe a fuss needs to be kicked up.

Well, today the contract hit our finance team and even they can't believe how it has been not just worded but locked in their words. Unlike us, they have no feeling towards SIMs until now. They've responded wanting a single year. Adds a serious amount of petrol to the fire when our HT and SBM see that.

Thank you for the heads up. Also - "including the ‘Next Gen’ software feature sets" What next generation software features? SIMs is incredibly old and nothing about it is next generation. I've gone through Windows XP > Windows 7 and Windows 10 site wide changes and SIMs.net is still here. Edit: Good news for us, we signed up for a 1 year agreement. Anyone know how much notice we need to give? The paper work I have doesn't state it.

I am in the process of tendering and we currently have SIMs hosted on site. I think Arbor is looking to be the nice one and least amount of hassle BUT that is only a basic opinion and I will give everyone a fair share. I've listed quite a few and had a nice read through on the websites. Certainly seems to be pros/cons for Bromcom/Arbor/ISAMS and a few others. The negatives of SIMs on site for us - Can be a lot of hours of maintenance - One minute things are smooth with updates - the next there is an update to fix an update to fix a patch to fix another patch to fix another update... - Updates have a habit of being released at the start of term or last minute on the last day of the half term (like the recent Autumn update last week on Friday + a new update few days ago which has been pulled) - Slow slow slow - Have tried all sorts and it somewhat improved but still very slow - Most depts that rely on SIMs outside of registers are getting fedup with the consistent issues and general slow process on day to day tasks - No cloud option and I really don't want to go down the route of remote access in to our system from home - Entire system still feels like it has been fudged together (from InTouch / to SLG which we got rid of a few years back / connecting to O365) And that blog released by SIMs pushed me over the edge.

Thanks for the posts guys, it really helps. We are a secondary school and doing things differently won't be the problem, it will be more if things can actually be done. We link to outside systems through EduLink/Wonde so will have to check them. I'll add other MIS systems to our tender but it seems Arbor is the more popular one?

It has been a nightmare to get here.. moving from an older version to 3 was ... ugh... I don't want to talk about it. Several calls > redoing clients.. > more calls. The latest patch broke SIMs but managed to fix it.. totally my fault for giving Solus praise. SO.... we are are now looking to tender... and SIMs latest blog didn't give me much encouragement on SIMs 8 coming in a good condition let alone moving forward.