James Randall - Technical Architect

It’s my job to bring the theory to life for SIMS products. As part of the solutions team, I devise the technical designs for new products which address the needs of our customers whilst keeping pace with emerging technologies.

I work on products from the idea stage with the product managers and other colleagues, taking the product through implementation to the final delivery to our customers. It’s an immensely satisfying path and you learn something new every time you go through the process, particularly from our customers!

Expanding the SIMS audience is always interesting and poses fresh challenges. For example, the introduction of SIMS Learning Gateway meant that, for the first time, students and parents had direct access to SIMS and the data held within – bringing implications not only for our own systems but also for customers and their processes.

Working out how to make best use of technology to develop solutions which save our customers money, or make their lives easier, is demanding but fun. For example, with Discover we used new graphic technologies and ideas about user experience to make data exploration far more intuitive, enabling customers to get better value from the information stored in their systems.

When we started, we didn’t have an exact product in mind, just a goal of making data analysis easier, more accessible and playful, in order that our customers could get more value from SIMS and learn new information about their schools. The team who worked on the product were all incredibly passionate and dedicated and I think you can see that in the end result.

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