TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    FIMS

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AFormerly from Blackbaud and based on the former MicroEdge FIMS product, FIMS is a software solution used to manage requests, approvals, and declinations for grantmaking and scholarships.N/A

    Agentforce Education

    Score7.1 out of 10
    N/ASalesforce for Higher Ed combines the Salesforce Lightning Experience with HEDA (Higher Ed Data Architecture), providing a cloud platform supporting student management and engagement, admissions and academics, and other higher ed administrative support functions.N/A
    Pricing
    FIMSAgentforce Education
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    FIMSAgentforce Education
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    FIMSAgentforce Education
    Considered Both Products
    NPact
    No answer on this topic
    Salesforce
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    10 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    8 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    90%
    Happy with the feature set
    9 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    83%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    80%
    Implementation went as expected
    4 Answers
    Features
    FIMSAgentforce Education
    Student and Faculty Administration
    Comparison of Student and Faculty Administration features of FIMS and Salesforce Agentforce Education
    Feature
    FIMS
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Education
    7.9
    6 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Integrations with 3rd-Party Education Technology00 Ratings6.05 Ratings
    Online Registration Management00 Ratings6.06 Ratings
    District Communications, such as messaging and alerting00 Ratings10.03 Ratings
    Roster Management00 Ratings9.34 Ratings
    Platform Customization00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Teacher Self-Service00 Ratings8.53 Ratings
    Student Data Security00 Ratings10.06 Ratings
    Community Support00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
    Class Scheduling00 Ratings9.43 Ratings
    State and National-level Reporting00 Ratings5.03 Ratings
    Compliance Support00 Ratings4.05 Ratings
    Teacher and Parent Mobile Application00 Ratings8.43 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    FIMSAgentforce Education
    Small Businesses
    Blackbaud Grantmaking
    Score9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Submittable
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Schoolmint Hero
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Schoolmint Hero
    Score9.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    FIMSAgentforce Education
    Likelihood to Recommend
    6.0
    (4 ratings)
    6.4
    (14 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.9
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    6.2
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    FIMSAgentforce Education
    Likelihood to Recommend
    NPact
    It is a very robust system and with the various modules you can accomplish much of what is needed for traditional transaction US-based grantmaking. If you have more complicated grantmaking, deal with foreign currencies or want to have tighter alignment of finance and budget numbers, GIFTS may not meet your needs. Additionally, some of their core projects have limited accessibility in terms of various mobile devices or access from outside the organization's network.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    I would say it's suited for a higher ED or K through 12 use case. If you're tracking anyone who is a learner, I would say it's still applicable for non-degree learning experiences. So even if you don't have a four year degree granting institution, but if you're not doing education, that's probably where I would say it's not really for you. Right. There's other products, other verticals like nonprofit cloud or financial services cloud you'd want to look at.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    NPact
    • Simple layout
    • Duplication reports
    • Lots of fields for organization-specific information
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    • Great use of integrating across all aspects of enrollment.
    • Easy to create tasks for counselors to remember to call prospective students and keep up to date on goals.
    • Reporting is fabulous inside of Salesforce.
    • All of the Apps in the App Exchange.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    NPact
    • While GIFTS Classic is the most barren interfaces of all MicroEdge products, there are some simple capabilities I wish GIFTS could still perform such as better email integration from outlook to a GIFTS request, more efficient requirement reminders, and a wider use of Microsoft Office and other external product integration (GuideStar).
    • It's disappointing that you have to purchase an additional "Customizer Module" or "Budget Module" in order to access basic functions of a GMS. This seems like a basic system function that MicroEdge takes advantage of, unfortunately.
    • The online application module (IGAM) is still quite antiquated and you have to be knowledgeable of basic HTML in order to really customize your organization's online application. More flexibility and design functions would be greatly appreciated with the online application function, especially since this is a public document and represents your organization.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    • I think the display of the cloud for students can seem a bit intimidating at first.
    • I do not know the depth in which some features could offer more, but organization is the most important in displaying the information for the user.
    • Other than the visual aspect I think Salesforce does an amazing job! I'd like to see this used more widely.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    NPact
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    It can be extremely user friendly and customizable - if you have the skills to do that. There are features - like records related opening in sub tabs - that make work more efficient. There is a definitely a steep learning curve when it comes to becoming a salesforce admin though.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    NPact
    I typically receive a response to an inquiry within an hour or two, if not sooner. Most tech support people are knowledgeable about our problems, and if not, they will escalate to the proper person.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    People will respond on time even though Salesforce is such a large organization. This also includes various methods of getting support beyond just calling - they have dedicated reps, chat, chatter, etc that all make the experience more pleasant.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    NPact
    It is really a matter of priority. I can see situations where GIFTS Classic is a very strong option! Once an organization determines its priorities then it should definitely consider GIFTS to see how well it compares with mission critical functionality.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    Salesforce has many more options, functionality, and can provide real time dashboard reports from the homepage. Provides a quicker search functionality and merges all information for other areas of the company into a concise summary. Report functionality is very intuitive and with basic understanding, users can build their own graphs and dashboards to help visual important data.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    NPact
    • Reporting was difficult on GIFTS - often we had to place data into Excel by hand since we could not create simple customized reports. This increased time spent on tasks GIFTS was supposed to streamline.
    • GIFTS did not alert us to duplicated organization records, so often it was difficult to reflect an organization's full grant history to our Board of Directors, leading to employees spending time searching through paper records to make sure all information was properly reported.
    • GIFTS created duplicate contact records, meaning it was difficult to find out which contact was related to which organization and cluttered our data. This caused decreased processing and response time to "new" contacts who turned out to be previous contacts or contacts whose information was tied to previous organizations. Even when contact information was updated for a new organization, sometimes the program would revert to the first organization contact information, several times leading to checks cashed to incorrect organizations---the very worst consequence of using GIFTS to our organization. Thankfully, the money was recovered upon the few times that error occurred, but it led to me and other employees reading through out 800+ checks before issue to make sure the correct organization was in fact being rewarded.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    • Positive: Our entire company is more aligned because while still complying with FERPA, the right people have access to student records while also having the correct permissions.
    • Positive: we can integrate with our partners who also use Salesforce, while still complying with FERPA.
    • Negative: we've needed to hire a Salesforce Development team with multiple people to accurately customize the tool to work for us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Agentforce Education Screenshots

    Screenshot of Admissions ConnectScreenshot of AdvancementScreenshot of K-12 Architecture KitScreenshot of Slack Courses ConsoleScreenshot of Student Success Hub