PowerSchool Student Information System vs. SAP S/4HANA Cloud

PowerSchool Student Information System is a cool software that can be highly recommended to anyone who is living in the educational management space. It is proven that this software can reduce your manual workload massively if you use it right. Plus it is really worth the price you pay. Especially if you are in the administrative field, this software will help you to minimize manual efforts put into student registrations, staffing recruitment, and main resource management processes.

Incentivized

In my company, SAP S/4HANA Cloud works best for managing global operations, real-time financial consolidation, and automating supply chain processes. We rely on its AI-driven analytics to optimize procurement, logistics, and compliance in regulated industries. However, it’s not ideal for highly customized workflows, as the public cloud version limits deep modifications. Smaller teams also struggle with its complexity and costs. For businesses needing flexibility or lower overhead, alternatives like Oracle NetSuite might be a better fit. While powerful, S/4HANA Cloud requires significant investment in implementation and training, making it more suitable for enterprises with strong IT capabilities.

Incentivized

• PowerSchool houses student or staff information that can be easily accessed by those teachers and administrators who need the information. This allows everyone to go to one place to access information.
• Parents can view their child's grades at any time with their protected login on a parent portal. This allows teachers to keep parents informed and involved in their child's progress at school. When everyone works together it increases our students' chance for success.
• PowerSchool offers videos to train new users. When we have new employees, the videos can be accessed at any time the employee needs as opposed to them waiting for someone to help them.

Incentivized

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud is entirely based on continuously monitored processes enhanced in numerous operational business areas.
• The solution allows the immediate analysis of company performance indicators due to enhanced functions.
• Ideally built on future technologies, the organization’s platform aims at providing a system intended to expand based on business complexity.

Incentivized

• Does not consistently communicate with related software such as Illuminate for Special Education Students.
• Drop down menus frequently refresh as data is entered which slows down the user's ability to enter information.
• Icons are sometimes unclear and not easily understandable. Word labels for some items might be more effective.

Incentivized

• I would like to have an offline functionality as well which is not available at the moment.
• I would like to see in-built templates that can be used according to organization needs and have to be industry specific.
• Navigation of this platform is quite difficult to learn and requires training. So, new users will find learning a steep curve.

Incentivized

We would be starting over at square one if we did not continue our PowerSchool subscription. We do not have a program in a place that would take its place.

Incentivized

The cost of SAP as an ERP is quite high and the switching costs associated with ERP systems are even higher. That being said moving from one ERP to another only happens once in a great while for large organizations. Those switching costs include retraining, IT hardware requirements, outside consultants and more

Great features, but it can feel very cumbersome at times

Incentivized

SAPs usability is great. If there is one ERP where one can adjust about anything there is to be adjusted, this is SAP. This sometimes also means having to maintain some extra master data, but this is to be expected and is well worth the extra effort. We wouldn't have it any other way!

Incentivized

Overall, I have not had to use support for PowerSchool Student Information System because our school district gives us training in each area in which we will be utilizing PowerSchool Student Information System. In terms of in-user support, I feel that there is mild to moderate user support that is built into PowerSchool SIS.

Incentivized

The technical support received by the ITT design teams and OS implementation team has been very useful in ensuring that the SAP ERP is well-tailored to our company's specific needs and operations. This coupled with the training materials, business process maps, and concept demos (sand-box demos) makes adoption easy on end-users.

More effective

Incentivized

SAP requires
a lot of internal and external resources to complete its successful
implementation. The cloud version requires a deeper understanding of the
different capabilities of the local systems (hardware) and the connection
towards your local IT team. We found several problems on our systems that we
couldn't foresee before the implementation and roll out.

Incentivized

I have heard good things for Infinite Campus and Skyward. I would [evaluate] each of them and see what fits your needs. Each has their strengths and weaknesses and so picking the right one for your needs is important. PowerSchool [Student Information System] does have some great features, but lacks some fundamental reports and functions to make it top notch.

Incentivized

As I already mentioned, it automated our tasks such as Report creation, PR creation, and many others. That's the major advantage of the S/4 HANA cloud over our previous ERP. Its robust indication system and pre-analyzed data enabled ease of decision-making, which was not incorporated in our last software.

Incentivized

• It has created shortcuts for all staff members, saving us time.
• In creating shortcuts and combining many different systems into one, it is saving our school money.
• It has created a safety net for teachers because grades and student information is stored electronically, which means teachers not having to worry about losing or misplacing their grade books.

Incentivized

• The financial management part ensures every process is well planned and allocated resources are used efficiently.
• The development of payroll management ensures that all employees are happily remunerated and, hence, very productive.
• The creation of solid financial reporting acts as the primary driver in decision-making, which brings more insights into development.

Incentivized