TDupont992

Just curious why do you think Hosted SIMS is terrible? Performance?

How old is the server? I'd give it a restart and that could fix it. Could also bring new problems to light lol. SIMS is generally clunky, may be time to look at another MIS but ofc I understand that's a biiig ordeal.

When I used RM SafetyNet (Not through swgfl mind) it came with a lite version of RM Unifi that had the functionality, didn't have to buy it extra or anything.

Which Sophos product are you using?

Do you know if this is much different from what you were getting pre-Netsweeper? Do you have any speedtests from then?

This post is from 4 years ago maark, someone threw down some Thread Necromancy haha

Another thing I believe may be compounding this issue is that a lot of primaries use third party ict companies. That is perfectly fine, but many of these companies may not necessarily cover these services and the school thinks they're covered because 'All our IT is handled'. Or, they do offer some E-Safeguarding but it is not near the standard which is required of Prevent and KCSiE .

If you're using RM SafetyNet you can definitely monitor effectively, I'm speaking from experience. If you're talking to SWGfL maybe ask them for a read-only account for SafetyNet so you can view the monitoring information you need. I've previously used read only accounts to give DSL's access without them messing with my filter lists but it sounds like SWGfL could provision you as such if you want it.

I'll be honest, I don't know too much about it, but in my interactions with an RM Rep they mentioned a cloud based finance package. I can't speak to the quality of their finance package but their other software I've used is cloud based and pretty good. I wish I could be more helpful bud.

Could you not look for a different MIS that has most of that included?

Bolded is key, safeguarding is such a wide issue with so many aspects that it needs to be as seamless and streamlined as possible, so many potential risks that one extra step for each becomes a large staircase.

Honestly I'd take it up with whoever manages it at a trust level for multiple reasons, #1 They can provision you with an account in SafetyNet so you can manage your establishment, Safetynet has trust level management and individual school based management and #2 RM SafetyNet has a feature specifically made for student/staff YouTube policies which I found worked pretty well when I used SafetyNet so if you get that admin account for your school you can then add youtube videos to the allowed list. #3 UBF isn't much of a project as it syncs with your schools active directory and you just select which filter lists apply to which groups and when (they have some lists that come with it which are relatively extensive but obviously you're going to want to add your own). Like you said, sounds like the trust has not thought the implementation through at all. :/

That's one of the issues with Smoothwall, if you're using 'Someone elses' or, it's not on site it's usability and functionality decreases. It isn't good for MAT or decentralised usage :/ Especially if your DSL's want any access to any of the data

Completely agree with both of you, it is something that I'd review 6+ Months in advance, but that should be MY choice to review MY products. Not having the company mandate me / make the decision 'For my own good' when it's very clearly because they want to lock customers in longer and have them hopefully not realise.

I can attest to RM Broadband. It's never given me any issues, no downtime and the speeds are exactly what's required. The filtering that comes with it is comprehensive and intuitive, saves you having to buy a third party filtering/monitoring solution such as Lightspeed or Smoothwall.

It's corporate doublespeak. Kind of telling that they only cut back on this when they realised it was bad PR, not because it was the right thing to do

With this new notice period you'd have to start looking before Christmas likely, as January would be too late and you'd be locked in. But then no one is going to be looking at renewing contracts for the next year before going on Christmas holidays :/ It's just really frustrating and seems exploitative

I think it varies depending on a few factors like # of pupils and maybe some negotiating but I think around £2.5-3k I thinks that's a loooot of money and a most of it'll be on the dedicated hardware itself AS WELL as the price of the support contract they roll into it. I'm of the belief you can get a Cloud based solution for probs around half that per year which offer the same level, if not better levels of functionality than a smoothie box.

It has to be price, there aren't any areas imo in which Netsweeper beats out lightspeed. Lightspeed (I'm assuming Relay 2.0, not rocket) is imo, at the forefront of E-Safeguarding.

I'm fairly certain legally that's just not kosher to change it mid contract. Surely it'll have to come into effect upon renewal and they're just hoping no one notices. I imagine this must be due to Smoothwall feeling some sort of pressure?

I've had good experiences with RM SafetyNet included in their broadband but I know it's also available as standalone, SafetyNet can be between ~£500-£900 depending on how small your primary is I think. I'd say it's worth looking into. Lightspeed Relay 2.0 is of course a good service as well

Thank you for keeping this thread warm, there's so much unnecessary bloat on Windows 10, and so much of it isn't very intuitive to de-activate/disable. Cortana is an absolute downgrade from the previous search function and it just doesn't work.

When you say that do you mean EXA offer RM SafetyNet at a good price? It may be worth checking if RM do it cheaper, I'm not sure how EXA would be able to give you a cheaper price than straight from the source but I'm happy to be wrong