SIMS Pre-Enrolment eForm Data Matching and Verifying eForm Responses
For Group Edition
Please note: Operoo will no longer support new versions of SIMS after July 31, 2023. Specifically, this will end support for the integration between Operoo and SIMS. If you are using the 2-way SyncMonkey integration, please contact the Support Team who will help and guide you through migrating your integration from SyncMonkey to Wonde.
Please ensure you read and understand this article in its entirety. If you need any guidance or have any questions, contact the Support Team or your Customer Success Manager (CSM).
Prerequisites;
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The SIMS version at the school must be version 7.204 (current SIMS version as of May 2022) or the 2 previous versions which are 7.200 or 7.198;
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The SyncAgent installed must be version 2.1.1.46 or later. Please can you ask your IT Department to ensure you are running the sync with the minimum version. If your SyncAgent needs to be updated please forward this Operoo Knowledge Base article to your IT Department for guidance - How to upgrade the SIMS Sync Agent (Sync-Monkey);
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Operoo has been whitelisted in your Firewall/Security Settings to prevent the pre-enrolment sync from being blocked. Please ensure your IT Department/Technician has whitelisted the following URL - https://eu-lb.operoo.com;
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The Pre-Enrolment eForm Sync must be enabled in Operoo (this can only be enabled by a member of the Operoo Team). If you have not asked for the setting to be enabled, please contact the Support Team or your CSM. If you are unsure if the Pre-Enrolment eForm Sync has been enabled, please navigate to your Integration Settings (Settings>Integration Settings), then click 'Edit' underneath Download Agent Configuration, and finally navigate to the bottom of the screen. If the setting has been enabled, 'Yes' will be greyed out. If the setting has not been enabled, 'No' will be greyed out.
Once parents and carers have submitted their eForm responses to your SIMS Pre-admission eForm(s) you can start the process of preparing and verifying the data. Following the eForm responses being verified, the data will then sync from Operoo to SIMS. The steps in the process are outlined in detail in this article;
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Syncing all contacts from SIMS to Operoo
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Searching and Data matching the contact data provided on the Pre-admission eForm
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Verifying the eForm and syncing the verified data from Operoo to SIMS
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Re-syncing eForm data
*Please note: this is a recurring step where data can be synced from Operoo to SIMS once a response has been verified, or where there is a requirement to sync multiple times for one eForm response. For example;
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An Administrator may choose to verify five (5) eForm responses, sync that data back and then continue verifying responses;
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Verified responses have been synced back to SIMS; a change is then made in the eForm which results in the need to resync the response(s). If this is required, you can re-sync back individual contact data and not all the eForm responses. However for subsequent minor changes that are required to be made, for example an email address, we recommend you make those changes directly in SIMS.
Syncing all contacts from SIMS to Operoo
The first step to syncing data from the Pre-admission eForm(s) into SIMS is to sync all contacts from SIMS to Operoo. This action is completed within Operoo.
1. Click 'Settings' followed by 'Pre-Enrolment eForms'
2. On the top right-hand side of the screen, click 'Set Sync Contacts procedure'
3. The message below will be shown on the screen to let you know that on the next pre-enrolment sync* all current contacts will import from SIMS to Operoo
The syncing process might take a few minutes depending on the amount of current contacts currently on SIMS. Please allow the sync to finalise before starting the next step. You can see the status of the sync by either;
- Hovering your mouse over the 'Set Sync Contacts procedure' button to see the status of the sync;
- Navigating to your sync logs where you’ll see if the sync is running or has been completed.
*If the standard 2-way sync is running when the Set Sync Contacts procedure button is clicked, the pre-enrolment sync will take place once the standard 2-way sync has finished. There cannot be multiple syncs taking place at the same time.
This step is not required each time you verify an eForm response and is only required to be completed again when there are new students added to SIMS where you need to data match the contacts on an eForm in Operoo. For example, if you have new students added to SIMS after an appeal or the next school year, you will need to click 'Set Sync Contacts procedure' before you can data match and verify that students eForm.
