ICT Services for Schools Service Level Agreements

MIS Advice, Guidance, Training and Support

Schools are run on data, and your management information systems are some of the most important parts of your school’s day to day requirements. We provide high quality support for the SIMS .net and FMS systems that you rely upon every day.

We provide the following SLA Services to support MIS in your school

SIMS .net / SIMS 7 Support Service

Our SIMS Support is provided by a group of highly experienced customer focused SIMS professionals based within our Systems Team, all of whom have substantial knowledge of supporting Schools with their management information systems. This means that we can fully appreciate the pressures school users face, and the essential requirement for you to receive a prompt and efficient response to your SIMS-related issues and enquiries.

As part of Coventry City Council local authority and through a longstanding working relationship with ESS SIMS staff, means we are well placed to understand the demands upon schools, not only from a software perspective but also from wider education policy affecting schools and academies.

Through our partnership with Education Software Solutions Ltd (ESS) we regularly attend regional and national meetings and update seminars, we keep abreast of their software developments, updates, and plans.

We are part of the SIMS Midland User Group, where we have established relationships with other SIMS support providers meaning that we are able to utilise our collective power and expertise to learn about best practice across the education sector and to feedback to software vendors and other bodies regarding common queries and issues along with enhancements that schools would like incorporated into future software releases.

This service provides full support of the SIMS .net (also known as SIMS 7) product suite, including advice, guidance, and technical support and its integrations into other third-party applications.

We provide, support, advice, and guidance for the following SIMS .net modules.

  • Admissions including ATF (Admissions Transfer Files)
  • Assessment Manager
  • Attendance / Lesson Monitor
  • B2B Connection to the City Council
  • Conduct (Achievement and Behaviour Management)
  • Course Manager
  • Cover
  • CTF (Common Transfer Files)
  • Dinner Money
  • Discover
  • Exams Organiser
  • Interventions
  • Nova T6 Timetabling
  • Options Online / SIMS .net Options
  • Performance Analysis
  • Personnel including Pay Related Updates
  • Personnel Links
  • Profiles
  • Pupil / Student Details (also known as SIMS Core)
  • Reporting
  • SEN
  • SIMS Housekeeping Routines
  • SIMS ID
  • SIMS in the classroom
  • SIMS InTouch
  • SIMS Online Services
  • SIMS Parent App
  • SIMS Parent App Lite
  • SIMS Student App
  • SIMS Services Manager
  • SIMS TeacherApp
  • SOLUS 3 (SIMS Upgrades)
  • Staff Performance module
  • Statutory Returns
  • System Manager (including permissions)

Support for Statutory Processes and Crucial School Processes

We provide, support, advice, and guidance for the following Support for the following:

  • School Admissions
  • School Census
  • School Workforce Census
  • End of Academic Year / Start of Academic Year
  • End of Key Stage
  • Exam Seasons (management, entries, and results analysis)
  • Catholic Schools Census *

*The Catholic School Census is supported by the Catholic Education Service, and they will provide guidance and advice, however, we will provide support in relation to SIMS, as necessary.

Other Services provided

  • Data services - Personnel update files for Pay Awards, Superannuation and NI (Only if Coventry City Council Service Terms/Salary Scales are used)
  • SIMS Technical Support Services
  • Liaison with third party providers
  • Integrations into other products
  • Free meetings with school leaders to ensure you are getting the most out of your SIMS system.

FMS Support Service

Our SIMS FMS Support is provided by a group of highly experienced customer focused SIMS professionals based within our Systems Team, all of whom have substantial knowledge of supporting Schools with their financial management information systems. This means that we can fully appreciate the pressures school users face, and the essential requirement for you to receive a prompt and efficient response to your SIMS FMS-related issues and enquiries.

As part of Coventry City Council local authority and through a longstanding working relationship with the Local Authority finance team and Education Software Solutions Ltd (ESS) SIMS staff, means we are well placed to understand the demands upon schools, not only from a software perspective but also from wider education finance policy affecting schools and academies.

Through our partnership with ESS we regularly attend regional and national meetings and update seminars, we keep abreast of their software developments, updates, and plans.

