Capita to supply SIMS to 1200 Schools in Northern Ireland for next 5 years

April 27, 2012 - PRLog -- Capita has announced that it has been selected by Northgate Managed Services to continue to provide its SIMS management information system in all 1200 schools across Northern Ireland.

As part of a wider £170 million contract, secured by Northgate Managed Services, the Capita’s SIMS system will be used with Capita’s new SIMS Discover tool, http://www.capita-sims.co.uk/discover, which will allow schools to easily analyse pupil data and help teachers spot when children are falling behind.

Capita’s SIMS Partnership Xchange will also be used to share pupils’ attendance and achievement information with their home school when pupils learn at different establishments as part of Northern Ireland’s Area Learning Communities (ALC) scheme.

The complete ‘Education Network Northern Ireland’ (ENNI) contract has been awarded by C2k to Northgate who will design, implement, manage and support Europe’s first Education Cloud environment for schools in Northern Ireland, in partnership with selected suppliers.  The new service has been designed to create a dynamic, future proofed, flexible service which provides schools with increased access to learning resources.

Jimmy Stewart, director of C2k, said: “SIMS Partnership Xchange will be used by 31 Area Learning Communities across Northern Ireland.  It will enable us to fulfill our duty of care responsibilities by allowing schools to mark and share attendance information and create timetables with pupils from different schools. SIMS Discover will help teachers understand our pupils’ needs more effectively.”

Andy Ross, chief executive of Northgate Managed Services, remarked:  "The award of this contract is a tremendous achievement for Northgate, Capita and the other suppliers involved. Our decision to select Capita, as a partner, was based on its track record of providing a robust and user-friendly management information system, and its new product developments that will ensure we have a system fit for the future.”

Phil Neal, Managing Director of Capita’s SIMS business, said: “It is a testament to the abilities of Capita and SIMS that we have been chosen to meet the needs of Northern Ireland’s schools both now and in the future. This is a great opportunity to help schools improve through the use of data.”

About Capita SIMS: Capita SIMS (http://www.capita-sims.co.uk) is the leading supplier of information systems to the education sector, providing a range of software and services to schools and local authorities to help raise standards and reduce administration. Capita’s SIMS is the most popular management information system for schools and is used every day by more than 22,000 educational establishments in the UK.