SIMS. SCOMIS AND ALICE

Hi Regarding killer school apps, what are the following SIMS and scomis, I know that ALICE is a library management application, I am not sure about the other two, it seems that if we had open source versions of the above, then we could really move forward in terms of getting open source into schools. However not being sure of what these are or what they do makes looking for or helping to develop alternatives difficult.. Paul