We are part of the SIMS Midland User Group, where we have established relationships with other SIMS support providers meaning that we are able to utilise our collective power and expertise to learn about best practice across the education sector and to feedback to software vendors and other bodies regarding common queries and issues along with enhancements that schools would like incorporated into future software releases.

We understand that having a robust and fully supported financial management system is key to the operation of a modern school. This service provides full support of the SIMS FMS product suite, including advice, guidance, and technical support.

We provide, support, advice and guidance for the following modules and areas of FMS:

  • Accounts Payable
  • Accounts Receivable
  • BACS Processing
  • Budget Management
  • Budget Planning
  • Cheque Processing
  • Equipment Register
  • Finance Reporting Suite
  • Finance Reports
  • General Ledger
  • Non-Invoiced Income
  • Personnel Links

Support for Statutory and Crucial School Processes

We provide, support, advice, and guidance for the following areas of FMS:

  • End of Year for Academy Schools
  • Better Financial Reporting Return to ESFA (Academy Schools)
  • End of Year for Maintained Schools
  • Consistent Financial Reporting (Maintained Schools)

Other Services provided

  • Data services - Salary Download information (where provided by Coventry City Council’s payroll service).
  • FMS Technical Support Services
  • Liaison with third party providers
  • Integrations into other products
  • Free meetings with school leaders to ensure you are getting the most out of your FMS system.

SIMS and FMS Annual Maintenance Service (maintained schools)

SIMS in Local Authority maintained schools is licensed to Coventry City Council rather than individual schools. To use any part of the SIMS product suite Education Software Services (ESS), the software vendor require that all schools pay an ‘Annual Entitlement’ charge. This charge is based upon the number of pupils in school and covers your use of the SIMS system, but not support.

Annual Entitlement pays for the development of SIMS (i.e. new features, patches, and bug fixes). It is paid directly to ESS by Coventry City Council. This charge means that you can use SIMS legally and ensures that your school is entitled to upgrades and software patches provided by ESS.

Coventry City Council negotiates with the software vendor on behalf of maintained schools to get the best deal.

Please note: Due to changes being imposed by ESS, this service will no longer be available after 1st April 2023, after that time, maintained schools will need to licence directly with Education Software Services.

The following licences are currently held by Coventry City Council which can be used in LA maintained schools:

  • SIMS Core and Curriculum:
    • Admissions
    • Assessment Manager
    • Attendance
    • Behaviour Management,
    • Communications Log
    • GDPR Management
    • Interventions
    • Profiles (for Pupil/Student reports to parents)
    • Programme of study tracking
    • Progress
    • Pupil /Student Details
    • Pupil Teacher View
    • Reporting
    • SEN
    • Staff Data
    • Statutory Returns
       
  • SIMS Resources including FMS
     
  • SIMS Discover

Note:  Some schools purchase additional licences for modules such as Dinner Money and Lesson Monitor through the Local Authority’s agreement. Please contact us if you want to add any additional licences.

Training and Events Service

To help everyone in school get the most of out of your investment in IT, we have a comprehensive training and events offer, which is delivered over many different channels. For our subscribers much of our training offer is included without additional charge.

What we offer

  • Bespoke Training
  • Classroom Based Training
  • Drop in Sessions
  • ICT Conference
  • ICT Forums
  • Online Learning Platform Training
  • Onsite Training
  • Remote Training
  • Webinars
  • Workshops

See our full list of events and booking instructions at https://bookwhen.com/coventryict

Each school with an active SLA is entitled to 30 hours of inclusive training each year, this can be used on any event above. Some events are free to attend and don’t count towards inclusive hours.

How to access our training and events service.

For all of our bookable events please visit https://bookwhen.com/coventryict or for bespoke training or other enquiries, please call 024 7678 6620 or email ictschoolsreply@coventry.gov.uk

More information

For more information, please read the service catalogue document for this service and the main ICT & Digital SLA document.

Pricing and how to purchase

The pricing for this service is a flat rate per school. You can obtain a price from the Services to Schools website.

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