User:Ronja/Temp/Questions for LMS.doc

Does this system provide a granular permissions structure?
What if there is a piece of functionality missing that we really need– how do I get that implemented?
Have you any reference customers? – Questions about vendor: are they a local company? what is the history? Can they provide references? what is their financial status? (financial reports?) How long have they been in business? Are they NZ-based?
What is the SLA for support? What support do I get (in terms of hours, turnaround time, site visits, weekend cover)? Bug fixes? What time-frame for new releases? Is it a yearly release path? Monthly? Or as required? What is the road-map for this product? Planned features?
What is the licensing model? (per system? per server? per user?) What are we getting for the money? (This also applies to open source – installation, support etc)
What is its compatibility? Is the system browser-based? What operating systems is it compatible with – Windows (which versions? XP, Vista, Windows 7), MAC OS, Linux? (This shouldn’t matter for browser-based systems) More pertinently – browser compatibility (Internet Explorer 6,7,8, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome) Are any specific browser plug-ins required? e.g Flash
Is there any mobile interfacing? 3g/small screen – particularly if LMS is designed to host e-portfolios also
Interfacing. e.g with our chosen e-portfolio system?– we need to be able to export and import data as students leave and enter our school in standard formats that are readable by standards systems. Does the system support standard methods of interfacing with other systems e.g web services Can you export individual pages/ items into standard formats e.g word, pdf
Upgrade path – new version – do we automatically get that and at no further cost? Best experience… - it is a web based system so I assume this would be automatic? How hard is it to upgrade?
If the system includes a lot of different modules - are all included in the price? If not, which ones are included, and how much does it cost to get others added in? Can they be added in at any time at no further cost? Does the system have a plug-in architecture so that 3rd parties can develop modules/functionalities for the system?
A lot of the case studies being read indicate there may be problems bringing data from existing systems into the new - how is *** solving these problems?
A criticism of ( e.g ...) is that it appears only able to host the current version of documents (eg. reports), rather than records going back over the entire time of a child’s tenure at school - is this the case and is this going to be changed?
Is the system fully documented? i.e is there a complete user manual?
Is there any training provided? And at what extra cost (if any)
What is the maximum of concurrent users the system can support?
Is the system accessible over HTTPS? What extra steps if any are taken to ensure sensitive data is protected?
What kind of external systems is the system designed to interact with? e.g Mahara and Moodle
Management interface – who can administer it and what can they do? Or do we have to call the supplier every time we need an administration issue resolved? What sort of time commitment is required for the day-to-day running of the system? Access restrictions? Content control? Auditing? Is there any way we can limit the amount of storage per student? Can we restrict the type of file uploaded?
What are the storage requirements of the system? How much storage do we get per student (cloud-based system) and how much room is required for server-based?
Is there any restriction on the type of data that can be uploaded or embedded? E.g open office documents?
What is the back-up policy? It is automatic? If it is cloud based who does it? How do we get hold of it?If it is clod-based and we don’t want to rely on you for back-up can we do it ourselves on our server as well as you in the cloud?
What are the infrastructure requirements of this system? (Computers, servers, software (e.g Webmail system, live@edu – with existing software infrastructure in the school), hardware?)
Is the system multi-lingual e.g Maori, foreign students? How hard is it to add this functionality?
What are the bandwidth requirements? (applicable to cloud-based)
Does the system meet all legislative requirements? (data storage, data retention, privacy, PRA (public records act) Copyright?)
Where is the data? (If it is cloud-based) Is it off-shore?