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School Census & Attendance	Best Value Review	Secondary School MIS Survey	Latest SIMS Upgrade
	News and Urgent Updates
Dell Laptop Battery Recall	Microsoft ceases support for Office XP		SITSS User News Newsletter

SIMS November Upgrade

November 2006

The November SIMS upgrade is now available click here

Management Information Systems - Secondary School Survey

November 2006

Only 20 Secondary School returns received by 3rd November 2006
19 Secondary & 1 Middle
4 schools moving or already using Facility CMIS
16 remain with SIMS (15 Secondary & 1 Middle)

Unfortunately the number of returns received are insufficient to offer my team, FSS, Serco or Capita an opportunity to plan resources to meet the potential needs of schools.
Nor do the numbers received offer me an opportunity to negotiate with Capita regarding charges for SIMS and Lesson Monitor software.

If I receive sufficient returns confirming a willingness to stay with SIMS for 3 years I will be in a position to 'fix' the Annual Maintenance charge for the 3 year period. (Serco already offer a 3 year fixed price where a school signs a 3 year contract with them)

If I receive sufficient returns confirming a proposed plan to purchase Capita Lesson Monitor and an indication of implementation date I will be able to negotiate a discount to the Lesson Monitor purchase price (currently £4,495)

A further copy of the survey can be found below

• Acrobat pdf, 61kb/2 pages, 06/11/2006, mis_survey.pdf

In order for me to enter into negotiations for the 2007 / 8 charges I need to have received sufficient completed returns by 17th November 2006. If necessary please send me a 'null' return.

If you are not sure whether your school have made a return please email: sitss.admin@lea.herts.sch.uk

Janine Bryant

SCHOOL CENSUS JANUARY 2007 AND ATTENDANCE

October 2006

Just a reminder that ALL schools will be required to enter attendance figures into the School Census January 2007.  These marks will be collected from the Attendance Module for schools who are using it.  Schools that are not using the module will have to enter the marks individually in School Census for each pupil.  Marks required are the possible number of sessions, authorised and unauthorised absences for the Autumn Term 2006.  They will then continue to be collected termly with each Census.

Dell Laptop Battery Recall

August 2006

You may have noticed a number of stories in the press and on the internet regarding Dell laptops catching fire.

Dell has identified a potential fault with a batch of batteries used in Dell D600, D610 and D620 laptops and Dell has now launched an international recall of the affected batteries.

Checking whether your machines battery is one of the affected units is simple, just follow these instructions

The checks are as follows:

1. Power off Laptop.

2. Turn laptop over and remove battery by sliding the battery retaining catch in the direction of the arrow and pulling upwards.

3. Look for the Dell Part Piece Identification (PPID) number on the white sticker (see diagram below).

4. Look at the part of the PPID number indicted by the circled numbers in the example above. If this matches one of the following groups, then a further check is required.

1K055 C5340 D6024 JD616 U5867 X5333
3K590 C5446 D6025 JD617 U5882 X5875
59474 C6269 F2100 KD494 W5915 X5877
6P922 C6270 F5132 M3006 X5308 Y1333
C2603 D2961 GD785 RD857 X5329 Y4500
C5339 D5555 H3191 TD349 X5332 Y5466

If the five numbers do NOT match any on the table above, then the battery is OK and does not need to be replaced. Please refit the battery into your laptop and continue with normal use.

If the numbers do match log on to https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/Identify.aspx and enter the full PPID number and click the SUBMIT button.

The response screen will indicate whether a replacement is required or not.

• If a replacement is required, you are advised not to continue to use the affected battery. Use the ORDER REPLACEMENT BATTERY option. Mains power should be used until a replacement is available.
• If a replacement is not required, please refit the battery into your laptop and continue with normal use.

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Microsoft ceases support for Office XP

You may have read in a recent SITSS newsletter that the new versions of Assessment Manager and Profiles (AM7 and Profiles 7) require Office 2003 on workstations using those modules. Also, while the vast majority of Sims .net reports work with any version of Word or Excel, there are a few which will only work with Office 2003.

We appreciate that schools with older versions of Office may not wish to upgrade all their workstations, but you may not have realised that Microsoft itself ceased mainstream support for Office XP on 11/07/06 as part of its Support Lifecycle Policy (and support for Office 2000 ended over 2 years ago!). This means that it will not release any new non-security hotfixes or provide incident or warranty support for the software. Further information can be found at:

• http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifecycle

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Best Value Review of Management Information System

June 2006

The Authority, in partnership with its schools, has been carrying out a detailed review of the provision of management information systems (MIS) in Hertfordshire. The evaluation of the solutions offered by the two shortlisted suppliers have now been completed and the results shared with the ICT Partnership Working Group. For further details go to http://www.thegrid.org.uk/info/traded/sitss/administration/best_value.shtml

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