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Scomis - Your ICT Partner. Password: Our News Update.

Scomis Late Summer 2016 Newsletter

Issue 78

Contents

New Services
New Online Safety Service
Online Safety Newsletter
Virtual Technician Service - Offer!
Thinking of changing your finance system
New Website
Training - Sneak Peak
Discover Discover
Examinations Officers Summer Newsletter
Technical Update
Parking at Great Moor House
Dear Grace

New Format
Following extensive feedback from our customers at the recent User Groups you will have noticed that the format of this newsletter has changed. Right at the top is a list of the contents of this issue with shortcuts to the relevant articles. This will make it easier for readers to pick and choose what information is best suited to their needs. I hope you find this format more acceptable. Please let us know by emailing Scomis using this link.

Thank you.

Scomis Online Services

New Services

New Online Safety Services
From September 2016, Scomis will be offering schools a new range of Online Safety services to help you keep your pupils and students safe, whilst fulfilling statutory guidelines (Keeping Children Safe in Education - September 2016) and meeting Ofsted requirements (Inspecting Safeguarding in early years, education and skills settings – September 2015). Services will range from newsletters to help keep you up to date with the latest information on this important area, to a proactive reporting and monitoring service to identify potential issues early.

:- Here is the e-Safety Newsletter for June 2016.

Capita SIMS Teacher App Services
In response to queries we have received from several customers, we will be introducing a new support service for the Teacher App from 1^st September 2016. Capita has changed their business model which means that the cost of provided support cannot be absorbed within your existing SLA. As a result this new service will be chargeable and pricing will be announced later this term.

An installation service will also be available which, subject to the completion of a pilot, will be chargeable to schools that do not utilise our Hosted Applications Service. We also plan to provide an overview of the Management Console and to help you get started by setting up two devices for you remotely.

If these services are of interest, please contact us for more information.

Virtual Technician – Free 30 Day Trial!
Don't have the time and resources to monitor your ICT infrastructure effectively? Or maybe you are struggling to keep on top of current software releases and updates and are spending excessive time performing yearly inventory and audit of IT resources?

Scomis can help! Try Before You Buy with our 30 day FREE Trial

Our Virtual Technician Service is designed to help save you time and money by:

monitoring your systems 24/7 to identify potential problems
providing a termly Health Check to make sure all of your monitored computers are up to date
sending you termly network status reports and an annual full network audit

Our Virtual Technician Service is designed to help you save time and money by automatically monitoring your systems 24/7 and identifying and notifying you of potential problems before they happen. Other features include a remote termly health check and software update, network status and audit reports and power management.

To see how this service might help you why not sign up to our free 30 day trial?

For more information contact us on 01392 385300 or email Andrea Huxley scomis@devon.gov.uk

Thinking of changing your finance system?
Whether you are a maintained school, an academy, intending to convert to an academy, or becoming part of a trust. Your finance system is central and critical to the successful operation of your school or organisation.

Following on from the Finance Seminars in Devon and Cornwall - Scomis have produced a Financial Management System Benchmarking template in conjunction with Plymouth Learning Partnership.

This benchmarking template allows customers to evaluate their current finance software. The template can also be used as a tool when assessing alternative finance systems as part of your procurement process.

If you are considering changing your finance system (or wish to ensure you are getting the most out of your current system) Scomis can help.

To request a free copy of the benchmarking template, or for more information on how Scomis can help, please contact us on 01392 385300 or use this link to email us.

New Website

The current Scomis website is looking a bit dated and we have started work on a shiny new replacement. If you went to our recent User Group meetings you will have had a sneak preview.

The site will be easier to navigate, more intuitive to use and will have a much better look and feel. We plan to launch the site during the summer so that it is all up and running for when schools come back in September.

Don't forget our web address which is www.scomis.org

Please let us know what you think of the new site and what developments, improvements, content or features you would like us to implement. This new site will keep developing in response to your needs.

Training update

Sneak Peak
These are a series of quick mini-webinars introducing schools to areas of SIMS that they may not currently be using. From a computer in your school you will be able to access a 15 minute brief overview of the particular topic.

Read here for more details.

Discover Discover

Discover is SIMS graphical analysis tool and has been an integral part of the toolset for over 3 years now. However, it is probably underused in schools despite the huge potential. Read about our top 5 reasons why you should take a look at Discover.

Here is your Summer 2016 Newsletter.

Technical Update

New Hosted Connector and Status Page
The Scomis Technical team have been busy working on our new Status page and integrating the status information into our Hosted Applications app. The updated application also introduces a number of other improvements such as a new log file for helping diagnose connectivity problems and clever logic to help you get connected should one of the Scomis Internet suppliers has a problem. Scomis have undertaken a controlled release of the upgrade which is likely to have automatically upgraded your current connector.

When the upgrade is downloaded, you will momentarily see a toaster pop up in the bottom corner of the screen to let you know that the upgrade is happening automatically and there is nothing further you need to do.

Essential Infrastructure Maintenance
Over the summer holidays Scomis have a program of work to undertake technical upgrades and infrastructure changes. Most of the changes should be transparent to our hosted customers and where practical will take place outside of the office hours. Please subscribe to http://status.scomis.org/ to receive updates in your email, or keep an eye on http://news.scomis.org.

Database Moves and External Connectors
The Hosted Applications team are in the process of migrating schools databases to newer faster database servers. The process is largely transparent to users and is usually completed outside of normal school hours. There is however a knock on effect that third party applications may not be able to access SIMS.net data after the migration. This particularly applies to schools who have used our first edition External Connector for the third party data integration.

The solution is to upgrade to our latest External Connector which you can request from our External Connector Self Service portal – https://upgrades.scomis.org/external-connector/. The latest External Connector can also be used by schools who do not have a South West Grid for Learning managed internet connection.

Parking at Great Moor House

You may already be aware that Great Moor House, the building in which Scomis is based, is introducing charges for parking from September 2016.

This means that if you are attending a meeting or a course at Great Moor House and wish to park in the visitor's car park you will have to pay. Please make sure you bring some change with you as we are not able to provide this for you. We do not have exact costs yet but assume they will be in line with Exeter County Hall.

30 minutes – FREE (Although you need to get a ticket)
1^st hour – 80p
2 hours - £1.50
4 hours - £3.00
Up to 8 hours - £5.00

For Scomis training course delegates please read the details in the course joining instructions sent to you in an email.

Dear Grace,

I noticed (to my delight) I got paid some extra money at the end of June. Apart from spending it do I need to do anything?

Yours

Penny

Dear Penny,

Yes it was nice to get a pay award and some back pay wasn't it? If you are an administrator is a school you need to enter the new details into SIMS.net – have a look at http://faq.scomis.org/kb10554/ for details how.

Good luck,

Grace.

Phone: 01392 385300

scomis@devon.gov.uk

devon.gov.uk/scomis

Scomis, Great Moor House,
Bittern Road, Sowton,
Exeter, EX2 7NL

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