Likelihood to Recommend PeopleSoft Campus Solutions is a fully robust solution for large campuses and University systems. The tools it provides are powerful and scalable. It can handle anything from 1,000 students to over 100,000. The issue because spreading that cost around. Smaller schools will probably need a dedicated functional staff and an information systems staff to handle the chore of managing the system. Although many of the tools allow for automated processing it take a considerable amount of effort to get to that point and the upfront and maintaining costs should be considered.
Read full review It is well suited for Charter Schools. I say charter schools because most charts are built from the ground up, and using a specific set of tools from PowerSchool will help all departments to work seamlessly together. The hardest part of the education process is being able to track your own payroll, PD, overtime hours, emails and messages, grades and documentation for students. Schools in perpetual existence have a hard time converting all their documents and processes to a brand new portal. However, new schools, private schools, charter schools, even new online universities would have an easier and much more effective time purchasing and using every single tool that comes from PowerSchool. I believe that it is bigger than just using eSchoolPLUS for education, but using efinance, and atrieve are important also. In terms of eSchoolPLUS it is useful in all schools because it does make the teacher's jobs easier. Managing curriculum, lesson and grade data is quick and easy and engagement is relatively simple on the website and on my mobile iPhone.
Read full review Pros The Query Manager tool is useful - especially for users who are not comfortable writing SQL queries. Query Manager also allows Security staff to dictate exactly what access to grant to query writers. Campus Solutions offers several batch-style functions, such as batch transcript requests and batch degree conferral. There is a Population Selection option that allows you to use a query or Excel file to specify the students who are in the batch. The Communication Generation process allows users to create batch emails or letters that include mail-merge style data for each individual receiving the communication. There is a Microsoft Word plugin that allows you to craft the message that will be sent, and they can be sent on a set schedule or when certain trigger conditions occur. Read full review One-stop resource for student data, from test scores to medical alerts. Parent information, including contact and custody details, are readily accessible. Clean and easy-to-use format makes finding what you need very easy. Read full review Cons We don't like that you cannot export student grades and information into an excel spreadsheet or document that allows you to edit when necessary. Other tools do this but for a system us robust as PeopleSoft we are surprised you are not able to do this. Continuing with the schedule, in order to see how many students are registered in a section one has to click on that section which is another waste of time. Each section has a blue square meaning full and a green circle meaning not full. Why can't the number of students be shown instead, or in addition? And to top it off, the number of students is shown so low that one has to scroll each time to see it. Occasionally, PeopleSoft will randomly stop work, and you will lose all the information you were working on, so I recommend saving your work frequently. PeopleSoft is also not the most user-friendly student information systems. The new update did improve its aesthetic appeal though. Relying on Oracle system administrators to do all updates and handle any problems that may occur. Sometimes you feel a little helpless and too reliant on the vendor. It takes a while for our admins to update the software because we have so many custom configurations and custom bolt-ons so they all have to be tested thoroughly to make sure nothing breaks when migrated to production. Because of this, our university is always behind when it comes to system updates. Read full review It can be difficult to find information when first beginning with it. It can take many steps to perform one task. Can run slowly on certain networks. Read full review Reliability and Availability This would be the same reasoning as in the previous question. It is all about having enough bandwidth to run it across your district and buildings.
Read full review Performance Reports do run in a reasonable amount of time based upon the number of entries you are working with. You are also able to continue working on other areas while the report is being created so your device is not tied up during this process.
Read full review Support Rating When you open a service request you will get contacted in short order. They will usually develop a patch or hot fix in a reasonable amount of time. You do usually need to keep the software updated and will want to be on the latest versions.
Read full review Alternatives Considered PeopleSoft Campus Solutions has been the software of choice between Jenzebar and Campus vue as the user interface is easier, students seem to understand their progress and the system better than the other two softwares I have used. I would recommend this as all things student related are in one portal area.
Read full review PowerSchool eSchoolPLUS effectively allowed for access to all data, while enabling links to other critical PowerSchool platforms like Kickboard, Enrollment, and other software platforms.
Read full review Scalability There are days when PowerSchool can be very slow when loading. You definitely have to make sure you have the bandwidth in your district to run the platform appropriately.
Read full review Return on Investment Manages student records well. The course enrollment process for the student is non-intuitive. Waitlist functionality for the courses is hard to implement. Read full review Our Return on Investment is high, as it makes our jobs easier, allowing us more time to troubleshoot and train staff instead of digging for student information. Overall our business objective is to store and access student information quickly, efficiently, and securely. eSchoolPLUS allows us to do that. eSchoolPLUS has no negative impact on our ROI. Sometimes, after an update, there is a learning curve and bug fixes that need to be worked around, but in general, it is a great product and there is little downtime for our organization. Read full review ScreenShots