Data matching the contact data provided on the Pre-admission eForm
This next step can only be completed once the current student contacts have all synced into Operoo from SIMS.
1. Open the 'Pre-Enrolment eForms' screen to view eForms that need to be matched and verified
Please note: You must be signed-in as a Super Administrator to see and use this menu item.
You'll now see a screen similar to the one below where;
Administrators can filter on the columns to show those records which have or have not been verified, and also those records which have been synced to SIMS.
All eForm responses need to be prepared and verified in order for the data to sync from Operoo to SIMS.
2. To verify the data, click on the 3 lines and choose 'Prepare/Verify'
Once clicking Prepare/Verify, any issues will be listed under 'List of Issues', clicking the red arrow will take you directly to the issue in question. Examples of the issues could be;
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Has field value issues - this could mean that the selection made in the eForm does not exist in SIMS (I.e. looking at Title/Salutation the option of Sir has been selected on the eForm, but Sir does not exist in SIMS)
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Relationship to child: Cannot be blank - this field is a mandatory field when creating a new record in SIMS
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Is not yet prepared - shown when contacts are part of the eForm but have not been data matched
To fix the issue, you might need to edit the answers provided on the eForm. To edit answers, click on the ‘Edit Answers’ button located on the top left-hand side of the screen. Once the edit has been completed, scroll to the bottom of the eForm and click ‘Submit Response’.
You can also edit the answers to change a response given by a parent. For example, if the address given is in capitals, by clicking 'Edit Answers' you can alter the response to be lower case with the exception of the first letter.
If contacts are added as part of the eForm, Administrators will need to verify if the contact provided on the eForm is a new or existing contact in SIMS. If an existing contact, the data in the eForm will override that in SIMS. If a new contact, a new contact will be created in SIMS.
Email addresses and phone numbers are not overridden but added to SIMS. For example, if the parent has provided is a different email address on the eForm (to that in SIMS) and this data is synced to SIMS, Administrators need to go into SIMS and delete the old email address manually.
After contacts are prepared, they will have one of 3 statuses.
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Won’t be synced (Operoo will not sync the data to SIMS)
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Prepared (Linked to contact) (Operoo will override or add the data to the existing contact in SIMS)
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Prepared (Will create a new contact) (Operoo will create a new record in SIMS for that contact)
Please note: Schools must prepare each contact by clicking on 'Contacts>Show', these status will not automatically appear. The steps are listed from point 3 below.
This is a manual search that needs to be completed for each contact. Results will not auto populate with possible contact matches from SIMS.
Please note: If a new contact in the eForm is created with the status of 'Prepared (Linked to contact)', once the sync of the eForm data has taken place from Operoo to SIMS, the contact will remain with that status in Operoo and the link cannot be removed.
3. To prepare the contact data, click on Prepare (each contact must be prepared individually)
4. Use the dropdown list where is says 'Please select contact below to link to this member' to search for and select a matching contact from SIMS, or click ‘Ignore for Sync’ if you don’t want to sync this contact.
If there has been no contact selected from the dropdown list when matching a contact a new record will be created in SIMS.
When Administrators are searching for an existing contact in SIMS, in this next step, Administrators will be shown a separate screen with existing contact information from SIMS (if there is an existing contact) as well as the contact information provided by the parent in the eForm(s).
From here Administrators needs to confirm if the contact is to be treated as a new, or existing contact in SIMS prior to the data being synced to SIMS. The selection an Administrator makes is what allocates each contact the status of either ‘Prepared (Linked to contact)’ or ‘Prepared (Will create a new contact)’.
When searching for contacts, you can search by adding any of the following attributes (typing or copy and paste);
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Name
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Address
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Postcode
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Phone number
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Email address
5. You can search using full or partial data. For example, using the demo contact in the screenshot above, you could search for ‘jac all 111’ which is a search for partial names and mobile phone number data. You can also copy and paste data into the search field.
