1. Summer Release 2014 - Version: 7.158 Release was due 30 th June 2014 but due to issues with some templates/reports and still not released. Now due today (will wait and see!!) Secondary’s will need to upgrade before the summer holidays.

2. System support (Retirement dates) SystemLast Supported Date Windows XPSummer 2013 Windows VistaSpring 2013 Windows Server 2003Summer 2013 Office 2003Autumn 2012 Office 2007Autumn 2013 SQL Server 2008 R1Spring 2015 - NEW SQL Server 2008 R2Spring 2015 SOLUS21 st Apr 2016 – Maintained 1 st Spet 2015 – Non-Maintained

3. System support (New support dates) SystemNew Support Start Date SQL Server 2012 SQL Server 2014 Spring 2013 Autumn 2014 - CONFIRMED Windows 8 Windows 8.1 Spring 2013 Spring 2014 Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2012 R2 Spring 2013 Spring 2014 Office 2013 Internal use of Office 2010 Spring 2014 Summer 2014 New technical roadmap now available (Doc No. 17910)

4. SOLUS 3 SOLUS 3.7 current release – 3.8 due October 2014 Support for SQL 2012, Server 2012, Win 8 Better migration tools for moving SIMS to new servers. Schools ICT has started looking at SOLUS 3 migration Solus 2 will cease from 1 st April 2016 for maintained schools Solus 2 will cease from 1 st September 2015 for non-maintained schools (Acadamy’s and Independent) Currently have a master SOLUS 3 server and testing 2 pilot schools for the Summer release.

5. SQL 2014 Capita will support in Autumn 14 release Only selling SQL 2014 CALs now Pricing – not finalised, rough guidelines. –Per core price for 2014 (per 2 core (min purchase 4)) ~£450 –CALs ~£30 –SQL Server Std Single MVL ~£120

6. SIMS - Summer 2014 General –Before upgrading to the SIMS 2014 Summer Release, you must ensure that the School Census Summer 2014 Return has been completed and signed off. Once you have upgraded to the SIMS 2014 Summer Release, it is not possible to carry out any further work on the Summer Return. –If your school uses both Fees Billing and FMS, SIMS and FMS must be upgraded at the same time. Examinations Organiser –Secondary schools that use Examinations Organiser must upgrade to the SIMS 2014 Summer Release. Failure to upgrade to the SIMS 2014 Summer Release will result in PI values being calculated incorrectly, missing functionality in PI reports produced by SIMS and the latest business rules not being applied throughout the SIMS Exams software. Windows 8 & Windows Server 2012 Issue –If you are running SIMS on a Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 workstation, you may encounter difficulties when attempting to open PDF files in SIMS. This is caused by Windows Reader being the default program used to open PDF files. –To resolve this issue, you must first ensure that Adobe Reader 9 or later is installed. –Next, you will need to associate Adobe Reader with all PDF files.

7. 2014 Releases Provisional Dates for 2014 Summer: End of June Autumn: Early November Spring 2015: End of March

8. Questions? Any more questions please contact Email:schoolsict@eastsussex.gov.ukschoolsict@eastsussex.gov.uk Web:czone.eastsussex.gov.uk/ictczone.eastsussex.gov.uk/ict Twitter:@ESCCSchoolsICT / @schoolsapps@ESCCSchoolsICT@schoolsapps Forum:Czone NMFCzone NMF