Information on how texting works on UK mobile networks

When using any texting service, there will be instances where text messages don’t make it to the end user’s mobile phone. This can lead to confusion on the part of the sender as to what exactly has occured. This post aims to help senders understand what actually happens when a text message is sent.

To read the full article, please click here.

How to terminate USO accounts

Most of the information made available to users concerns the provisioning and administration of USO accounts. However, knowing how to terminate USO accounts correctly is of high importance when pupils or staff leave an establishment or are otherwise no longer eligible for a USO account.

A comprehensive document available on the USO support site outlines steps that should be taken to stop a user’s USO account and their access to licenced services or to keep an account temporarily under the “sponsorship” of a school. Please refer to this document for the latest guidance.

Our phone numbers have changed!

Our phone numbers are in the process of changing over to local Orpington numbers. Please start using these new numbers at the earliest opportunity.

Main office number
01689 814 700

Main office fax number
01689 814 701

Support line for non-London LAs
01689 814 777

London LAs should continue to call
020 8255 5555

Support fax number for everyone
01689 814 778

This should help reduce the price of your calls in these cost-conscious times.

BETT 2011

We are busy preparing for our annual appearance at BETT which promises to be another exciting week. Stop by our stand for an informal chat about any of the products and services you’ve always wanted to know about but were too afraid to ask.

Atomwide staff will be on hand to talk about USO and its associated services, answer any questions and give demonstrations as well as update you on the recent developments to existing services such as USO-AutoUpdate, USO-AutoText, ParentLink parental reporting and USO-FX.

For your free tickets to the exhibition click here to register.

You can find us in the National Hall at Olympia on stand K46. We hope to see you there.

MIS Extract

What is your recommended method of extracting data for USO update from Serco Facility CMIS?

Deleting Mailboxes

Martin, we have a set of mailboxes in each school for global emails from the LA eg ‘head’, ict’ etc. This has worked fine for 18 months and suddenly we have a spate of deletions. Is there any way we can protect these mailboxes from over-eager nom cons? Thanks, John

Auto-Upload

When the schools are closed for holidays are we going to get the messages telling us that no data has been uploaded throughout the holiday?

Bulk Upload Reports

I am beginning to get enquiries from schools about the Bulk Upload Reports. There is confusion about where these reports are coming from as this is not clear. Also the means of fixing any any errors that are flagged is causing problems. Is there anything you can do to make this simpler?

Widget suggestion

Any chance of adding the Recent Comment widget to the blog sidebar as it’s hard to find new comments to threads if you are not subscribed to them by emai and don’t visit every day?

SIMS to USO automation

As an authority making use of the ability to automate the USO account management through nightly SIMS exports we have come across a side affect of this system that we did not totally foresee:

A few of our secondary schools have already given their year 13’s leaving dates in SIMS, meaning that the next nightly export removed these peoples USO accounts and the associated email account. Right in the middle of UCAS applications, the same problem may occur to a lesser extent with Year 11 leavers and college applications.

On one hand I am not convinced this is a technical issue, as from a data security point of view if someone has left they are no longer under the control of the school and should no longer be entitled to use the schools or LA’s ICT facilities. However from a customer service point of view if these accounts have been used on UCAS or college application forms then it unreasonable to just dismiss them.

For the school involved we have disabled their nightly exports until late August/September to give the pupils a grace period.

Has anyone else come across this problem and does anyone have any ideas about what could be done to alleviate the problem in future years?

Darren King : LB Sutton

Who’s Lurking?

If you are an Atomwide customer please introduce yourself here as we need to make this a lively forum if it’s to take off. Lurking won’t get you anywhere but talking will.

-md- of Sutton LA.

Discuss …

A general category to allow you to air your views on anything Atomwide related that’s not covered by one of the other categories.

Announce from Atomwide

This is a closed blog used by Atomwide staff for announcing items of general interest to end users of Atomwide products.