APC

The latest from Link2ICT, received yesterday afternoon is: As you may or may not know, much to our surprise and regret, Advanced Learning very recently informed us that it had decided not to renew Link2ICT’s licence agreement which enables Link2ICT to provide you with Progresso and Facility (CMIS) software. Should this happen it would bring to an end a very long standing business relationship with Advanced Learning, made all the more surprising as it was Link2ICT that identified the need for the products and helped Advanced Learning to develop it. Advanced Learning was taken over by a venture capitalist in 2015 and this may have been the reason behind the change in direction. Despite meeting with it regularly after the takeover, Advanced Learning gave us no indication that it was intending on such a fundamental change in strategy. Having offered us a licence renewal price some 13% higher than the current price, which was both unexpected and unpalatable, ACS then informed us that it would not be renewing the licence. Since that point Link2ICT has been locked in discussions with Advanced Learning in an attempt to find a way of preventing disruption and enabling us to continue offering our MIS service to you. We are delighted to be able to advise you that following a significant amount of effort by us over the last few weeks, Advanced Learning has agreed to re-enter into negotiations with Link2ICT. We will update you on this situation as we make progress. Accordingly we would kindly request that you give us a bit more time before you make any decisions in respect of your Facility (CMIS) or Progresso requirements for this coming year. We realise this has been far from ideal and thank you for your patience so far.

I would hold fire for a few days and see what happens - message as always in these circumstances is don't rush into any decision

Indeed FZAMI is correct I believe... I understand that Link2ICT have always provided schools with a secure method of accessing ePortal from anywhere including inside school - which is not the case if you just use the tomcat service. As this method is very different from that provided by Advanced (or Serco previousl)y I assume the notes are very specific in-order for it to a; work correctly and b; be supportable by Link2ict when things go wrong.... Its a service I would certainly pay for to ensure the pupil / staff data is as secure as possible.

As Birmingham schools generally use a very specific way of making eportal available securely over the internet, I'm sure the notes from Advanced Learning will not provide all the information required.... If you are from the school I think you are - it doesnt appear you have got it to work as yet?

Whilst the colours are similar, the graphics etc are not the same as Progresso - more half way house...

I totally agree - things are really looking good now - great demo at Bett this year

Feedback im hearing from schools who have recently moved to Progresso is very positive, it certainly appears that Advanced Learning have resolved the majority of the issues early users were experiencing. I understand the ball is now well and trully rolling again....

In this instance a licence for Facility would be required - easier I would have thought to move all of the data into SIMS - that way no additional software is required

I understand that Serco (Now Advanced Learning) have always provided their non-cloud (why would Phil Neal even mention cloud?) Facility MIS has always been provided to individual schools on a 'lease' type agreement. Am I also correct in thinking that SIMS is also licenced on exactly the same basis for schools / acadamies buying direct from Capita and not under an LA agreement?

I suggest that Capita didnt want to move all of your data - and if they couldnt why move to a product that cant hold all of the data you need to hold within school? If you read the small print of your Facility and probably your SIMS licence you will see that you never 'buy' the sofware - you have a licence to use it on an annual basis as long as you pay the fee.... As your data is already in a SQL database you dont 'need' facility to access it... so there is no argument that they are prevening you from doing so....

It may well be your data but its not your software unless you pay for it! If I need to use MS publisher to access a file someone saved 5 years ago I would need an MS licence to cover it, even if it was my file! Why didnt you move all of your data into your new MIS system? thus avoiding this issue totally.... If I moved half of my money into another bank account I would expect to pay two lots of bank charges - wouldnt you?

It seems quite apparent that the new owners are very well positioned to move Progresso up a gear and provide some far more serious competition to their main competitiors aged product, something the market clearly needs.

There has been an update published on the Link2ICT website today which gives a clearer picture of the Progresso situation in Birmingham... http://www.link2ict.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=201:progresso-mis-june-2012&catid=24:mis-updates&Itemid=73

I am aware that there are two schools in Birmingham who are fully live with progresso and as part of the 'Pioneer' project were fully expecting to be testing the product and feeding back on their experiences to enhance development etc etc... And am also told that more schools will be going live in the near future - as said above its very early days at the moment... thats not what Capita have told Birmingham Schools directly!

This is exactly what we have been told Progresso will be able to do at no extra cost - I'm lead to believe that Partnership Exchange is fairly costly and some local authorities have had lots and lots of issues with it...