Advanced Data vs. iGradePlus vs. Blackbaud Education Management Solutions

The program works very well for me, even though I am the only one in my school to use it. My colleagues are Thai, and they would have a difficult time working with this English program. Also, there is quite a bit of the program that deals with parental contact and other items used more in a United States school system that wouldn't work here very well.

A good, and constantly improving solution for private schools. I don't know that a lot of its functionality would be well suited to public schools, but maybe? The integration with other Blackbaud software is a huge plus for us, as we have several of their other products including their flagship Raiser's Edge. Smaller schools may not need the sophistication of Blackbaud solutions, and it is not an inexpensive option.

Incentivized

• It's record keeping function is robust in its free version.
• Client support is very responsive.
• It's set up guide is thorough.
• The homepage with the news feed is clean and easy on the eyes.

• Seamless integration between the LMS, EMS and SIS modules
• Real-time, effective chat support helps me not only with urgent needs but also to work through possibilities for increasing how we use the product.
• Feature upgrades monthly that respond to voiced needs from users

Incentivized

• The transcript templates need to be improved.
• I would love to see them add services for canteen management (point of sale).
• I would love to see them add services for library management (circulation).

• Forms - lack of conditional questions
• Gradebook -lack of links to assignments
• Not being able to customize displays, for example, Grading tab - we just finished 1st semester and teachers could only see the current quarter but not the 1st one which is still part of the first semester. Lack of customization in assessments.
• Scheduling- even though re-running generating schedules, we're still getting a high number of unscheduled students. Lack of being able to limit the number of scheduled classes in a row for teachers.

Incentivized

It is a solid product. We have some issues with the capabilities of the website building components and the out dated technology behind its communications software but overall Blackbaud Education Management Software services to combine numerous functions into one product.

Incentivized

They have good instructions. There are some pages that appear confusing at first, but there are enough directions around for me to figure out what I need to do to accomplish what I need to. I don't always remember what I need to do when it is a task that happens only once or only a few times a year. The grade report section looks difficult, but I have always been able to find out what I need to do there without too much time or effort. Also, when I need to import students from a previous year into a new grade book, the program has provided the information I need to do that

Blackbaud EMS is very usable from my perspective. I am a power user and get lots of valuable functionality. It is, however, a complex system. Sometimes necessarily complex to accommodate flexibility for diverse customer needs. Some complexity seems unnecessary and/or hold-over functionality from earlier versions; nice to see this type being evolved away from over time. It is valuable to receive regular updates to the system along with good release notes of what changed and notices of significant changes in advance.

Incentivized

Decent support however the chat feature can take a great amount of time out of the workday. If for instance you are waiting for someone to respond in the chat and there is a fire drill, if you are not responding within a few minutes, you are disconnected and have to start all over again. It would be great if you could submit your problem and then whoever has the most experience, can respond. The training in the Blackbaud University is good but also time-consuming - a 3 hr training in the middle of a workday is a lot to ask. I like the 90-minute sessions. It would also be great to offer a shorter webinar to update on any changes implemented. Other than the email I subscribed to, there is no information on how these updates actually work.

Incentivized

I have worked with FACTS (formerly known as RenWeb) and I enjoyed all of its features. It almost has too many rings and bells. iGradePlus has many of the same features for a much lower price. Parents and students are able to log in to see the grades. We can print our report cards. We can keep track of tuition. There are some features that I would like to see in the future, such as canteen management (point of sale) and library management (circulation) but for right now, it is perfect for our young school

Blackbaud K-12 is very similar. I feel like I would be trading one set of issues for another so it's kind of a wash. We are very much hooked into the Blackbaud website with our Google SSO, SmartTuition, and Schooldoc integrations. It would be difficult for us to transition. That is the main reason I haven't really entertained other web firms.

Incentivized

• More than half of our clients monitor their child's attendance and lesson logs as seen through the parent portal access count.
• Our record keeping is now centralized.
• iGradePlus became a proof of our legitimacy for some of our parents.

• Negative - The rollout is brutal. Blackbaud said it could happen in 6 months, but that is definitely not a reality. It will take well over a year, and one complete school cycle to actually integrate everything correctly.
• Positive - The amount of time saved in data processing has allowed our office to become more involved in other areas of the school.
• Positive - The ease of having everything in [one] place, from inquiry to application to contracts and course registration, has been a HUGE benefit to our applicants and their families.

Incentivized