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Desk.com (discontinued) vs. PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Desk.com (discontinued)

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/ADesk.com was a helpdesk, ticketing, and customer support product offered by Salesforce, and oriented towards the needs of small businesses. It is no longer sold and support has been discontinued. Salesforce recommends its modern Service Cloud as a replacement.N/A

    PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs

    Score10 out of 10
    N/APowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs (Special Education) covers all areas of education including 504 processes, services capture for Medicaid billing, special education case management, gifted and talented, English language learners, and Response to Intervention (RTI). It is a comprehensive system that combines case management with tracking clinical services to ensure the delivery of IEPs and alignment of IEPs to state and local goals. The system is designed to support districts in…N/A
    Pricing
    Desk.com (discontinued)PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Desk.com (discontinued)PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Desk.com (discontinued)PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs
    Considered Both Products
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    78%
    Would buy again
    14 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    88%
    Delivers good value for the price
    14 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    83%
    Happy with the feature set
    15 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    85%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    87%
    Implementation went as expected
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Best Alternatives
    Desk.com (discontinued)PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs
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    Enterprises
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
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    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Desk.com (discontinued)PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.2
    (38 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.4
    (14 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.3
    (19 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Availability
    1.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.2
    (21 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Desk.com (discontinued)PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    Once I had to search the logs to find cases and data on a particular keyword, but I was not able to do so as there was no search tool available, nor was there a sort or filter tool. I was totally frustrated as I had to skim through the data to complete my task manually.
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    PowerSchool Group LLC
    PowerSchool Special Education is well suited in one specific area: special education in elementary, middle and high schools. It works here due to the nature of the platform, which focuses on meeting the needs of students with all disabilities. The software offers information on specific cases, students, as well as Academics. This supports the mission of supporting all students and making it easier for educators, parents, and administration to be more heavily involved in tracking, monitoring and supporting students. When using PowerSchool Special Education, it simplifies the IEP process. Collaboration is one of the best abilities the software provides. There is a need to track program eligibility, including 501 accommodations and Title 1, and in a school with such a large population, the functionality that this software offers to users is important.
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    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • Desk.com automatically tracks analytics on all cases coming in and going out.
    • Desk.com helps prevent multiple people from working on the same case. However, it does allow us to assign the case to someone else if we feel that person is more qualified to address the case.
    • Desk.com has very few bugs or server issues that we've seen. This helps prevent any delays in communicating with our customers.
    Incentivized
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    PowerSchool Group LLC
    • It provides all the documents necessary for supporting federal and state laws in regards to the special education program.
    • Extremely effective in helping to meet reporting standards for students. Teachers that fall behind on deadlines or timelines are given reminders and provided with processes to monitor progress and reporting.
    • Case management is easy, which leads to 100% compliance. This is important because the best strength is that this platform helps to increase funding by meeting all requirements of the Fed and State.
    • An additional strength is the collaborative potential it offers. The platform offers student portals to let staff access all resources on demand.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • Internal knowledge tools are clunky and annoying to access, outside the regular workflow of everyday staff
    • Arbitrary and confusing limitations in business rules and custom fields
    • Arbitrary and confusing limitations in case handling - for example, if you begin a case as a phone call you CANNOT email the customer from the case. As though no one working at Desk has ever sent a follow-up email...?
    • Not very good for B2B, mid-to-large businesses. Difficult to set business rules based on company information (for example, service level/tier) and nearly impossible to track key stakeholders and get clear insight into the relationship at a high level
    • Reporting tools are clunky, slow, and just all-around pretty useless
    Incentivized
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    PowerSchool Group LLC
    • In terms of improvement, the interface is extremely ugly and simple in design, color and icon design. The platform needs to have a much more interactive and appealing interface so that use is more comfortable.
    • For parents, their side of the platform has a lot of options. That needs to be simplified. I think less and more drop downs within the key menus would help.
    • The disability codes are very lengthy. Perhaps there are easier or faster ways to access subsections to select.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Discontinued Products
    We will be very likely to renew our contract with Desk.com. It is easy to use, and provides us with everything we need to keep our customers and employees happy. They have also been very helpful in catering the application to our specific and unique needs, including working across brands and adding specific content for our products
    Incentivized
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    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    Desk.com and Salesforce Service Cloud's usability is seamless to get up and running, administer, and scale across the organization. It allows us to get up and running in days rather than weeks and has transformed our customer support teams globally into efficient, world-class teams. The best practices that the Salesforce and Desk.com teams provide are also very valuable, as we have the right case studies and tips to implement right away in our organization.
    Incentivized
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    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answers on this topic
    Reliability and Availability
    Discontinued Products
    We've never had a problem with Desk.com's availability.
    Read full review
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Discontinued Products
    Fast, responsive, gorgeous, and fun. It's always run like a thoroughbred for me.
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    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    Their support leaves much to be desired. They do not respond quickly and do not follow up with feature requests. There is also a lack of on-demand or live training available for the teams to use as they learn a new tool. Because there is so much customization, a lot of questions do come up regularly.
    Incentivized
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    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Discontinued Products
    As I stated earlier, implementation of Desk.com went more smoothly than most. The resources in the "Support Center" are fantastic, and I never ran into anything that left me stumped, angry, or disappointed.
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    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    Overall, it performs a lot better than all three combined, with a lot fewer glitches and a lot more user-friendly and user experience efficiency. Any new link that needs to be done, takes a lot less time to execute on desk compared to the three others. Simply advanced when it comes to execution this platform is.
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    PowerSchool Group LLC
    There is no other software on the market that is specifically focused on improving the support of special education programs. PowerSchool Special Education system has a similar interface and structure that Moodle Rooms offer; however, Moodle Rooms is for content management and student management. PowerSchool Special Education is not related to course curriculum management, it is primarily focused on special education programs. Managing special education programs can be very difficult and stressful. It is impossible to successfully comply and healthily support a special education program without tools such as PowerSchool Special Education. Even more important than what other software does do for schools and educators, this platform makes it more convenient for families. Electronic forms and parent portals make processes easier.
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    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • Better customer service and employee efficiency when dealing with cases
    • It's so universal, meaning that everyone can use it and it's easy to understand.
    • The only negative impact is that our IT department who is assigned tickets has responded to customers instead of to the local reps and we have to ensure they know to change the email if it's assigned to them.
    Incentivized
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    PowerSchool Group LLC
    • There is also a positive impact on ROI for the school. Utilizing this software provides the school with the ability to increase the potential it receives in Title 1 funding. Title 1 funding is a major source of funding for inner-city schools in particular.
    • Normally, the IEP and tracking process is lengthy, filled with paper, and often takes more time than necessary. Utilizing this software speeds up the process and provides clear requirements to be met, which reduces the number of questions and confusing meetings or papers left in teacher mailboxes.
    • I have not experienced a negative return on investment with the software, because, without it, the paper trail would be too lengthy and the process would be much more convoluted, with long meetings, long sheets of paperwork, and missed deadlines due to a lack of clear collaboration.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Desk.com (discontinued) Screenshots

    Screenshot of Desk.com ConsoleScreenshot of Desk.com Issue ScreenScreenshot of Desk.com Reporting and Analytics

    PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs Screenshots

    Screenshot of IEP Progress reportScreenshot of IEP considerations