Consultancy Café Synopsis

Desk 1 – LOCAL AUTHORITY AND SCHOOL SUPPORT SERVICES

Could you benefit from supplementing your local authority team with skilled SIMS expertise when you are planning your next big implementation or perhaps on a more permanent basis? Or would you like to offer your schools the option of having a complete managed IT service? Then come to the Local Authority and School Support Services Desk to find out more.

It will be manned by our Education Support Services team who have provided local authorities and schools with support for the past 21 years. We currently support over 2,500 schools and 30 local authorities and are committed to providing a complete, long-term solution to help each one manage the challenges of today’s education environment.

We have a number of different support packages to choose from so you can be sure to get the services to suit your needs.

Desk 2 – PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Capita Professional Services staff will be available to provide information on the wide range of training courses and consultancy on offer to help you support and enhance the use of SIMS in your schools.

Find out about our new range of school improvement courses and consultancy services. These help schools and local authorities use the information in SIMS to help target key issues in schools such as improving behaviour and pupil achievement. We also offer a wide range of practical courses on topics such as managing the school census and using Assessment Manager effectively.

We will be happy to discuss working collaboratively and flexibly with you to meet your authority’s exact training and consultancy needs.

Desk 3 – TECHNICAL CONSULTANCY AND SERVICES

Come and talk through any technical questions you have relating to your current SIMS software or infrastructure. You can ask us about any new product you are considering deploying and we will provide you with advice relevant to your local authority and schools.

Issues raised in electives can be considered in relation to your own infrastructure and the options behind SIMS .net can be explained.

If you are considering hosting SIMS for your schools we can discuss the methods available. And we can offer you a personal demonstration of Partnership Xchange, our school partnership product, or SIMS Learning Gateway, which allows teachers, pupils and parents to access the information in SIMS from home.

Desk 4 – CHILDREN’S SERVICES - ONE

Come to the Children’s Services Desk to find out how our One suite of products is supporting local authorities to meet the five Every Child Matters outcomes through effective working with Schools, Extended Schools, Children’s Centres and Nurseries.
We will be able to provide demonstrations of our products including:

• eStart, which supports local authority monitoring of Children’s Centres, Early Years settings and Extended Schools
• eNurseries, which provides a comprehensive management system for all types of Nursery
• B2B Student and B2B Personnel, which provide automated transfer of data to and from SIMS between the school and local authority
• We can also demonstrate how we can help authorities assist schools with the demands of the School Workforce Census

Desk 5 - HOSTING SIMS, HOW DO WE DO IT?

This is your chance to talk to local authorities from around the country to find out how they are hosting SIMS centrally for their schools. You can discover how much time and money it is saving them in terms of supporting schools and what issues they may have overcome in implementing a hosted solution.

You can discover which options are best for hosting; from hosting the Sequel database to implementing Citrix and terminal services to access SIMS.

Desk 6 - STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS TEAM

The Strategic Partnerships Team will be on hand to discuss topics such as the Local Authority Accreditation Scheme, which independently monitors your SIMS support to schools, and IMPROVE, our free-to-use MIS self-evaluation framework. We can provide advice on working with your colleagues in the School Improvement Team and on your approach to BSF.  We will also be happy to tell you about Capita’s Partnership Schools Programme for schools who demonstrate best practice in their use of SIMS.

We are particularly keen to share Capita’s vision for MIS in 21st Century Schools and would encourage you to make an appointment for us to visit you to discuss how we can support you in transforming education in your authority.

Desk 7 – CUSTOMER SERVICES TEAM

The Customer Services Team will be available to discuss all aspects of our services. Please can come and ask us about:

• Service desk case handling
• SupportNet and web support
• SIMS publications
• User assurance testing and workshops