Brightly Event Manager™ vs. e4clicks Project Estimator

This is an ideal program for any school or district looking for a way to monitor room and maintenance requests. The digital routing availability will help ease the burden of paper copies and make it quicker for everyone to use and submit their needs. Schools with a variety of staff members are best suited, especially since when submitting a request you can designate those that need to be involved and what specific needs you have from facility to technology.

Incentivized

If you are considering purchasing this (very expensive) software, there is a 100% chance you are doing so because you have been awarded a Government contract that dictates you use 4Clicks Project Estimator. There are plenty of easier to use estimating packages out in the world, but you can't use any of them if you have a contract that requires 4Clicks.

Incentivized

• You are able to designate whether you are submitting a maintenance request or a schedule request (for rooms).
• You can set recurring schedules for areas or rooms you may need weekly or monthly to be requested on a set day or time.
• SchoolDude autoroutes to the personnel you designate, taking out any physical paperwork involved.
• You can see your history of requests (both maintenance and schedule) in the database.

Incentivized

• The estimates it produces are simple and easy to follow. The formatting is good.
• The tech support provided is very attentive.

Incentivized

• The filter and ability to sort through your request history is a little difficult to navigate and can be glitchy if you are not sorting in the correct way.
• There should be a quicker and simpler way to verify whether a room is booked prior to scheduling.
• A cleaner, more simplistic look and navigation would go a long way.

Incentivized

• The software feels 20 years old. It has not kept up with modern times, and practically functions like an old DOS program.
• Clunky interface, arcane commands.
• Even their training info focuses on hotkeys like this is 1995. Even though I am of an age to remember computers in 1995, the younger generations of managers/estimators are not. It is time to bring the software into the new century!

Incentivized

This is the only program I have used for the facility, maintenance, technology, and room requests. However, there are programs that include similar features. Frontline Professional Growth is a platform that includes digital forms and routing similar to SchoolDude. But it is a vastly more in-depth program with features that go beyond what SchoolDude is often used for.

Incentivized

WinEst uses much the same database (RS Means/Gordion type) and has a similar interface. It is a bit cheaper.

Incentivized

• Less printing and copying in a district.
• Quicker submitting and processing time.
• Able to track requests and see what is being used in the district.

Incentivized

• As stated before, if you are buying this software, it is because you have a contract forcing you to. While it does work, it is clunky, awkward, and very expensive.
• The price of the software and databases has always been high, but with the fairly recent acquisition of 4Clicks by Gordion (who also bought RS Means for their databases), there is literally no competition. Prices will continue to be very high, with no check on how high they can go.
• Again, can't fault 4Clicks tech support, as I think it is the best in the industry. They know their product and they respond to issues immediately. Considering what we spend a year for this product, however, you would expect nothing less.

Incentivized