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...

There is a manual which should be available from your support provider (LA or serco direct)... a word of caution tho - test your data transfers on a copy database, you dont want to corrupt your live database with test data etc..

SIMS is not as flexible as CMIS in assessment for numerous reasons... some of which were covered in the post from TLI above.. Many of the issues raised in the technical assessment seminar at the recent SIMS Conference were questions on 'basic' functionality that already exists within CMIS and has done for the last 15years!... Capita's response to most of these requests were that it may be made possible in the next platform.... as no development is going to happen in the current SIMS platform apart from 'polishing'.. Perhaps some of the SIMS converts here have only seen the standard fixed models within CMIS - it is a much more confirguable system than SIMS, which is a shame as sims has other areas where things are easier - such as data import/export , but why would you need to use excel if the MIS is capable of doing all you need in the first place...

I agree totally - especially for our primary school colleagues - having someone at the end of the phone that they meet at usergroup meetings etc is a real winner. With the move away from LA support teams to software suppliers (budget cuts etc) I can see a day in the not too distant future when the only support you will get will be from the supplier - costs will increase as shareholders ask for higher dividends and service will go down!

Hi, Facility is certainly a different system than SIMS, it provides a greater range of flexability and customisation but, with that comes a more complex reporting engine - yes the complexity of reporting requires more technical expertise to create reports. Data can be exported to pdf / txt and pasted into word etc, but most reporting requirements can be met within the system (with the required knowledge which some schools have difficulties with and may need more support). Each academic year is currently recorded in a data-set which can require the user to change data-sets (depends what the user is trying to do). I wonder if you have schools considering moving to Facility (the current product) or to 'Progresso' the new Serco MIS which is due for launch next year - now that is a very different beast! - probably much more suited for primary schools with a very intuative user interface....

Hi, I work as part of a team supporting approx 350 primary schools using Facility. As the schools have all been using the system for a few years the 'problems' are almost the same as those faced by support teams with other MIS systems... If there is anything specific you need to know, get in touch.

At the moment capita are busy outsourcing everything! So much for british jobs!

I really dont see how any one can make a fair decision on a system they have used for 12months or so - there is a huge difference in the customisation available between Facility and SIMS.net - sims being far more 'out of the box' but not meeting the needs of many (dare I say 'progressive schools') keen to make the most of MIS data.... Yes I am biased and yes I have (and do) use both systems... They both have issues from time to time and capita are quicker at 'patching' their software when bugs are discovered - but Serco offer a 'blank canvas' for assessment etc which is far more customisable than Sims... I would agree that you look at other schools and get their views - but more importantly determine your exact requirements and see if suppliers can meet your demands.... and dont go on a salesman telling you anything - most have never even worked in a school!!

The colour coding isnt controlled by the xml file, but is hard coded (unless you can prove me wrong!)

eProfile is written to record the Early Years Foudation Stage Profile Assessments which are totally different to the national curriculum levels used in Years 1-6 in Primary Schools, therefore the software would not be of any use for other years...

SIMS certainly is a very good MIS... I totally agree...