Blackbaud Education Management Solutions vs. Salesforce.org Education Cloud

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Blackbaud Education Management Solutions
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Blackbaud Education Management Solutions is a unified student management system for K–12 private schools. Blackbaud Enrollment Management System™: Gives schools and families the ability to track admissions progress from first impressions all the way through the application process to acceptance, enrollment, and tuition payment. Blackbaud Learning Management System™: Track students' academic performance and progression…N/A
Salesforce.org Education Cloud
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Salesforce 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
Blackbaud Education Management SolutionsSalesforce.org Education Cloud
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
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Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Blackbaud Education Management SolutionsSalesforce.org Education Cloud
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Blackbaud Education Management SolutionsSalesforce.org Education Cloud
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Blackbaud Education Management SolutionsSalesforce.org Education Cloud
Student and Faculty Administration
Comparison of Student and Faculty Administration features of Product A and Product B
Blackbaud Education Management Solutions
-
Ratings
Salesforce.org Education Cloud
8.8
5 Ratings
3% above category average
Integrations with 3rd-Party Education Technology00 Ratings8.14 Ratings
Online Registration Management00 Ratings8.75 Ratings
District Communications, such as messaging and alerting00 Ratings10.03 Ratings
Roster Management00 Ratings9.34 Ratings
Platform Customization00 Ratings6.84 Ratings
Teacher Self-Service00 Ratings8.53 Ratings
Student Data Security00 Ratings9.25 Ratings
Community Support00 Ratings8.84 Ratings
Class Scheduling00 Ratings9.43 Ratings
State and National-level Reporting00 Ratings9.52 Ratings
Compliance Support00 Ratings8.44 Ratings
Teacher and Parent Mobile Application00 Ratings8.43 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Blackbaud Education Management SolutionsSalesforce.org Education Cloud
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

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Medium-sized Companies
PowerSchool SIS
PowerSchool SIS
Score 7.2 out of 10
Schoolmint Hero
Schoolmint Hero
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
PowerSchool SIS
PowerSchool SIS
Score 7.2 out of 10
Schoolmint Hero
Schoolmint Hero
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Blackbaud Education Management SolutionsSalesforce.org Education Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(118 ratings)
8.9
(11 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.5
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
6.9
(5 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(115 ratings)
6.2
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.0
(21 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Blackbaud Education Management SolutionsSalesforce.org Education Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
Blackbaud
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.
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Salesforce
It is most suited for those within the education industry. For students and staff in particular, the Education Cloud allows seamless connectivity between each person and helps students stay on task. It can be very overwhelming as a student to have so many responsibilities in different areas, so Salesforce does a great job of offering many features that ease this process.
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Pros
Blackbaud
  • 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
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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.
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Cons
Blackbaud
  • 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.
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Salesforce
  • It’s hard to run reports or create working “views” for Enrollment/Student Advisor teams that include both Leads and Contacts in the same report.
  • Some fields do not map from Lead to Contact object. When a student transitions from application to acceptance, some dropdown and fill-in fields completely disappear from the student’s page in Salesforce. Every version of Salesforce I’ve used has this problem.
  • Salesforce overall is clunky and confusing for the average user. We require thorough Salesforce training for new hires on all teams because it’s not user-friendly or obvious what to click on to achieve a specific task.
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Likelihood to Renew
Blackbaud
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.
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Salesforce
No answers on this topic
Usability
Blackbaud
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.
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Salesforce
It was really so easy to sign up and get going with the whole process
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Support Rating
Blackbaud
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.
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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.
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Alternatives Considered
Blackbaud
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.
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Salesforce
I have not used similar products and I am new to this role. Salesforce has been very easy to learn and I appreciate the support and ability to access the platform when I need to. I was able to easily learn the program and become skilled in what I needed to do. It also made the transition to digital forms quite easy
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Return on Investment
Blackbaud
  • 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.
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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.
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ScreenShots

Blackbaud Education Management Solutions Screenshots

Screenshot of Topics pages help organize units of learning throughout the year in the Learning Management SystemScreenshot of Blackbaud's education management solutions come with strong reporting tools to get the information you need quicklyScreenshot of Schedule view makes it easy for teachers to manage their daysScreenshot of Blackbaud Enrollment Management System Admissions Checklists help applicants track their progress in the admissions processScreenshot of Blackbaud's education management solutions come with strong reporting tools to get the information you need quicklyScreenshot of Keep track of all the key information about your students in one place

Salesforce.org Education Cloud Screenshots

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