1. Service evaluation: Is this suitable for your school ?

In this section you will be evaluating your sites connectivity to the Scomis platform, printing requirements and staff use of SIMS to ensure Scomis Hosted Application Service is suitable for you.

A. Connectivity requirements

The Scomis Hosted Application Service uses Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol which is a very efficient network protocol and is reliant on a fast internet connection.

If your internet connection is heavily contested there could be a noticeable impact on the user experience.

Firewall requirements for schools:

ISP Firewall rules required for the Hosted Applications:
○ gw.scomis.org (217.179.30.30) on TCP port 443
○ gw-swgfl.rdp.scomis.org (217.179.30.29) on TCP port 443
○ gw-eclipse.rdp.scomis.org (109.176.106.251) on TCP port 443Please note: These need to be clean connections bypassing any transparent proxies or other network filtering products. If you are doing SSL inspection/interception you need to add the same addresses into your exclusion list so they are not intercepted
ISP Firewall rules required for the External Connector:
○ extvpn.scomis.org (217.179.30.23) on TCP port 443 / UDP port 1194
○ extvpn2020.scomis.org (217.179.30.24) on TCP port 443 / UDP port 1194
○ upgrades.scomis.org on TCP port 443 / UDP port 1194

Please note: These will need to be added to an exception list to ensure that there is no SSL interception on these addresses.

For the service evaluation, the school will be provided with a Hosted Applications demo account to evaluate the Scomis Hosted Applications Service. The test environment has a demo version of SIMS using the same live platform that the school would be connected to.
The Demo Data is not maintained; not all SIMS features and modules will be available. To view these please contact your account manager and ask for a demonstration.

It is the schools responsibility to ensure that the Scomis Hosted Application Service meets the needs of the school prior to the migration process.

To connect to the hosted applications environment, download the appropriate client installers from:
http://www.scomis.org/go/hosted

Client download is an MSI package and can be deployed manually or through Group Policy or other Network Management software.
Please note the clients requirements detailed on the download page.

B. Connectivity Checks

The Scomis Hosted Applications client is a wrapper for the Microsoft Remote Desktop client and provides a quick method of accessing the service without needing to understand how to configure the Remote Desktop client. Your local network policies may need to be altered to allow users access to the Microsoft Remote Desktop Client (MSTSC.EXE)

Launch the SIMS Terminal Server application from the Desktop icon, choose any options that you require in the client, then click the “Connect” button
A logon screen will appear. Login using the demo credentials that will have been passed over to you already

If you did not see the logon screen or receive an error, it is likely to be due to connectivity issues. Further advice is available through the Scomis Service Desk, or our FAQ Site – https://faq.scomis.org/categories/services/terminal-server-tech/
If you have followed the relevant FAQs and you are still having issues, please raise this with your Account Manager who will escalate this to the relevant team to contact you for assistance.

C. Printer Checks

Since upgrading to Server 2016 the Scomis Hosted Applications client, no longer requires an extra printer client to be installed on to the machine. The printer will need to be Microsoft Certified and Compatible with Microsoft Windows Server 2016. Please refer to this following FAQ if you require any more information: https://faq.scomis.org/kb22769/

It is the schools responsibility to ensure that printing works from the Hosted Applications client. Please make sure that the relevant checks are done prior to the migration.

Scomis use a Microsoft Easy Print to access your local Printer from SIMS.
Should you products such as Papercut to manage printing in school there could be issues when printing from within Scomis Hosted. Please test this by doing the following:

Log into SIMS
Click Reports > Run Report > Birthday Report
Choose all selections and run the report
Word will open the report (you may need to ALT+TAB to bring the window to the front)
Print the Birthday report, using the File, Print menu route in Word
Print the report

If you have followed the relevant FAQs and you are still having issues, please raise this with your Account Manager who will escalate this to the relevant team to contact you for assistance

D. Functionality Checks

We advise that you locally install our client on a few typical workstations and print a birthday report or similar from within the Scomis Hosted Applications Service demo data.
If you share the demo account please be aware only one person can use it at a time so if you are disconnected it is likely someone else has connected to the same session.

Allow key members of staff to use the Hosted Applications Service demo, ranging from casual users to intensive SIMS, FMS and Exams Officers.

Check with staff that have different ways of working can access SIMS, such as moving between rooms during the day or being situated in different offices; using laptops moving between wireless access points, static desktops.

This will give users an idea of what to expect with the migration to Hosted Applications Service will change the way of working with SIMS and FMS.

E. Remote access checks

The Hosted Applications Service can be accessed anywhere with an internet connection. This is achieved through the use of Microsoft Remote Desktop Gateway servers. These servers bridge the Remote Desktop Protocol so that it can travel through proxy and filtering services. However, please be aware that internet filtering and proxies can interfere with the connection.

Generally speaking, client workstations will need to access the addresses below; note that Scomis may add additional addresses in the future.

Service Evaluation Conclusion

Were you able to connect?
Were the printers that you were expecting to see available in the Hosted Applications Window?
Were you able to print the document printed double sided, stapled and in colour?
Was the performance of the service acceptable?
Do your staff have any concerns about switching?
Does the Hosted Applications Service meet your requirements?
Do you need additional onsite support to assist with transition?

If the Hosted Applications Service meets your requirements, please complete the first section of the Hosted Applications Sign Off sheet at the back of this document or download separately. Please contact Scomis to arrange a provisional migration date. You may now start the Pre-Migration preparation tasks.