Blackbaud Education Management Solutions vs. PowerSchool Enrollment

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

PowerSchool Registration collects all the data we need and more. It's easy to go from initial application to completed enrollment. I love how the software will help keep you organized with where the application is in the process, so you can quickly see at what stage you are at with processing a student's enrollment. You do have to be strategic and conscious about what you put on the form. It can quickly be a very long form. I can't think of any instance where this software would not significantly increase the efficiency and accuracy of a district.

Incentivized

• 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

• It is able to write back to the student information system with a matching process that ensures the accuracy of student data.
• It tracks the data and the changes, who made the changes, and when the data was imported.
• It organizes the process. It creates a system that relies on checks and balances, and causes you to re-evaluate your process.

Incentivized

• 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

• Functionality of reports
• End-user ease of Gradebook
• Customization of reports

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

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

Overall support is excellent. The people are amazing. They have played with different ways of giving the best support, meaning a dedicated specialist vs. email vs. tracking sheet, etc., which was a little frustrating going through those changes. Still, I appreciate all their efforts in finding what works best for their customers. They listen to their customers and make changes.

Incentivized

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

I think powerschool excels at more simple enrollment tasks however Moodle does a better job being flexible and catering to anything a professor could want to do.

Incentivized

• 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

• If a student has been in the school district before, leaves, and then returns, a list of the students' previous teachers is kept in the system.
• Easy to enter and add students with minimum information.

Incentivized