Pega Platform vs. PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs

Pega Platform has introduced the low code feature, using app studio seasonal and professional developer can develop application easily and quickly. The initial application can be build by Business analyst and product owner who has less knowledge of Pega Platform, further application can be enhanced/extended by professional developer. We can develop end to end application and promote to higher environment. Easily we can perform parallel development using branch.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• Quick development time. Much of the Pega "rules" are easy to configure and implement.
• Visually friendly and modern. Much of the UI/UX elements in the system are continuously supported and updated, giving a nice feel to the apps.
• Many of the configurations and rules Pega gives to the developers can also be delegated to business users. The organization and structure of the client's business can easily be adapted in the Pega platform.

Incentivized

• 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

• Need more learning materials. For Beginners who have previous programming experience with another language takes more time to learn.
• If the developer is met with an issue in pega platform , they have to rely on Pega supporting team to fix it.
• Customization is available but is not encouraged. Pega does not support faults that occur in customized solutions.

Incentivized

• 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

Pegasystems has continued to demonstrate a strong partnership with our organization and investment in their product that aligns with our overall vision and need. Pegasystems has engaged us at every level, with the assistance of minor defects to the overall roadmap planning and alignment of our goals

Pega Platform is enhancing its product and launching new features day by day which help to achieve customers needs. If I talk about the earlier version of Pega Platform (i.e. pega v5 and 6.3) there were many numbers of limitations in Pega Platform and if we need to do some customization then needed to write custom java and jave scripts to achieve the functionally. Now I can say Pega Platform is running with market trends and demand. Pega Platform is giving all the options which support the current technologies like decisioning capabilities, real time processing, mashup, process fabrics etc..

Incentivized

It’s very slow sometimes, but that may be our servers. Also the Knowledge Library needs some work - again, not sure if it’s our setup or what- but I’m unable to search the body of an article for content, so I have to be very intentional with tagging, but it’s not ideal.

Incentivized

The online training is an excellent one, but still it is missing hands on development.

Implementation is totally depend up on the requirement

Incentivized

We did evaluate multiple products offerings with Pega Platform capabilities and observed that Pega PRPC rules engine and case management capabilities are better over so many BPM Tools. We also conducted a detailed study with developers to identify the best products out of Suite of BPM products. It's observed that Rules engines integration is very streamlined with forms in Pega whereas other tools multiple have powerful data model capabilities but lacks the ease of creating business rules.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• For one of the applications we worked on, we were able to reduce the processing time on a case from 2 days to 20 minutes by utilizing Pega
• We were able to resolve the issue of the routing of cases to users based on a specific algorithm by use of Pega
• Pega case management feature was extensively used in one of the application to establish a parent-child relationship which was very helpful for all the business users

Incentivized

• 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