Please be careful of mistyping when searching for an existing contact. If this is done, this could result in a new contact being created in SIMS when that contact already exists, and the status should have been either ‘Prepared (Linked to contact)’ or ‘Ignore for sync’.
6. If the contact is existing in SIMS, and Operoo is to link the data in the eForm to the contact in SIMS, click the contact in the search results, then click on OK to confirm your selection
7. Finally, click on ‘Mark Prepared’ to give the contact the status of ‘Prepared (Linked to contact)’
8. Once all contacts have been prepared, 'Click Here to Verify' will be enabled
Verifying the eForm and syncing the verified data from Operoo to SIMS
If you have twins or triplets starting in the new year, please prepare and verify one sibling's eForm responses to SIMS and ensure the data syncs to SIMS, before preparing and verifying the other siblings eForm response. This is to ensure you don't have duplicated data in SIMS, for example creating one grandparent record for the siblings.
When an eForm is verified, the data will sync to SIMS automatically within a few minutes*.
1. To verify the response, select ‘Click Here to Verify’
2. Click ‘Verify’ to confirm the action
Once the eForm has been verified, there is a note to show which Administrator verified the eForm.
3. Clicking ‘Pre-Enrolment eForms' on the top-left hand corner takes Administrators back to the Pre Enrolment eForm data Matching screen. Administrators can then see all verified eForms.
4. Once the eForm data has been successfully synced to SIMS, the column 'Synced Successfully? (date of last success - click Prepare/Verify for details)' will automatically populate with the date and time of the successful sync. If there is no date and time showing in the 'Synced Successfully? (date of last success - click Prepare/Verify for details)' column, despite the colour of the text in the 'eForm Name' column, this means the data has not successfully synced over to SIMS and you will need to check the sync logs for reasons why.
Also in the Sync Logs in Operoo, there will be information on the sync itself to show what has taken place.
Once an eForm response has been verified, the response will be automatically locked so the parent or carer cannot alter their response.
*As with syncing in current contacts from SIMS in step one (clicking Set Sync Contacts procedure), if the standard 2-way sync is running when an eForm has been verified, the data will sync until the standard 2-way sync has finished. There cannot be multiple syncs taking place at the same time.
Re-syncing eForm data
Although it’s possible to re-sync eForm data, we recommend that once an eForm response has been verified and synced to SIMS, any updates required are made directly in SIMS.
After syncing the verified eForm data Administrators can re-sync the contact data by choosing 'Re-Sync'. This may be required if an Administrator needs to make a change to the eForm response. If this action does need to take place, the eForm must be unverified, before the updates to the eForm can be done.
Please note: Removing the verification is only required if the eForm response is being updated before the data is then re-synced to SIMS. If there are no changes to the responses required, do not remove the verification, but open up the relevant contact and click ‘Re-Sync’.
To re-sync contact data;
1. Click 'Prepare/Verify' for the required eForm response, followed by ‘Remove verified’ (doing this will remove the verification allowing Administrators to update the eForm response)
2. Click 'Remove' to confirm the action
3. To update the eForm response, click ‘Edit Answers’, make the change and scroll to the bottom of the eForm and click ‘Submit Response’. Once the changes have been made, click ‘All Answers’ and ‘Re-Sync’ for the specific contact.
4. Click 'Click here to Verify' to re-verify the eForm response. Once this re-verification has taken place, the re-sycned data will sync into Operoo*.
The process of syncing the Verified data from Operoo to SIMS should be triggered as many times as necessary.
Contact addresses will not be linked to student addresses or other contacts once the data is synced from Operoo to SIMS. This process, which can be done in bulk will need to take place in SIMS via the Housekeeping Tool. Also, please note that the sync will remove linked addresses from students and contacts when it updates addresses.
Once eForms are archived they are not visible in the Pre Enrolment eForm data Matching screen and the responses cannot be synced from Operoo to SIMS. Schools should not archive their eForms until they have synced the data from Operoo to SIMS.
